If I wanted to get a true sense of the quality of a psychology textbook, particularly an introductory psychology text , I would probably ask Richard Griggs of the University of Florida or just consult his work. Although they are now somewhat dated, Griggs has published a number of studies in which he attempts to quantify various dimensions of textbooks (their level of difficulty, lenght, topics covered, etc.). For example, if you manage to paste the ridiculously long URL on your browser (see below) , it will lead you to this paper which may be relevant to the current discussion :
Griggs, R. A. (1999). Introductory psychology textbooks: Assessing levels of difficulty. 26 , 248-253. Again, given the frequency with which new editions of textbooks appear, these papers are now dated and the findings may be considerably off. However, some them may be worth checking out. Other relevant papers include: Griggs, R. A., & Marek, P. (2001). Similarity of introductory psychology textbooks: Reality or illusion? 28 , 254- 256. Griggs, R. A., & Jackson, S. L. (1996). Forty years of introductory psychology: An analysis of the first 10 editions of Hilgard et al.'s textbook. 23 , 144-150. Griggs, R. A., Jackson, S. L., & Christopher, A. N. (1999). Introductory psychology textbooks: An objective analysis and update. 26 , 182-189. Griggs, R. A., Jackson, S. L., Marek, P., & Christopher, A. N. (1998). Critical thinking in introductory psychology texts and supplements. 25 , 254-266. Marek, P., Jackson, S. L., Griggs, R. A., & Christopher, A. N. (1998). Supplementary books on critical thinking. 25 , 266-269. http://books.google.com/books?id=-mU3G0c8moYC&pg=PA49&lpg=PA49&dq=griggs+and+introductory+textbooks&source=bl&ots=5_zr1pWK56&sig=-wlzZ-bJ-3VdYjQgJOu8216by48&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA49,M1 Miguel --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
