Psychology: The Science of Behaviour

Canadian Psychology, Nov 2002 by George Adler

NEIL R. CARLSON, WILLIAM BUSKIST, MICHAEL E. ENZLE, and C. DONALD HETH Psychology: The Science of Behaviour Toronto, ON: Pearson Education Canada Ltd., 2002, 701 pages (ISBN 0-13-0393606-6, $105.95, Hardcover)

Reviewed by GEORGE ALDER

With the publication of the second Canadian edition of Psychology: The Science of Behaviour, the already difficult decision facing introductory textbook selection committees in psychology departments across Canadian universities and colleges has become more complicated. This is the second edition of a Canadian adaptation of Neil Carlson and William Buskist's introductory text that, when it was last published in 1997, was in its fifth edition. Michael Enzle and C. Donald Heth of the University of Alberta have done an admirable job of "Canadianizing" the Carlson and Buskist text, providing a book in which Canadian sources and statistics are seamlessly integrated into the body of the text. Enzle and Heth have avoided many of the more common methods of "Canadianizing" texts (e.g., merely adding Canadian source materials to the end of already existing sections or by highlighting Canadian content by using specialized fonts), and in doing so have provided a text that deserves to be considered on its own merits, not merely on the basis of its Canadian content.

Considering the depth and breadth of material covered, this text would be most appropriate for use in institutions where the instruction of introductory psychology extends across two semesters. The 635 pages of text (excluding prefaces, indexes, references, etc.) are divided into 18 chapters of just over 35 pages in average length. These numbers are comparable to those obtained in a recent analysis of full-- length introductory psychology textbooks that reported an average of 673.7 text pages divided into 17.62 chapters for an average of 38.61 pages per chapter (Griggs, Jackson, Christopher, & Marek, 1999). The breadth and depth of coverage in Carlson et al. is reflected not only by its length but also by the inclusion of separate chapters for the topics of sensation and perception which are in many texts combined into a single chapter, and with a separate chapter for language, which is often integrated into other more general topics (e.g., intelligence, development).

One question that is often of paramount importance to committee members in selecting introductory texts is the text's level of difficulty. In their 1989 survey of psychology authors and editors, Griggs and Jackson found that introductory textbooks can be divided into three levels on the basis of their difficulty. A higher-level text is one that "...covers psychology in the greatest depth and breadth and is also closely tied to the experimental literature" (Griggs & Jackson, 1989, p. 62), whereas a middle-level text has the breadth of coverage but not the depth, and a lower-level text represents yet another level down in depth of coverage with substantial in-chapter pedagogy (Griggs & Jackson, 1989). In his analysis of the difficulty of 37 introductory texts, Griggs (1999) rated the fifth edition of the Carlson and Buskist (1997) text as a "Higher" level text. Given that the Canadian edition of this text continues to be tied closely to the research literature and has retained the same basic structure and pedagogy, one could reasonably argue that the Canadian adaptation of the text would also receive a "Higher" level rating.

Another factor that is often of major concern to those selecting introductory textbooks is the nature of the pedagogical features incorporated into the text. The Canadian edition of the Carlson et al. text has a number of different pedagogical aids, some of which I found more effective than others. Each chapter begins with a "Chapter Outline" that provides a survey of what the chapter discusses. I assume that many students will forego reading these since they do not really cover any additional material. However, I found the "Opening Vignettes" presented immediately after the chapter outlines to be considerably more compelling. Carlson et al. describe each of the vignettes as "...a lively narrative that illustrates examples of phenomena covered in the chapter" (p. xviii) and I found many of the vignettes did just that. A couple of these vignettes are especially effective. One is based on Oliver Sacks' encounter with a British Columbian surgeon who suffers from Tourette's syndrome and the other is a recounting of one of the authors' personal experiences with a father who suffers from schizophrenia.

Each chapter also includes a number of "Interim Summaries" located at the end of the sections associated with the major headings in the chapters. These interim summaries provide the students the opportunity to review smaller amounts of material more frequently and, as such, would most likely be more effective than traditional end-of-chapter summaries. My only criticism of the interim summaries is that in at least a couple of cases, only two or three pages of text separate the individual summaries. In these instances, the summaries might have been combined.