Measurement and Evaluation in Psychology and Education (7th Edition) Review

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(More customer reviews)Very informative book and useful for its intended purpose. However, small script size with poor color contrast make it a very difficult read. If you use glasses, get stronger ones. Mathematical problems could benefit from more solution examples.

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For undergraduate and graduate level introductory courses in psychological and educational measurement.In this new edition of one of the best-known texts in the field, Thorndike once again provides all of the information future professionals need to know in order to develop the skills to use test information wisely, incorporating standard measurement concepts as they apply to both educational and psychological assessments his classic introduction to educational and psychological measurement provides a technically rigorous treatment of the core issues in measurement in an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand presentation. In preparing students to become independent users of test information, it describes problems in measurement, explains how these problems are approached and solved, surveys a broad range of sources, and provides guidance in how to find, evaluate, and use information about specific tests. The text's focus on basic issues in measurement provides a general overview that is not too specialized.

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Personality Psychology: Domains of Knowledge About Human Nature Review

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(More customer reviews)I have recently completed teaching an undergraduate course on Theories of Personality using this text. It is well written and very usable for an introductory course in personality theory. It's biggest strength is also it's biggest weakness in my opinion. The text presents personality theory from the perspective of current psychological research. Thus, it provides students with a wealth of research in the realm of personality from six domains: biological, intrapsychic, cognitive/experiential, dispositional, cultural, and adjustment. This is the text's strength. Because of this format, however, it basically plays out as a survey course of the research associated with personality theory. In my opinion, it minimally addresses the grand theories of personality. The authors contend that this is because the research has not substantiated these theories. Yet, from a clinical perspective I would argue that there is merit with having students wrestle with many of the concepts and ideas associated with those theories. That will not happen in this book. Nevertheless, the book does a good job of reviewing research in areas that would probably not be addressed in traditional theories of personality courses. Kevin Dugan, Ph.D.

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Larsen and Buss's Personality Psychology is based on a framework of six important domains of knowledge about personality functioning. These six domains are the dispositional domain (traits, trait taxonomies, and personality dispositions over time), the biological domain (physiology, genetics, evolution), the intrapsychic domain (psychodynamics, motives), the cognitive/experiential domain (cognition, emotion, and the self), the social and cultural domain (social interaction, gender, and culture), and the adjustment domain (stress, coping, health, and personality disorders). This book is based on the notion that these domains of knowledge represent the organizing structure of contemporary personality psychology.

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Music An Appreciation - 5 Audio CD Set Review

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(More customer reviews)I purchased this 5 CD set as required for school. The price was great and the shipping was prompt. The problem is with the discs. They are labeled correctly, but the content is wrong. Disc 1 and 5 are the same. Disc 2 and 4 are the same. So essentially, I didnt get CD's 2 and 5. As a result I will likely not pass the course or be forced to drop.. Thanks for the great "deal"..

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This 5-CD set includes opera clips and other musical pieces for use with Music: An Appreciation.These audio CD's may be used with the Listening Room software that may be downloaded from the website.

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Patterns for College Writing: A Rhetorical Reader and Guide Review

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(More customer reviews)This book, `Patterns for College Writing: A Rhetorical Reader and Guide' edited by Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell, is a book widely used in colleges and universities, as well as advanced high school classes across the nation. It is a very useful text, and I use it when tutoring students in preparation for community college level writing and reading work. It is used at our college in the basic skills reading courses, too.
The book looks at how writers develop their work. The first few chapters look at some of the basic mechanics of writing - planning, writing, editing and revising. It also looks briefly at certain skills needed for writing, such as brainstorming and idea generation, as well as journal writing. There are many exercises included here to give students first-hand experience.
The second section looks at the various types of writing students will be called upon to produce - narrative papers, process papers, cause-and-effect, descriptive works, comparison-and-contrast, classification, definition, and persuasive/argumentative papers. Each chapter keeps a solid focus on the type of work presented, so that students can develop the particular skills; the final chapter in this section looks at combining the patterns, to produce more complex and comprehensive research papers and essays.
There is a thematic listing of articles that shows the breadth of topics covered - family relationships, language, education, business and work, sports, race and culture, gender, nature and the environment, media and society, history and politics, and ethics. Among more than one hundred articles are sixteen pieces written by actual students, so that students can see the model produced by people at their same level of development. Writings from famous people such as Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Flannery O'Connor and Mark Twain also give breadth and interest to the selections included here.
The writing assignments include journal writing, essays of the types modeled in the chapters, collaborative activities, and even an internet assignment. There is a companion website for students to use, and instructors can take advantage of materials provided by the publisher, such transparencies and additional samples.
The appendix has a ten-step process for writing a research paper (one of the more common types of college writing expected of students). The steps include everything from choosing a topic to documenting sources. Avoiding common pitfalls such as plagiarism (intentional and inadvertent) is also covered.

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Laurie Kirszner and Stephen Mandell, best-selling authors with more than twenty-five years' experience teaching college writing, know what works in the classroom. In Patterns for College Writing, they offer a balance of classic and contemporary essays by writers like Sandra Cisneros, Deborah Tannen, E. B.White, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., providing students with exemplary models for their writing--and instructors with excellent, class-tested selections. With extensive headnotes before each reading, abundant apparatus after, and more examples of student writing than any other reader, Patterns has always been an exceptional resource for students. In the tenth edition, a new chapter on editing and proofreading in Part One, "The Writing Process," gives students more help recognizing and correcting errors common in their writing, while Part Two, "Readings for Writers," offers a greater number of informative and argumentative essays, preparing students better than ever for the demands of college writing.

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Psychology Review

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(More customer reviews)Psychology is no longer a discipline with a few sub-disciplines that need to be examined. Now there are branches of cognitive psychology that need to be discussed with more clarity, the growing ideation concealed beneath the umbrella term "positive psychology" that needs to be introduced sooner and with more zeal, and there are so many other themes that need to be looked out but just don't seem to be "important" to people trying to prime future students. When you look at the 8th edition of Myers Psychology you can see how all of this can be looked addressed by an instructor without overloading students in the process, and you can also see how the author(s) took the time to look deeper than the average creator of books. This doesn't cover the instructor resources, either, which are well worth the time and attention of anyone looking for newer researcher to discuss.
If you are a teacher looking at this, check out the resources and the DVD that comes in the mix because the video library they provide certainly is beyond the mundane norm.
The 8th edition is 18 chapters in length, covering: A Prologue on Psychology, 1 - Thinking Critically, 2 - NeuroScience and Behavior, 3 - Nature Nurture and Human Behavior, 4 - Development through the Lifespan, 5 - Sensation, 6 - Perception, 7 - States of Consciousness, 8 - Learning, 9 - Memory, 10 - Thinking and Language, 11 - Intelligence, 12 - Motivation and Work, 13 - Emotion, 14 - Stress and Health, 15 - Personality, 16 - Psychological Disorders, 17 - Therapy, 18 - Social Psychology, and an Appendix on Careers in Psychology.
In these I liked a few things, including:
(1)The fact that many of these ask a student to "think critically," not just presenting information but allowing the student to interject their opinion on the subject. I thought that was a rewarding thing to see because, above anything else, too many introductory classes leave the student out of the equation.
(2)The fact that some of the chapters treat new ground not covered by most introductory books and do so interestingly. This means that the book gives the students some interesting topics to look at and not just the background of Freud, Erickson, Maslow, and the other well-known names.
(3)The book discusses issues separately that should be separated. Therapy and Psychological Disorders is one of those, and Chapters 5 - 10 are others that also fall in that realm.
(4) The book looks into issues that are not normally covered without delving into some sort of Developmental Psychology, some Cognitive Psychology, Abnormal Psychology, and a few other classes. Basically, you have a lot of mini classes cocealed within this one book, allowing the instructor to design their own approach to teaching.
While this may not be the most favored book for students who want a continuum from their high school highs, it is a great book to introduce people to the disciplines of Psychology and allows for a lot of deviation by the teacher. I would certainly recommend it as a primer for Psychology majors, allowing them to see just what the field has to offer. Too often that isn't expressed, with careers in Counseling or Mental Health always taking precedent over Research careers or hose in the Industrial sector.
It really is nice to see something that showcases just how broad the world really is.


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David Myers's Psychology is a textbook like no other--always fresh, always introducing effective new tools for teaching and learning, and always attuned to the fascinating ways that new research can shape the introductory psychology course. The new Eighth Edition is vintage Myers. It redefines excellence for an introductory psychology textbook, raising the standard with its expanded emphasis on diversity and gender issues, its incorporation of new frontiers in research studies in such areas as neuroscience and cognition, new learning features, and its expanded media/supplements package.Myers continues the tradition of previous editions of bonding psychological science with a broad perspective that engages both the mind and the heart.

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