Introduction

An Open Education Textbook on the “History” of Psychology

The following resource is a textbook that is the creation of Psychology Students at Capilano University (North Vancouver, BC) enrolled in PSYC 303 (History of Psychology), that discusses and critically examines the events, movements and individuals that have contributed to the development of the field of Psychology over its various eras, and the impact of those individuals on the present moment. The ultimate goal of this textbook is to provide a resource that expands on the information generally presented in a “History of Psychology” textbook to provide richer discussions of those whose contributions have tended to be overshadowed or minimized – and to amplify student voices in this sub-field. The writings represent the diverse ideas of a wide section of Psychology students – ranging from the years 2022-2025 (four years, offered once per year), with 88 different students contributing their unique voices to it. Looking over the list of names – I can say it was a distinct honor to work with each and every one of them – and I’m so grateful to every single one of them for the hard work and passion they cultivated for their projects – which are now represented here for all to see.

What are Open Education Resources (OER)?

Why pay exorbitant prices for textbooks when information is literally available everywhere for free? Because textbooks often come with a wide variety of resources that instructors use to teach their courses and evaluate students with. While this can be a time-savings measure for the instructor, it often comes at a cost to the student (i.e., the student pays out of pocket for the resources the instructor uses to evaluate them), it also comes with a broader cost in that students are exposed to a far narrower range of perspectives and viewpoints (e.g., the authors/editors of said textbook). What’s the solution? Make our own textbook, that’s free, and that can be used by everyone that expresses a broader range of viewpoints. This approach has a variety of benefits:

1. Students get the experience evaluating and thinking critically about multiple sources of information and writing that information up in a way that others may learn from.

2. The life-span of the work created by the students extends beyond the end of the course (textbook is hosted online via PressBooks) and may even be used as reference material by other instructors at other institutions (or as inspiration for assignments at other institutions).

3. “Historical” information about Psychology is not particularly difficult to find, nor is it rapidly changing. However, the manner by which this information influences the opinions of those in the present do change. This textbook can reflect this over time by having new material continuously added to the existing chapters with each iteration of the course.

Writing about history in any context offers many unique challenges – as the goal is to recognize one’s own privileged position (often a position of cultural privilege) in communicating and expressing one’s interpretation of past events. Please keep that in mind when reading this (and any historical resource). History is a reflection of the cultural lenses of those who research it, and share it back with others.

Who uses Open Education Textbooks?

Many instructors are aware of them, but only about 1/4 of instructors use them (Pandemic didn’t speed adoption of open educational resources, but outlook is promising (insidehighered.com)). They are becoming far more common with each passing year (awareness of OERs by instructors has climbed by nearly 30% in the last 5 years). Expect to see/hear more about Open Education approaches to teaching, the future looks bright!

What does a student created Open Education Textbook look like?

Here is an example of a textbook that was created entirely by students enrolled in a 3rd year undergraduate course on Sensation & Perception and the University of Minnesota (Introduction to Sensation and Perception – Simple Book Publishing (umn.edu)). You’ll see the names of the students are given on each Chapter’s opening page. Why would students want to have their work displayed like this for others to see?

1. You can refer employers back to the work the class publishes, and list it as a publication on your CV/resume (this will means the work students do will have life-span beyond the end of the course and is not something that is “disposed” of at the end of the semester).

2. There are currently very few OER textbooks for History of Psychology and currently no student generated OERs that I’m aware of (but please share with me if you have one and I’ll link to it in this resource).

3. This will be a legacy project that students in the future will add to, allowing the Chapters to expand in their content – because it will be student written/edited, students will direct the discourse/content in ways that are relevant to topics and current issues that affect students NOT textbook publishers. This means the content can be more inclusive and representative, and provide a voice for those that have been traditionally been minimized in discussions on Psychology’s past.