Psych Lite

Abstract

Introductory psychology textbooks have been criticized for being too long and too expensive. A national survey of introductory teachers found that 89% of introductory courses are only one term in length and that teachers could only cover 68% of a text’s topics. This situation has been made more problematic by the soaring prices of introductory texts, leading many students to not purchase them. However, a class of more concise, less expensive introductory textbooks has recently emerged. We provide an objective analysis of these concise texts, along with a comparison to previous similar analyses of full-length and brief introductory texts. For introductory teachers interested in adopting a concise text, these data will be helpful in the text evaluation and selection process.