Skip to Main Content

Open Education: Psychology

A "getting started" guide overviewing open, editable, and lower-cost textbooks and open teaching & learning resources for faculty, students, and librarians.

Subjects

Agriculture
Apparel, Housing & Resource Management
Architecture, Interior Design & Landscape
Biological Sciences
Business
Chemistry
Classical Studies
Computer Science
Construction
Economics
Early Childhood Education Education (also)
Engineering
English
Foreign Languages and Literatures
Geosciences (Geology)
Health & Medicine 
History
Human Nutrition, Food & Exercise
Information / Digital Literacy & Research Skills
International Studies
Law
Mathematics
Natural Resources and Environment
Performing Arts
Philosophy
Physics
Plant & Environmental Sciences
Political Science
Psychology
Public and International Affairs
Religion and Culture
Sociology
Statistics
Veterinary Medicine
Visual Arts

 

An Open Textbook Adoption Story

An Open Textbook Adoption Story (Oregon, August 2015) by Adam Privitera, Psychology Program Chair

Psychology

On this page you will find several openly licensed Psychology textbooks along with supplemental material, interactive simulations, and other resources.

Discipline-specific pages are not intended to be exhaustive, but to showcase content that may be of interest to faculty considering adopting open educational resources for use in their classes. 

For more information about Creative Commons including license descriptions, please see the Creative Commons tab.

Featured Resources

Jhangiani, R., & Dastur, F. (2014, Oct.). Opening up psychology: Adopting open textbooks, open pedagogy, and an open philosophy in the classroom. Symposium at the 2014 Annual Conference on the Teaching of Psychology, Atlanta, GA. Resource List


NOBA Project textbooks 

NOBA Project Psychology Textbooks (Follow the license terms: CC BY NC SA 4.0)   Read about the NOBA Project

Introduction to Psychology "wikibook"

Introduction to Psychology (Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative) CC BY NC SA 3.0

Principles of Psychology by Steven E. Wisecarver (email the author) (Follow the license terms: CC BY 4.0)

OpenStax Psychology textbook cover

 

 OpenStax Psychology includes ancillary resources (Follow the license terms: CC BY)\

 

 


Cover of Research Methods in Psychology. 5 star rating, ISBN 978-1-4533236-0-1, and URL for two reviews

 Psychology as a Biological Science (Noba) http://noba.to/cv4ktxnq (Follow the license terms: CC BY NC SA)

 

Open course Lifespan Development (Saylor Foundation) Licence terms: CC BY Note: Needs updating.  See also Lifespan Development

eBooks on developmental psychology from University Libraries (no-additional-cost to students/faculty, but not openly licensed or editable. Downloading privileges vary by vendor platform.)


Open course Theories of Personality (Saylor Foundation) Licence terms: CC BY Note: Needs updating.

Personality & Pedagogy resource page


Open course: Psychology of Learning & Behavior (Saylor Foundation) Licence terms: CC BY Note: Needs updating.

eBooks on Learning and Behavior; Springer eBooks on Learning and Behavior. from University Libraries (no-additional-cost to students/faculty, but not openly licensed or editable. Downloading privileges vary by vendor platform.)


 Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience (BCCampus.ca) Terms: CC BY SA

Also in a Wiki-Books format


Principles of Social Psychology (1st International Edition) (BC Campus.ca) Terms: CC BY NC SA  (See the author's keynote presentation at the Open Textbook Summit - May 2015 Vancouver BC)

Principles of Social Psychology (original edition/Maryland) CC BY NC SA

eBooks on Social Psychology from University Libraries (no-additional-cost to students/faculty, but not openly licensed or editable. Downloading privileges vary by vendor platform.)


Abnormal Psychology: An e-text! (Dr. Caleb Lack, UCentral Oklahoma and Arkansas Tech University) (Terms: CC BY NC SA) The entire site, with the exception of DSM criteria is CC-licensed.

Abnormal Psychology - from Washington State University

Abnormal Psychology - from Northwestern Michigan College

eBooks on Abnormal Psychology from University Libraries (no-additional-cost to students/faculty, but not openly licensed or editable. Downloading privileges vary by vendor platform.)


Abnormal Child Psychology - still working on this!


Open Course Industrial/Organizational Psychology (Saylor Foundation) Licence terms: CC BY Note: Needs updating.


BioInformatics/Neuroinformatics Course: CC BY ND (verbatim copying only; no changes allowed)


Open Course Neuropsychology (Saylor Foundation) Licence terms: CC BY Note: Needs updating.


VT Faculty, please contact Anita Walz arwalz@vt.edu if you cannot find the openly licensed resources for your area.

Open Textbooks

Edited chapters from many different institutions are available from OpenStax CNX.

Search for additional textbooks from the University of Minnesota Open Textbook Library

See CollegeOpenTextbooks for a wider variety of Lower-Division Undergraduate psychology open textbooks

Saylor Academy Open Courses (GitHub)

Course materials: Modules, Lecture Videos, Interactive Simulations etc.

Lectures:

Statistics in Psychosocial Research (Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Open Courseware) CC BY NC SA

New Psychology of Depression (University of Oxford) CC BY NC SA

Open Yale psychology courses


Modules from CNX.org (Rice University) [Advanced search]

Psychology (higher ed level) resources from OER Commons

MERLOT

 

Additional resources

Search the National Center for Biotechnology Information Bookshelf (Some materials are Public Domain; others are under copyright)

Publications (booklets, brochures, fact sheets) from the National Institute of Mental Health