Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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Energy and Human Ambitions on a Finite Planet
Thomas Murphy · eScholarship · 2021
Where is humanity going? How realistic is a future of fusion and space colonies? What constraints are imposed by physics, by resource availability, and by human psychology? Are default expectations grounded in reality? This textbook, written for a general-education audience, aims to address these questions without either the hype or the indifference typical of many books. The message throughout is that humanity faces a broad sweep of foundational problems as we inevitably transition away from fossil fuels and confront planetary limits in a host of unprecedented ways—a shift whose scale and probable rapidity offers little historical guidance. Salvaging a decent future requires keen awareness, quantitative assessment, deliberate preventive action, and—above all—recognition that prevailing assumptions about human identity and destiny have been cruelly misshapen by the profoundly unsustainable trajectory of the last 150 years. The goal is to shake off unfounded and unexamined expectations, while elucidating the relevant physics and encouraging greater facility in quantitative reasoning. After addressing limits to growth, population dynamics, uncooperative space environments, and the current fossil underpinnings of modern civilization, various sources of alternative energy are considered in detail— assessing how they stack up against each other, and which show the greatest potential. Following this is an exploration of systemic human impediments to effective and timely responses, capped by guidelines for individual adaptations resulting in reduced energy and material demands on the planet’s groaning capacity. Appendices provide refreshers on math and chemistry, as well as supplementary material of potential interest relating to cosmology, electric transportation, and an evolutionary perspective on humanity’s place in nature.
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Mind, Body, World: Foundations of Cognitive Science
Michael Dawson · Athabasca University Press · 2013
Cognitive science arose in the 1950s when it became apparent that a number of disciplines, including psychology, computer science, linguistics, and philosophy, were fragmenting. Perhaps owing to the field's immediate origins in cybernetics, as well as to the foundational assumption that cognition is information processing, cognitive science initially seemed more unified than psychology. However, as a result of differing interpretations of the foundational assumption and dramatically divergent views of the meaning of the term information processing, three separate schools emerged: classical cognitive science, connectionist cognitive science, and embodied cognitive science. Examples, cases, and research findings taken from the wide range of phenomena studied by cognitive scientists effectively explain and explore the relationship among the three perspectives. Intended to introduce both graduate and senior undergraduate students to the foundations of cognitive science, Mind, Body, World addresses a number of questions currently being asked by those practicing in the field: What are the core assumptions of the three different schools? What are the relationships between these different sets of core assumptions? Is there only one cognitive science, or are there many different cognitive sciences? Giving the schools equal treatment and displaying a broad and deep understanding of the field, Dawson highlights the fundamental tensions and lines of fragmentation that exist among the schools and provides a refreshing and unifying framework for students of cognitive science.
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Statistical Thinking for the 21st Century
Russell Poldrack · Russell Poldrack · 2018
Statistical thinking is a way of understanding a complex world by describing it in relatively simple terms that nonetheless capture essential aspects of its structure, and that also provide us some idea of how uncertain we are about our knowledge. The foundations of statistical thinking come primarily from mathematics and statistics, but also from computer science, psychology, and other fields of study.
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Learning Statistics with jamovi: A Tutorial for Beginners in Statistical Analysis
Danielle Navarro; David Foxcroft · Open Book Publishers · 2025
Based on Danielle Navarro’s widely acclaimed and prize-winning book Learning Statistics with R, this elegantly designed textbook offers undergraduate students a thorough and accessible introduction to jamovi, as well as how to get to grips with statistics and data manipulation. Lucid and easy to understand, Learning Statistics with jamovi covers the analysis of contingency tables, t-tests, correlation, regression, ANOVA and factor analysis, while also giving students a firm grounding in descriptive statistics and graphing. It includes learning aids for applying statistical principles using the jamovi interface, as well as embedded data files to accompany the book, and comprehensive chapters on probability theory, sampling and estimation, and null hypothesis testing. Freely available in open access, Learning Statistics with jamovi is an ideal introduction for undergraduate and postgraduate students of psychology, as well as behavioural and health science students and anyone who needs to understand and use statistical analysis in their work.
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Mental Disorders and the Criminal Justice System
Anne Nichol; Kendra Harding; Monica McKirdy · Open Oregon Educational Resources · 2025
This is an introductory textbook exploring the management and treatment of people with mental disorders throughout the criminal justice system.
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Observation and Assessment in Early Childhood Education
Gina Peterson; Emily Elam · College of the Canyons · 2020
This text focuses on the appropriate use of a variety of assessment and observation strategies to document child development and behavior. Child observations will be conducted and analyzed.
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Trauma-Informed School Practices: Building Expertise To Transform Schools
Anna A. Berardi; Brenda M. Morton · George Fox University Library · 2019
This textbook represents the combined insight and experience of Morton, a k12 educator, and Berardi, a psychotherapist, both of whom are also university educators with extensive work experience serving districts and their teachers seeking to incorporate trauma-informed principles into their school culture and classroom. The authors identify that the field of education is now ready to deepen its level of response to the paradigm shift created by advances in neuroscience and traumatology. Hence, the primary focus is on identifying and applying trauma-informed educator competencies needed to transform districts, schools, educators, classrooms, and the field of education itself, while also including community members such as parents and board members in these processes - a total system makeover. At the conclusion of this text, the student, educator, or mental health professional will have a deeper understanding of what trauma-informed practice requires of them. This includes practical strategies on how to transform our learning communities in response to the devastating effect of unmitigated stress and trauma on our student's ability to learn and thrive throughout the lifespan.
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Instruction in Functional Assessment
Marcie Desrochers; Moira Fallon · Open SUNY · 2014
Instruction in Functional Assessment introduces learners to functional assessment (FA), which includes a variety of assessment approaches (indirect, observational, and experimental) for identifying the cause of an individual's challenging behavior for the purpose of designing effective treatments. FA is mandated by federal law and is a recognized empirically based approach to treatment of individuals with challenging behaviors (e.g., disruptive, self-injurious, and aggressive behaviors). Instruction in FA is essential for students who will one day enter professions as educators, psychologists, social workers, counselors, or mental health professionals. The purpose of this textbook is to provide instruction in FA skills for pre-professionals in the fields of education and psychology. This supplemental resource provides the context, background, and knowledge to facilitate students' acquisition of the methods, decision-making, and skills involved in conducting FA. Each chapter begins with focus questions designed to promote reflective thinking and ends with discussion questions. To promote application of FA in diverse situations and teach important lessons, case studies of individuals with challenging behaviors, interactive activities, and opportunities for practice are embedded in the chapters. Moreover, the text includes the ingredients to facilitate students' role play and rehearsal of appropriate FA skills while working in cooperative groups and using performance-based training.
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Lifespan Development
Diana Riser; Rose Spielman; David Biek; Alisa Beyer · OpenStax, Rice University
Lifespan Development aligns to the topics and objectives of most introductory developmental psychology courses taught across departments. Grounded in foundational theories and scientific research, the text teaches students about core aspects of human development—physical, cognitive, social, emotional—across the lifespan. A primary goal of the book is to incorporate content, scholarship, and activities that explore a variety of perspectives that encourage all students to feel seen and included. Lifespan Development strives to openly address complex topics with scholarly responsibility and an effort to increase equity and inclusion in the research presented, as well as to foster student engagement in the classroom through relevant examples and applications. Focused on driving meaningful and memorable learning experiences, the narrative places concepts in contexts that give students the means to understand human development and how that knowledge can be applied to and improve their own lives and the lives of others.
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Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience
Elizabeth D. Kirby; Melissa J. Glenn; Noah J. Sandstrom; Christina L. Williams · OpenStax, Rice University
Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience aligns to the topics and objectives of introductory behavioral neuroscience courses taught in psychology, biology, neuroscience, and similar departments. This offering is intended for undergraduates with no presumed college-level science coursework, and presents the foundational principles of brain-behavior-environment interactions. In Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience, students will begin to understand how the physiology of the nervous system and the environment dictate our movements, thoughts and feelings. Students will be challenged to think about real neuroscience experiments, appreciate how neuroscience knowledge evolves over time, and consider open questions in the field. They will also be invited to learn about the people behind the science, such as through interview videos and researcher profiles. The development of this material was supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under IOS-2035041 to Elizabeth Kirby. The opinions, descriptions, recommendations, and findings are those of the contributors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF. An Affordable Learning Exchange grant to Elizabeth Kirby from the Ohio State University also supported development of this material.
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Open Science: Wie sich die Wissenschaft öffnet
Lukas Röseler · Zenodo · 2025
During the last years, many scientific disciplines have changed. There have been new journals, methods, initiatives, societies, structures, and many more. Researchers are calling these changes a crisis, revolution, a renaissance, or a reform. Together, these changes have led to a greater degree of openness and transparency and have changed the academic system. In this German textbook, I discuss the concept of openness, the origins of change, and the many facets of openness with an emphasis on the academic system, scientific methods, theories, and epistemological arguments. Examples and developments are primarily from the social sciences, particularly psychology.
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Psychologia
Rose Spielman; William Jenkins; Marilyn Lovett; Joanna Czarnota-Bojarska · OpenStax · 2020
Psychologia powstała z myślą o studentach jednosemestralnego kursu wstęp do psychologii. Podręcznik jest obszernym omówieniem wszystkich podstawowych zagadnień w ujęciu klasycznym z uwzględnieniem wiedzy najnowszej. Książka zawiera również opis zaburzeń psychicznych i wprowadza terminologię zgodną z DSM-5 oraz ICD. Wydanie jest polską adaptacją wydania drugiego aktualizowanego Psychology 2e OpenStax. Publikacja została dostosowana do potrzeb polskich studentów i wymogów na uczelniach w Polsce. Uwzględniona została potrzeba lokalizacji kulturowej. Szersze modyfikacje wprowadzono w rozdziałach „Badania”, „Emocje i motywacje”, „Osobowość” oraz „Psychologia społeczna”, a rozdział poświęcony psychologii pracy i organizacji został stworzony w całości na potrzeby polskiego czytelnika.
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Introduction to African American Studies
Kiandra Jimenez et al. · ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)
In the contents: 05: Black Psychology
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ED 101: Introduction to Education
Melanie A. Leaver · North Central Michigan College
In the contents: 4.04: Educational Psychology
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Child Development (Cummings-Clay)
Lumen Learning · Lumen Learning
In the contents: 4.05: Behavioral Psychology · 5.03: Cultural Psychology
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Introduction to Human Services (Pearce et al.)
Elizabeth B. Pearce · Linn-Benton Community College
In the contents: 10.01: Community Psychology and Human Services
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PSY 100 Biddle
LibreTexts
In the contents: 01: Introduction to Psychology · 1.01: History of Psychology · 1.02: Psychology Today
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Behavioral Neuroscience
OpenStax · LibreTexts
Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience aligns to the topics and objectives of introductory behavioral neuroscience courses taught in psychology, biology, neuroscience, and similar departments. This offering is intended for undergraduates with no presumed college-level science coursework, and presents the foundational principles of brain-behavior-environment interactions.
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Human Development Life Span (NWTC)
LibreTexts
In the contents: 1.07: Lifespan Psychology
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Intro to Stats in the Social Sciences (MPC)
Adrianne Kotecki · Monterey Peninsula College
In the contents: 1.03: Statistics in Psychology