Psychology was originally published by OpenStax in 2014 under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence. It has since been replaced by a second edition. You can access the original OpenStax version for free at https://openstax.org. In 2019, BCcampus Open Education cloned the first edition of OpenStax’s Psychology into Pressbooks to make it easier for others to adapt and remix the book. That cloned copy was used to create this book. In the BC cloned version of book, the original content was largely the same, but was augmented to include a large collection of interactive activities, which were funded by an OER Grant provided by BCcampus Open Education. BCcampus Open Education began in 2012 as the B.C. Open Textbook Project with the goal of making post-secondary education in British Columbia more accessible by reducing students’ costs through the use of open textbooks and other OER. BCcampus supports the post-secondary institutions of British Columbia as they adapt and evolve their teaching and learning practices to enable powerful learning opportunities for the students of B.C. BCcampus Open Education is funded by the British Columbia Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Training, and the Hewlett Foundation.
The current version of the textbook has been edited by Jill Grose-Fifer, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at John Jay College, CUNY. It is a work in progress. In chapters 1-8 much of the content has been rewritten or replaced to reflect a more critical approach to the discipline of psychology, but these do not have interactive activities yet. At present, chapters 9 through 15 are in their original format so they represent a more traditional view of psychology (but have interactive activities). This edited work has been sponsored by John Jay College and was inspired by many people, including the students of John Jay College and CUNY more broadly. However, I particularly want to acknowledge the role of Dr. Della Mosely and Pearis Bellamy, founders of Academics for Black Survival and Wellness, as major forces for the impetus for the edits to this book.
Open educational resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research resources that, through permissions granted by the copyright holder, allow others to use, distribute, keep, or make changes to them. Our open textbooks are openly licensed using a Creative Commons licence, and are offered in various e-book formats free of charge, or as printed books that are available at cost.
