Introduction to Psychology: 2nd Maricopa Edition
The content for this textbook is from Openstax Psychology 2e. This text was uploaded from Openstax into Pressbooks by Julie Lazzara on 6-25-2020. The 1st Maricopa Edition of the text was remixed in April 2021 as a part of a MOD Press Grant to meet Maricopa’s Course Competencies for PSY 101 and to be considered for the Gold Seal Quality Assurance. The book cover was designed was by Sam Fraulino with the image nature butterfly by cocoparisienne is licensed under a CC0 license.
In January 2025, this book was revised to incorporate the new MCCCD course competencies, effective in Fall 2025. The chapters in the book were also reorganized to align to the MCCCD official course outline. Chapter numbers are intentionally left off, so faculty have increased freedom to move around chapters as they teach them. The errata for Openstax Psychology 2e was also reviewed and additional edits were made.
Enhancements and Revisions to the Original Openstax Psychology 2e Text
- Updated DEI Alignment
- Updated UDL Alignment
- Chapters were rearranged to reflect the recommended MCCCD PSY 101 Course Outline
- MCCCD PSY 101 Course Competencies were added to each chapter
- All chapters were revised using APA 7th edition guidelines
- Minor typos and grammatical errors were corrected
- Interactive features were added using H5P
- Many of the H5P activities can be graded assignments using Pressbooks Results for LMS
- Direct links were added for the original openly licensed images and available at the end of each chapter
- Links to learning web pages and videos were checked for functionality, quality, and recentness. Some may have been omitted or replaced where necessary.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Alignment
With the help of researchers and teachers who focus on diversity- and identity-related issues, OpenStax has engaged in detailed diversity reviews to identify opportunities to improve the textbook. Reviewers were asked to follow a framework to evaluate the book’s terminology, research citations, key contributors to the field, photos and illustrations, and related aspects, commenting on the representation and consideration of diverse groups. Significant additions and revisions were made in this regard, and the review framework itself is available among the OpenStax Psychology 2e instructor resources.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Alignment
As with all OpenStax books, the first edition of Psychology was created with a focus on accessibility. We have emphasized and improved that approach in the second edition. Our goal is to ensure that all OpenStax websites and the web view versions of our learning materials follow accessible web design best practices, so that they will meet the W3C-WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 at Level AA and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. The WCAG 2.0 guidelines explain ways to make web content more accessible for people with disabilities and more user-friendly for everyone.
- To accommodate users of specific assistive technologies, all alternative text was reviewed and revised for comprehensiveness and clarity.
- All illustrations were revised to improve the color contrast, which is important for some visually impaired students.
Media Attributions
In Psychology 2e, most art contains attribution to its title, creator or rights holder, host platform, and license within the caption. Because the art is openly licensed, anyone may reuse the art as long as they provide the same attribution to its original source.
To maximize readability and content flow, some art does not include attribution in the text. If you reuse art from Psychology 2e that does not have attribution provided, use the following attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY 4.0 license.
MCCCD Guidelines Effective Fall 2025
MCCCD Course Description for PSY 101
Overview of the methods, concepts, and applications of psychological science. Includes an introduction to key domains of psychology: Biological, Cognitive, Developmental, Social and Personality, and Mental and Physical Health.
MCCCD Course Competencies
- Describe how the scientific method is used to draw logical conclusions about behaviors and mental processes. (I)
- Interpret research findings related to psychological concepts. (I-VI)
- Apply psychological principles to personal growth and other aspects of everyday life. (I-VI)
- Examine how psychological science can be used to counter unsubstantiated statements and foster critical thinking. (I-VI)
- Explain basic psychological concepts in each of these key domains: Biological, Cognitive, Developmental, Social and Personality, and Mental and Physical Health. (II-VI)
- Identify ways psychological science can foster a more just society. (II-VI)
- Examine how social and cultural factors, diversity, ethics, and variations in human functioning relate to basic psychological concepts. (II-VI)
MCCCD Course Outline
I. Scientific inquiry and research methods
A. Nature of psychological science
B. Ethical issues in research
C. Basic concepts of data analysis
II. Biological domain (at least two areas covered)
A. Neuroscience
1. Nervous system
2. Endocrine system
3. Nature and nurture
B. Sensation
1. Sensory systems
2. Sensory processes
C. Consciousness
1. States of consciousness
2. Characteristics of sleep
3. Theories of dreaming
4. Psychoactive drugs and their effects
III. Cognitive domain (at least two areas covered)
A. Cognition
1. Thinking and problem solving
2. Cognitive biases
B. Memory
1. Processes of memory
2. Factors influencing memory
C. Perception
1. Process of perception
2. Factors influencing perception
D. Intelligence
1. Perspectives on intelligence
2. Assessment of intelligence
3. Issues in intelligence
IV. Developmental domain (at least two areas covered)
A. Lifespan development
1. Methods and issues in lifespan development
2. Physical, cognitive, and social development across the lifespan
B. Learning
1. Classical conditioning
2. Operant conditioning
3. Observational learning
C. Language
1. Structural features
2. Development of language
3. Language and the brain
V. Social and personality domain (at least two areas covered)
A. Social
1. Social cognition
2. Social influence
B. Personality
1. Empirical approaches
2. Assessment
C. Multiculturalism, gender, and sexual orientation
1. Psychological constructs
2. Psychosocial constructs
3. Cultural constructs
D. Motivation and emotion
1. Influences of motivation
2. Domains of motivated behavior
3. Perspectives on emotion
4. Emotional interpretation and expression
5. Domains of emotional behavior
VI. Mental and physical health domain (at least two areas covered)
A. Disorders
1. Perspectives of psychological disorders
2. Categories of psychological disorders
B. Health
1. Stress and coping
2. Mental and physical health and wellness
C. Therapies
1. Types of treatment
2. Legal, ethical, and professional issues
About OpenStax
OpenStax is a nonprofit based at Rice University, and it’s our mission to improve student access to education. Our first openly licensed college textbook was published in 2012, and our library has since scaled to over 35 books for college and AP® courses used by hundreds of thousands of students. OpenStax Tutor, our low-cost personalized learning tool, is being piloted in college courses throughout the country. Through our partnerships with philanthropic foundations and our alliance with other educational resource organizations, OpenStax is breaking down the most common barriers to learning and empowering students and instructors to succeed. This textbook was written to increase student access to high-quality learning materials, maintaining the highest standards of academic rigor at little to no cost.
About Psychology 2e
Psychology 2e is designed to meet scope and sequence requirements for the single-semester introduction to psychology course. The book offers a comprehensive treatment of core concepts, grounded in both classic studies and current and emerging research. The text also includes coverage of the DSM-5 in examinations of psychological disorders. Psychology 2e incorporates discussions that reflect the diversity within the discipline, as well as the diversity of cultures and communities across the globe. Psychology 2e is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY) license, which means that you can distribute, remix, and build upon the content, as long as you provide attribution to OpenStax and its content contributors.
The first edition of Psychology has been used by thousands of faculty and hundreds of thousands of students since its publication in 2015. OpenStax mined our adopters’ extensive and helpful feedback to identify the most significant revision needs while maintaining the organization that many instructors had incorporated into their courses. Specific surveys, pre-revision reviews, and customization analysis, as well as analytical data from OpenStax partners and online learning environments, all aided in planning the revision.
The result is a book that thoroughly treats psychology’s foundational concepts while adding current and meaningful coverage in specific areas. Psychology 2e retains its manageable scope and contains ample features to draw learners into the discipline. Structurally, the textbook remains similar to the first edition, with no chapter reorganization and very targeted changes at the section level.
OpenStax only undertakes second editions when significant modifications to the text are necessary. In the case of Psychology 2e, user feedback indicated that we needed to focus on a few key areas. The revision plan varied by chapter based on need. Some chapters were significantly updated for conceptual coverage, research-informed data, and clearer language. In other chapters, the revisions focused mostly on the currency of examples and updates to statistics.
Over 210 new research references have been added or updated in order to improve the scholarly underpinnings of the material and broaden the perspective for students. Dozens of examples and feature boxes have been changed or added to better explain concepts and/or increase relevance for students.
To engage students in stronger critical analysis and inform them about research reproducibility, substantial coverage has been added to the research chapter and strategically throughout the textbook whenever key studies are discussed. This material is presented in a balanced way and provides instructors with ample opportunity to discuss the importance of replication in a manner that best suits their course.
Pedagogical foundation
Psychology 2e engages students through inquiry, self-reflection, and investigation. Features in the second edition have been carefully updated to remain topical and relevant while deepening students’ relationship to the material. They include the following:
- Everyday Connection features tie psychological topics to everyday issues and behaviors that students encounter in their lives and the world. Topics include the validity of scores on college entrance exams, the opioid crisis, the impact of social status on stress and healthcare, and cognitive mapping.
- What Do You Think? features provide research-based information and ask students their views on controversial issues. Topics include “Brain Dead and on Life Support,” “Violent Media and Aggression,” and “Capital Punishment and Criminals with Intellectual Disabilities.”
- Dig Deeper features discuss one specific aspect of a topic in greater depth so students can dig more deeply into the concept. Examples include discussions on the distinction between evolutionary psychology and behavioral genetics, recent findings on neuroplasticity, the field of forensic psychology, and a presentation of research on strategies for coping with prejudice and discrimination.
- Connect the Concepts features revisit a concept learned in another chapter, expanding upon it within a different context. Features include “Emotional Expression and Emotional Regulation,” “Tweens, Teens, and Social Norms,” and “Conditioning and OCD.”
- Link to Learning features direct students to online interactive exercises and animations that add a fuller context to core content and provide an opportunity for application.
Student and Instructor Resources
We have compiled additional resources for both students and instructors, including Getting Started Guides, an instructor solution guide, a test bank, and PowerPoint slides. Instructor resources require a verified instructor account, which you can apply for when you log in or create your account on openstax.org. Student resources can be accessed here.
About the authors
Senior contributing authors
Rose M. Spielman (Content Lead), Quinnipiac University
William J. Jenkins, Mercer University
Marilyn D. Lovett, Spelman College
Contributing Authors
Mara Aruguete, Lincoln University
Laura Bryant, Eastern Gateway Community College
Barbara Chappell, Walden University
Kathryn Dumper, Bainbridge State College
Arlene Lacombe, Saint Joseph’s University
Julie Lazzara, Paradise Valley Community College
Tammy McClain, West Liberty University
Barbara B. Oswald, Miami University
Marion Perlmutter, University of Michigan
Mark D. Thomas, Albany State University
