Psych Professor Traci Craig Fills Educational Need with her New Textbook

If one complains enough about what's missing in available textbooks, publishers may tell you to write a better one yourself.

Psychology professor Traci Craig heard the challenge and struck out to do just that.

“After a decade of teaching the introduction to social psychology course, I knew there were concepts and ideas that were missing from other texts on the topic,” Craig said. “There also were ideas discussed decades ago that have since been called into question by current research.”

She spent many weekends during the last year and a half writing the 12-chapter text that was published in May 2014. Other U of I instructors who teach the course have also adopted it.

“I hope faculty and then their students will find the text as a way to study the field broadly and then apply the information in their daily lives,” she said. “Simply, I hope it helps readers find ways to connect the research to their real world views.”

Her textbook — soft-bound and available as an ebook — is filled with images that add to strong examples of cases in diversity, poor ethics and the current trends of social psychological research. Topics range from challenges people face in their most intimate relationships to how individual lives are impacted by discrimination issues.

Craig joined the university in 2002.

Article by Sue Hinz, College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences