Reviewed by Willa Casstevens, Associate Professor/Social Work Program Director, Buena Vista University on 12/30/21

Comprehensivenessrating:3see less

This review is based on a downloaded PDF file of the text. The table of contents covers relevant areas appropriately. That said, in reading the chapters, content is not always placed into a broader context for the course. Individual chapters are sourced from a variety of places and the relevance and clarity of content is uneven. Each chapter provides its own reference list; some Parts and/or Chapters of the text include lists of definitions. No overall index and/or glossary is provided. Using the PDF version led to some difficulties with accessing video links and reading tables and boxes.

Content Accuracyrating:3

There are occasional errors. For example, it is inappropriate to describe the disease model and medical model as distinct (p. 66), since these terms are often considered synonymous (Swaine, 2011). It would be more appropriate to distinguish between the medical model and the biopsychosocial model (Basel, 2017), or between the medical model and the interactional model/framework (Shulman, 2016). To give another example, it is inaccurate to use the term critical practice theory (p. 101), although critical practice methods in social work are grounded in critical theory. Development across the lifespan material, however, is comprehensive and up-to-date (text Parts V through XII).

Relevance/Longevityrating:4

In Part IV, the definition given for racism is very recently outdated and needs to include a discussion of how/why it has been revised (e.g., Merriam-Webster, 2021). Chapter 8 Racial & Ethnic Inequality in Part IV needs to be updated and substantively revised to more accurately reflect the depth of the historical and social problems it describes. That said, including Part IV Chapters 5 8 is a strength of this text (see Cultural Relevance, below).

Clarityrating:2

The material in parts / chapters is reflects inconsistent editing that occasionally impacts clarity. In Part III, for example, Chapter 3 Theoretical Perspectives focuses on sociological theories and is extremely clear, although this material is often covered in HBSE II rather than HBSE I. Chapter 4, however, needs editing, e.g., As the symbolic interactionist perspective discussed in Chapter 1 Sociology and the Sociological Perspective emphasizes, shared symbols make social interaction possible. This sentence is inaccurate, as the perspective is discussed in Chapter 3 Theoretical Perspectives, not Chapter 1, which this text titles How We Use Our Expectations. Another example, about equal proportions have no language at all or only pictures probably intends to state no written language at all based on the pie chart being described (p. 125). Two versions of the table showing Theory of Mind components are present, one on page 522 and one on page 523. Editing is needed in Chapter 14 on page 525, which refers to a greater discussion on disorders affecting children that will take place in Chapter 5. When adapting chapters from other OER sources, it is important to ensure that material flows clearly and correctly.

Consistencyrating:3

It would help to have the introductory material that is provided for each Roman numeral Part of the text, prior to the first chapter in each section, structured in a standardized way. As it stands, introductory material can sometimes be confusing rather than helpful. The parallel chapter structure of Parts VI through XII, by contrast, is very helpful.

Modularityrating:4

The text is indeed easily and readily divisible into smaller reading sections that can be assigned at different points within the course. The single long chapter in Part V, Chapter 9 Heredity, Prenatal Development, & Birth, is about 60 pages of reading that might benefit from being subdivided into two or more chapters. The content in Chapter 9 is excellent.

Organization/Structure/Flowrating:4

The topics in the text are presented in a logical, clear fashion under the Contents tab online, and in the Table of Contents of the PDF file download. The first two chapters of the text, and their introductory material in Parts I & II respectively, need to be revised and expanded to improve structure and flow. It might help to explicitly contextualize Chapter 1 within cognitive theory; Chapter 2 needs significant expansion. Social learning theory (e.g., Bandura, Vygotsky) is not mentioned in Chapters 1 through 3. This is an unusual omission, when introducing students to relevant theories and frameworks in HBSE I. Bandura is first mentioned in Chapters 10 & 11, and Vygotsky appears in Chapter 14. It is unfortunate that Chapter 14 repeats verbatim some of the examples that were used during the discussion of Piaget in Chapter 2.

Interfacerating:2

Some video links could not be accessed from the PDF file, although others were usable; the case vignette for Bianca mentioned in Part I/Chapter 1 was not available. Other difficulties with the PDF file download include the table of genetic disorders on page 285 which is too blurry to read, and Box 2.3 on page 305 which can barely be read. The box on page 318 cannot be read, and Table 4.1 on page 471, can only occasionally be understood. These types of legibility concerns appear intermittently throughout the PDF file download.

Grammatical Errorsrating:2

The text contains occasional grammatical and/or editing errors, e.g., pages 283, 287, 289 and 308 (Chapter 9), and page 358 (Chapter 10). A sentence repeats on page 395 (Chapter 11); a sentence on page 474 is awkward, making it difficult to follow (Chapter 13). These types of issues occur sporadically throughout the text. Constructivist is misspelled two ways on page 518 of the PDF file download.

Cultural Relevancerating:5

The inclusion of Part IV The Social Change Dimension is a great strength of this text. Part IV includes Chapters 5 through 8, which focus respectively on stereotyping, in- & out-groups, reducing discrimination, and racial/ethnic inequality. These are all important topics in todays world. Chapters 5 through 7 in particular are well referenced. Chapter 8 Racial & Ethnic Inequality needs to be updated and substantively revised to more accurately reflect the depth of the historical and social problems it describes. It would be good to further diversify photos/images in chapters of Part VI Development in Infancy and Toddlerhood, as they are primarily of white infants and toddlers; this was addressed in Part VII Chapter 13. A number of photos are reused in various chapters.Content in Chapter 15 Psychosocial Development in Early Childhood is up-to-date and highly relevant for HBSE I. Chapters on development across the lifespan includes solid coverage of LGBT material.

I appreciate the time it took to locate and combine open source material into a comprehensive HBSE I textbook - selectively using large portions of this text could reduce student book costs substantially for HBSE I.

See original here:
Human Behavior and the Social Environment I - Open ...