Introduction

When I was an undergraduate, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to be a psychology major.  I knew I liked psychology, but I wasn’t sure if I liked something else even more.  Then I took my Social Psychology course.  Here was a class where they were showing me experimental evidence about the topics that I was just debating with my roommates.  Relationships, emotions, groups, and discrimination all had experimental evidence with answers to those questions.  I was fascinated that there was a field of study where you could run experiments on the topics that I was thinking about anyway.  Not only was I fascinated that this field exists, but I was elated by the idea that I could earn money pursuing this field.  That’s when I knew I would graduate in psychology.

This textbook covers many of those topics that I have wondered about since I was an undergrad.  The book is a compilation of Open Educational Resources (OER) written by many generous people who have made their knowledge available to the world.  They are listed in the Acknowledgments section and in the individual chapters.

I hope you enjoy learning about these topics as much as I have!