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  General Psychology 2e

  Will Stutterheim

  General Psychology 2e offers an insightful exploration into the complexities of the field of psychology and all that it has to offer. This book provides a thorough introduction to the foundational principles of psychology, covering essential theories, research findings, and applications that illustrate the intricate workings of the mind.

  The text begins with a historical overview of psychology, tracing its evolution from philosophical roots to its establishment as a scientific discipline. It then delves into essential topics regarding stress and mental health disorders and concludes with therapy and treatment approaches. It then covers research in psychology, biopsychology, consciousness, and perception. It then covers thinking, memory, learning, and lifespan development before concluding with emotions, personality, and social psychology.

  Key psychological theories are explored, including those ranging from psychoanalysis to emotional intelligence, among others, providing readers with a broad understanding of the diverse perspectives within the field. Each chapter integrates empirical research with practical applications, offering readers valuable insights into how psychological principles can be applied to real-world scenarios. Through a combination of thought-provoking situations in the “Dig Deeper” sections along with critical thinking questions that accompany every chapter, the book aims to foster a deeper appreciation for the complexities of human behavior and enhance readers' ability to apply psychological concepts in various contexts.

  General Psychology 2e is designed for students, professionals, and anyone interested in gaining a comprehensive understanding of the field of psychology and its relevance to everyday life.

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  PSY 300 Abnormal Psychology

  Stephanie Weigel, Jorden A. Cummings, and Bill Pelz

  This book is a compilation of Open Education Resources for the use in an undergraduate level abnormal psychology course at Fort Hays State University.

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  Capstone Projects in Education: Learning the Research Story

  Kim Chappell and Greg Voykhansky J.D., Ph.D.

  This book is designed to facilitate understanding of education research and guide the development and the writing of a capstone project. In education, like other social sciences, we are investigating issues directly involving or influencing humans. Research involving humans can be a complex and awkward endeavor. However, if we view this endeavor through the lens of a research story, we find a familiar genre we can relate to and understand. This concise, open textbook weaves the story of a cat throughout to explain the components of typical education capstone projects.

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  The Intelligent Troglodyte’s Guide to Plato’s Republic

  Douglas Drabkin

  The Republic of Plato is one of the classic gateway texts into the study and practice of philosophy, and it is just the sort of book that has been able to arrest and redirect lives. How it has been able to do this, and whether or not it will be able to do this in your own case, is something you can only discover for yourself. The present guidebook aims to help a person get fairly deep, fairly quickly, into the project. It divides the dialogue into 96 sections and provides commentary on each section as well as questions for reflection and exploration. It is organized with a table of contents and is stitched together with a system of navigating bookmarks. Links to external sites such as the Perseus Classical Library are used throughout. This book is suitable for college courses or independent study.

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  Writing the Literature Review

  Robert Lloyd, Matthew Vollrath, and Daniel Mertens

  The purpose of this book is to help you write your next literature review. This is true whether you are crafting one for an undergraduate midterm paper, a doctoral dissertation, or working on your first manuscript for a peer review publication. For years, as professors we have read the best and worst of what students have written in our classes. We have witnessed in a handful of instances, undergraduate writers write more masterfully than doctoral students. We have witnessed doctoral students write first year papers which were ready for publication. And of course, the opposite is true. This begs, the question - what makes a student a good writing. Our hope is to answer that question in our textbook designed for you the student. Good writing comes down to practice, but having a guiding framework will be helpful as you begin your next paper. This book serves as a guide for how literature reviews are written in upper-level business courses, but the core advice and direction applies to most other disciplines. We organize the book into several sections designed to walk with you every step of the way as you write your next literature review. Importantly, we begin by describing the purpose of the literature review, and provide its use in the greater historical context of the scientific process. Second, we provide a guide on how to conduct the literature review itself, followed by detailed dissections of two types of literature reviews. Finally, we close with how to improve your command of academic writing and practical tips on how to evolve into a more complete writer.

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  Graduate Research in Education: Learning the Research Story Through the Story of a Slow Cat

  Kimberly Chappell Ed.D. and Greg Voykhansky J.D., Ph.D.

  This book is designed to facilitate understanding of education research and guide the development and the writing of a research project. In education, like other social sciences, we are investigating issues directly involving or influencing humans. Research involving humans can be a complex and awkward endeavor. However, if we view this endeavor through the lens of a research story, we find a familiar genre we can relate to and understand. This concise, open textbook weaves the story of a cat throughout to explain the research components of typical education research projects.

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  College Algebra Slide Decks

  Bader Abukhodair and Michelle Zeng

  This collection of slide decks is designed to be used in concert with the following Open Eduational Resources:

  - OpenStax College Algebra 2e Open Texbook

  - Department of Mathematics Video Playlist

  - Homework questions from myOpenMath

  Concepts include are: A study of equations, graphs, and inequalities for linear, quadratic, polynomial, rational, logarithmic, exponential, and absolute value functions. Transformations on graphs, complex numbers, circles, systems of inequalities, and systems of equations including matrices.

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  BETA - An Overview of Instructional Technology

  Susan Dumler

  In today’s K-12 education, technology is integrated into the classroom. Pre-service teachers need to have a good foundational knowledge of technology for instruction. An Overview of Instructional Technology is designed to teach a vast array of digital tools available to make the classroom and life more interactive, efficient, and connected. Fifteen-chapters cover everything from a brief overview of computer basics to popular productivity systems, learning management systems, and web-based tools and applications for a variety of content areas. The top resources for educational technology are highlighted and a section on OER is included. An entire chapter is dedicated to Google. Online learning and mobile learning devices are explored as well as internet safety and social networking. Copyright and fair use is explained with resources on how to search for images that are acceptable to use. Pre-service teachers will learn and be more confident not only integrating technology, but entering the classroom as well.

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  Introduction to Professional Development: A Business Communication Approach

  Rose Helens-Hart Ph.D. and Rachel Dolechek DBA

  This book was created to service the BCOM 210: Introduction to Professional Development course in the Department of Applied Business Studies (ABS) in the Robbins College of Business and Entrepreneurship (RCOBE) at Fort Hays State University (FHSU). The course is required for several ABS majors and a popular elective among RCOBE students. BCOM 210 uses concepts from business communication to assist students in understanding their professional desires and forming a plan for their career futures.

  Revised June 2023

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  The History of Human Resources in the United States: A Primer on Modern Practice

  Robert Lloyd and Wayne Aho

  This book details the elements of modern labor practices in the United States and includes a comprehensive review of the history of human resources in the United States. Chapter 2 describes the inexorable link between human resource practices and the laws and regulations guiding them. Chapter 3 provides an overview of the modern HR practices of talent acquisition, total rewards, diversity and inclusion, U.S. employment laws, technology and data, employee relations, employee engagement, organizational effectiveness and development, learning and development, HR structure, HR strategy, risk management, global context, and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Chapter 4 provides an in-depth summary of the practice of High Performance Work Systems (HPWS) and finally Chapter 5 concludes the text with how modern practice culminates in Human Resource Development.

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  Information Systems: No Boundaries! A Concise Approach to Understanding Information Systems for All Disciplines

  Shane M. Schartz

  This book was created to provide a different experience for students beginning their studies in information systems. Instead of being bombarded with information from a business systems perspective, the goal of this book is to provide a baseline of material regarding information systems in all disciplines, not just business systems - hence the name No Boundaries!

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  Politics, Power, and Purpose: An Orientation to Political Science

  Jay Steinmetz

  This textbook provides an overview of the political science discipline and is suitable for introductory courses at the undergraduate level. In Part I, the book covers important themes for political science undergraduate majors, such as defining politics, ideologies, institutions of governance, concepts in democracy, and public law. Part II provides an overview of the major subdisciplines in political science: political theory, international relations, comparative politics, American politics, public policy and public administration, and methods. This textbook serves as an excellent resource in courses such as Introduction to Political Science or Orientation to Political Science

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  Mathematics Methods for Early Childhood

  Janet Stramel

  This book is for the early childhood pre-service teachers, which includes the period from infancy until eight years of age. Mathematics skills must be taught in early childhood and children should be provided a foundation to succeed in elementary school and beyond.

  Mathematics Methods for Early Childhood was designed to help early childhood teacher candidates develop an understanding of why lessons in early childhood should focus on mathematics in order to help children be successful. Young children are naturally curious, and the best time to begin mathematics is at a time while the young child's brain is rapidly developing. Mathematics in early childhood helps children develop critical thinking and reasoning skills early on and it’s the key to the foundation for success in their formal schooling years.

  This book references the Kansas Mathematics Standards. These standards are closely aligned to the Common Core Standards for School Mathematics.

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  The Four Functions of Management - An essential guide to Management Principles

  Robert Lloyd and Wayne Aho

  The purpose of this book is to provide an introduction to the four essential functions of management. The history of management, managerial decision making as well as business strategy are covered in addition to an in depth exploration of the planning, organizing, leading and controlling roles of the contemporary manager. This text was written with simplicity in mind, and a hyper-focus on the four functions. The intended use of this book is to give students a mastery of these fundamentals to prepare them for their more complex applications in subsequent management courses.

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  Critical Reasoning: A User's Manual, v.4.0

  Jason Southworth and Chris Swoyer

  Teaching critical reasoning is difficult. So is learning to reason more carefully and accurately. The greatest challenge is teaching (and learning) skills in such a way that students can spontaneously apply them outside the classroom once the course is over (teaching people to apply skills in the classroom can be hard enough, but clearly isn’t a worthwhile goal in itself).

  We (the authors) have learned a good deal about these matters from the students who took courses using earlier drafts of this book, and from colleagues who’ve taught from it. But one key theme of this book is the importance of actually checking to see what the answers to complicated empirical questions are, rather than blithely assuming we know, and that applies to teaching critical reasoning as much as to anything else.

  One lesson is clear, though. Reasoning is a skill, and there is strong evidence that (like any skill) it can only be acquired with practice. It is important that students work to apply the concepts and principles in a wide range of situations, including situations that matter to them. It is equally important that those teaching critical reasoning design their assessments to model situations and cases where these skills will be of use in real life.

  Different routes through the book are possible. One of our colleagues covers virtually the entire book in a single semester. Most of us omit some chapters, however, and the book is designed to accommodate somewhat different courses. A more traditional course would spend a good deal of time on parts two and four (arguments and fallacies), whereas a less traditional course might omit fallacies altogether and focus more on cognitive biases or social aspects of reasoning. It is also possible to go into probability in more or less detail, although we are convinced that some familiarity with basic probabilistic and statistical concepts is extremely useful for much of the reasoning we commonly do. One can teach this without worrying about calculating a lot of probabilities; indeed, it is important for students to see how the basic concepts apply in cases where precise numbers are unavailable, i.e., in almost all cases they will encounter outside the classroom. Still, doing some calculations will deepen students’ grasp of the basic concepts. Sections at the end point interested students toward specific applications of the tools of this book to other areas of philosophical interest, and a brief introduction to formal logic is included to allow courses that combine both inductive and deductive logic to use a single text.

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  Discovering the Leader Within: Learning Leadership through Service (2nd Edition)

  Brent Goertzen, Seth D. Kastle, Kaley Klaus, and Justin Greenleaf

  Discovering the Leader Within: Learning Leadership through Service (2nd edition) is a resource guide for students participating in a service-learning course in leadership studies. More precisely, this workbook is designed to enhance the reflection and assessment components of students’ service-learning projects. Students are challenged to develop in all aspects of human development: cognitive, behavioral and affective domains. Students are challenged cognitively, in exploring the capacities of being knowledgeable about the leadership process; behaviorally, in making use of new skills to demonstrate their leadership abilities; and affectively, in examining one’s own attitudes and self-efficacy in affecting positive change for the common good.

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  Blown to Bits Project

  David Schmidt

  The book, Blown to Bits, uncovers the many ways that the new digital world has changed and is changing our whole environment. Some changes are incremental but others are more revolutionary. Some of the changes that we welcome are slowly eroding our privacy and are changing the rules of ownership. This book illuminates the complexities of these changes. I have attempted to capture the central points in selected chapters, and in some cases I have added new material or new examples to replace dated material. I picked chapters to summarize that address the following topics (and more). There are many pieces of data that exist about each of us that aggregators can piece together often because we willingly give it up to receive some service. Because of that we have little privacy left. Ownership of digitized content is being redefined legally because digital copies are as good as the original and because those copies are difficult to control. The change from an analog world to a digital world is revolutionary, and the social customs and laws are slow to adapt to the change. Encryption now is generally accepted by legislators because it is necessary for banking transactions and other commercial activity, but it gives rise to activities such as the dark web (example, the Silk Road). How does the technology behind the dark web work? The pervasive nature of digital images, digital text, GPS data, metadata, and the nature of software applications makes inadvertent disclosure of information almost impossible to control. How can laws be fashioned to control predatory behavior on the web? The supplementary materials I have created unpacks the chapters that focus on these issues. In addition I have added other materials useful for instructors who choose to use the book (some technical material, assignments and rubrics).