Readers Receive Positive Response: Current Directions Series Has Started off Right

Last year, the American Psychological Society and Prentice Hall announced plans to publish a series of psychology readers, comprised of articles from the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science. The first readers hit shelves and classrooms in Spring 2004 with great success.

“Reaction across the board has been enthusiastic,” said Yolanda de Rooy, president of Prentice Hall’s Humanities and Social Sciences division. “Professors appreciate having the ability to more meaningfully integrate these articles and this content into their courses. They also applaud the value the Readers provide – first-rate content at little to no additional cost to the students.”

The first three readers were Abnormal, Developmental, and Social psychology. Four new readers will be available for Fall 2004 classes: Introductory Psychology; Cognition, Learning and Memory; Personality; and Aging and Adult Development.

“The Current Directions readers epitomized the APS vision of disseminating psychological science to a broad audience,” said APS Executive Director Alan G. Kraut. “The articles were presented in a scientifically sound yet accessible manner, which was due in large part to a fantastic job by the editors.”

Each Reader is about 200 pages and includes section overviews and critical thinking questions. They were intentionally created with similar length, scope, and style – a design that increases a teacher’s planning flexibility while providing students a consistent, digestible resource.

“Advancing the teaching of psychology has always been at the core of the APS mission,” Kraut said. “The goal of the reader project was to get young psychologists acclimated with journal research.”

Each reader also includes, of course, an article from Current Directions, which is consistently ranked among the top psychology journals for impact, and was originally conceived to offer psychologists quick, easy access into the research of those in other fields.

“When you take quality content from a highly regarded publication such as Current Directions, add the backing of the APS and the publishing, marketing, and sales strengths of Prentice Hall, you know you will have a successful venture,” de Rooy said. “The Reader program has exceeded our expectations.”

De Rooy said that interest in the Readers has been “overwhelming enthusiastic” since the October 2003 Observer article. “Our reps reported high interest in nearly every call they make from the moment the partnership was announced,” she said. As a result, Prentice Hall has since received several ideas for new Readers, many from professors who want to get involved in the program.

“This program enables us to deliver current, cutting-edge content to both faculty and students across the country in a format that is easy to use and at a price point that provides clear value,” she said. “By partnering with an outstanding organization such as the APS, we can better serve the needs of our customers by bringing the great research of APS into the college classroom. We look forward to doing so for many years to come.”

Current Directions Readers are available free when packaged with any Prentice Hall psychology textbook. Readers are available for stand-alone sales. For more information visit www.prenhall.com/psychology or contact Sheryl Adams at (212) 782-3317 or [email protected].