Review of The Psychologist as Detective: An Introduction to Conducting Research in Psychology (6th Edition)

For the IDT 510 course, Research Practices in Instructional Design and Technology, the second of the four required texts was Smith, S., and Davis, S. (2013). The Psychologist as Detective: An Introduction to Conducting Research in Psychology (6th Edition) by Randolph A. Smith and Stephen F. Davis.
This book is not a lightweight, coming in at 456 pages, but it is well-organized and it really does go through the entire research process, albeit with a psychology emphasis. The authors use the cute device of approaching research like a crime drama, showing the different ways that evidence can be interpreted and how solutions can be determined.
Everyday language is used for the most part, making it a fairly easy read. At times it can be difficult to take notes from it, as it jumps around a bit and the language needs to translated from the fictional anecdotes that are woven throughout. But still, kudos goes out to the authors for trying to make a fairly dull subject into something more interesting.
The real downsides to this book are its lack of usefulness as a reference after the course is completed and its jaw-dropping price: this book costs $166.23 for a new copy and $105.26 for a used one. I went the rental route, which was about $33, but I forgot to return it and ended up paying full price. Ugh! Anyway, I recommend renting it if possible, because if you study it properly during the course, you probably will not need it again.
Thanks for reading my blog today in, and next we will be taking a look at the other two texts that were used for the IDT 510 course.
Smith, S., and Davis, S. (2013). The psychologist as detective: An introduction to conducting research in psychology (6th Edition). Boston, MA: Pearson.