(12-08-2018, 11:19 PM)jsd Wrote: Are you matching up the books' content with the CLEP exam objectives? I can't imagine any pop-psychology self help books touch on pretty much any of the CLEP objectives. I'm not familiar with those business books, but I imagine it'd be a similar situation to the self-help books.
I know exactly what you're asking- and so it's a tricky balance between finding a "storyline" that is interesting and "facts" that will be on the tests, however, I have a favorite you might like!!
When I first started using CLEP with my teens, they needed help with the critical thinking behind a subject- they were on the younger side and didn't have a good bank of experiences to do a deep dive, anyway, I stumbled on these case study books called "Taking Sides" that were AMAZING.
In a nutshell, they present a controversial question and then two professional academics in the field "debate" - one will do a "for" and the other "against." There is never a "right" answer, the point is to hear what people who are in the field think about both sides. I enjoyed them SO MUCH. Each book has at least a dozen of these debates/cases.
If you go into amazon and just search "taking sides" in the book tab, several should pop up. Look for USED because they are really too expensive new- also see if your library has them or even consider renting one. Here is an example of one for US History 1 (there is a CLEP for that) to give you an idea:
Issue: Were Socioeconomic Tensions Responsible for the Witchcraft Hysteria in Salem?
Yes: Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, from Salem Possessed: The Social Origins of Witchcraft, Harvard University Press (1974)
No: Laurie Winn Carlson, from A Fever in Salem: A New Interpretation of the New England Witch Trials, Ivan R. Dee, Publisher (1999)
Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum argue that the Salem witchcraft hysteria of 1692 was prompted by economic and social tensions that occurred against the backdrop of an emergent commercial capitalism, conflicts between ministers and their congregations, and the loss of family lands, which divided the residents in Salem Town and Salem Village. Laurie Winn Carlson believes that the witchcraft hysteria in Salem was the product of people's response to physical and neurological behaviors resulting from an unrecognized epidemic of encephalitis.
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Issue: Did the Election of 1828 Represent a Democratic Revolt of the People?
Yes: Sean Wilentz, from The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln, W. W. Norton (2005)
No: Daniel Walker Howe, from What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848, Oxford University Press (2007)
Bancroft Prize winner Sean Wilentz argues that in spite of its vulgarities and slanders, the 1828 election campaign "won by Andrew Jackson produced a valediction on the faction-ridden jumble of the Era of Bad Feelings and announced the rough arrival of two distinct national coalitions." Daniel Walker Howe denies that Jackson’s victory represented the coming of democracy to the United States and claims that, in the dirtiest campaign in American history, Jackson won on his personal popularity as a military hero and appealed to the agrarian virtues of an earlier age, while John Quincy Adams lost on a program of planned economic development and a diversified economy led by the national government.
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Here are examples from their Psychology Taking Sides:
Issue: Is Homosexuality Biologically Based?
YES: Jacques Balthazart, from “Minireview: Hormones and Human Sexual Orientation,” The Endocrine Society (2011)
NO: Stanton L. Jones and Alex W. Kwee, from “Scientific Research, Homosexuality, and the Church’s Moral Debate: An Update,” Journal of Psychology and Christianity (2005)
Neuroendocrinologist Jacques Balthazart argues that the prenatal endocrine environment has a significant influence on human sexual orientation and that genetic differences affecting behavior, either in a direct manner or by changing embryonic hormone secretion or action, may also be involved in determining life-long sexual orientation. Professor of psychology Stanton L. Jones and clinical psychologist Alex W. Kwee claim the current research on the biology of homosexuality provides no firm evidence for biological causation and leaves room for learning models of sexual orientation.
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Issue: Are Psychiatric Medications Safe?
YES: Robert H. Howland, from “Do Psychiatric Medications Cause More Harm than Good?” Journal of Psychosocial Nursing (2015)
NO: Gary G. Kohls, from “Psychotropic Drugs, Are They Safe? Fourteen Lies That Our Psychiatry Professors in Medical School Taught Us,” Global Research (2016)
Robert H. Howland argues that although medications may be dangerous in some situations, the history of psychiatric pharmacology has demonstrated the actual benefits from the medications outweigh the potential harm. Gary G. Kohls, a retired physician, argues that many of the “facts” about psychiatric medications are myths, questioning the effectiveness and safety of their use.
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From Macroeconomics Taking Sides:
Issue: Is Declining Productivity a Concern?
Yes: Robert Gordon, from “Is U.S. Economic Growth Over? Faltering Innovation Confronts the Six Headwinds,” NBER (2012)
No: Scott Winship, from “The Affluent Economy: Our Misleading Obsession with Growth Rates,” Brookings Institution (2013)
Robert Gordon looks at economic growth through 2007 and the future path of potential output for the next 20 to 50 years. He has unorthodox ideas about how to increase the growth of the productivity frontier. The frontier is in a process of slowing down further. Many of the inventions that replaced tedious and repetitive labor by computers happened many years ago. He contends that inventions in the current age have given us more capabilities but will not significantly change labor productivity of the standard of living. Scott Winship argues that we are obsessed with growth rates to our detriment. He contends that we need to appreciate the magnitude of real economic gains that we have continued to experience over the last decade or so. It is harder for economies to maintain high rates of growth, but the implication of a stagnating economy is erroneous.
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You get the idea. There are ones to align with many CLEP subjects.
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