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Allen Memorial Library

Psychology

Finding Books

Most research assignments should have a combination of different source types within your research. Books are a great resource for doing research. E-books and physical books both fall into this category.

Books differ from peer-reviewed journal articles because books provide general overviews of a topic, whereas articles are shorter and more specific. 

Remember: You don't have to read the entire book! If there is one chapter in the book that works for your topic, just read that chapter. 

Find Books at the VCSU Library

Using the VCSU Library Catalog

The link to the library catalog will take you to an advanced search. Use these steps to fill in the search box: 

  1. Make sure the "library catalog" option is selected at the top of the search box.
  2. Enter the keyword you want to search.
  3. Add a second keyword to the next line if you want to be more specific.
  4. Click the "material type" dropdown menu on the right side of the box, then choose "books." 
  5. The language dropdown is right below the material type. Pick English from these options unless you specifically need a book in another language.
  6. If you need a book published during a specific time period, use the start date and end date options below the language menu to set a date range.
  7. Click search to get your results! 

Your results will come up as a list of sources with the ability to save links. Along the right side of the page is a sidebar with more filtering options. 

The sidebar is labeled "Tweak your results." Use some or all of the following tips to narrow down your results further: 

  1. Your results are normally sorted by relevance, but you can sort them by date, title, or author instead if you prefer.
  2. Use the "availability: section to choose what format of book you prefer. If you want E-books, choose "available online." If you want physical books, choose "physical items." 
  3. You can use the "subject" section to make sure you are only looking at sources from the fields of study you need. For example, If I want to research space exploration, but the search term "exploration" brought information about both exploring space and historical exploration of the United States, I can check here for ways to filter out the unwanted options.
  4. If you didn't add a date to your original search or if you don't like the date range you used, you can edit the date range under the "creation date" section.

 

Finding Scholarly Articles

These articles are basically the "bread-and-butter" sources for scholarly research - they're used in every discipline.

What does peer-reviewed mean?

If an article is peer-reviewed that means that before the article was published it was reviewed and scrutinized by other experts in the same field. This process ensures that the sources are reliable and trustworthy. 

Why you should use them:

  • Information is based on research and expertise
  • Information is detailed and focused on a narrow topic
  • The peer-review process (mostly) insures that the information is accurate
  • They add to a growing understanding of a topic by contributing new ideas

These source types may also be referred to as peer-reviewed article, academic article, or journal article. 

Here are some of the best databases to use for finding scholarly articles in psychology:

Finding Reference Information

Reference resources are great sources to provide you with background information or context for a topic. These resources can be dictionaries, encyclopedias, guides, handbooks, etc. 

The best place at the VCSU Library to find reference information is our Credo Reference Database. 

Finding Tests and Measures

Online Resources 

Tests and Measures in the Social Sciences: Compiled by librarians at UT Arlington, this guide indexes a number of publications for published tests and measures. Search for an instrument you would like to locate, and use the results from UTA's catalog to search ODIN for a similar volume.

How to Use the Mental Measurements Yearbook: Use this online guide to learn how to quickly find information in the MMY to the right!

Databases

 

Finding Web Resources

Survey Tools

Survey Monkey: The web-survey standby, Survey Monkey is a household name for online survey creation

Poll Everywhere: Create quick surveys that individuals can respond to real-time via the web or by text message.

Forms Using Google Drive!: You can use the forms feature of Google Drive (formerly Google Docs) to generate quick forms that you can embed in email or on the web.

Introduction to Forms in Google Docs Webinar

Recommended Websites

American Psychological Association: Based in Washington, DC, the American Psychological Association (APA) is a scientific and professional organization that represents psychology in the United States. With 148,000 members, APA is the largest association of psychologists worldwide.

American Psychiatric Association: Similarly, the American Psychiatric Association is the world's largest psychiatric association, with roughly 36,000 members.