Library Resources for Psychology 321

  

The study of mental processes, motivations and behavior to gain a greater understanding of human beings
~ Psychology ~

California State University, Northridge

Oviatt Library (http://library.csun.edu)

Librarian

Eric P. Garcia (http://library.csun.edu/egarcia)

Searching Tips and Tricks

When searching databases, the goal is to find a small number (e.g. 10-30) of articles relevant to your topic. Here are some tips for improving your search results:

• Most databases allow you to choose a date range, so you can limit the search to recently-published articles only.
• Most allow you to choose English articles only, which can further reduce your results.
• Many also allow you to limit your results to peer-reviewed journals, which contain high-quality scholarly articles.
• In keyword searching, a truncation symbol (usually *) expands your search by including various forms of a root word, e.g. memor*
  • retrieves:
    • memorize
    • memorized
    • memorizer
    • memorizes
    • memorizing
    • memory, etc.
• Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) serve to either narrow or expand your search: OR expands it by including synonyms or related terms (e.g. Homeless* OR Shelter*); AND narrows it by finding the subset of articles that contain both search terms you want (Homeless* AND Veteran*); NOT narrows your search by eliminating articles that contain a specific term you do not want (neglect NOT abuse). An easy way to remember the difference is the rhyme OR gives you MORE, while the other two operators give you less (although they may be better results).

Tutorials

• PsycINFO (EBSCO) – Expanding a keyword search query
• PsycINFO (EBSCO) – Limited results using keywords PsycINFO
• PsycINFO (EBSCO) – Finding a Thesaurus Descriptor in PsycINFO

Selecting a Research Topic

A Topic:

In selecting a topic, this will be the most difficult part of the research. Choose a topic that you will enjoy researching since you will spend a some time working on the research.

Reading Background Information:

Use your textbook, encyclopedias, and the internet to read up on background information on your topic.

Refine and Focus Your Topic:

Narrow or broaden your topic to something manageable. This will take several times before you finalize it.

Write Out Your Statement:

Once you have your topic, write it out as a short sentence or question and look at the different components that make up your statement. The research statement "Is memory loss related to aging?" has two main concepts: (memory loss) AND (aging)

Books

Library Catalog - for books, videos, and archival materials that will help you identify informative and persuasive topics. Use the KEYWORD search if you aren't sure of the official Subject Headings for your topic.

Subject Headings examples:

• Adolescent Psychology.
• Alienation (Social Psychology).
• Memory
• Behavior disorders in children
• Nonverbal communication
• Intimacy (Psychology)
• Personality
• Cognitive Learning.
• Instructional systems -- Design.
• Learning, Psychology of -- Congresses.
• Education, Higher -- Congresses.
• Genetic psychology.
• Cognition in children.
• Sex Differences (Psychology)
• Psychology Experimental
• Mass media -- Psychological aspects.

Specialized encyclopedia, dictionary or handbooks

Encyclopedia of Creativity by Mark A. Runco and Steven R. Pritzker

Encyclopedia of Health & Behavior [electronic resource] by Norman B. Anderson

Encyclopedia of Human Behavior by V. S. Ramachandran

Encyclopedia of Human Development [electronic resource] by Neil J. Salkind

International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences [electronic resource] by William A. Darity, Jr.

21st Century Psychology: A Reference Handbook by Stephen F. Davis

Journal Articles

Databases A-Z - the Oviatt Library has over 100 databases. To look for articles in journals, newspapers, or magazines, you will need to start with a research database. The following databases provide abstracts and full-text articles from thousands of journals and other sources.

PsycINFO (EBSCO)
Indexes over 2,000 journals plus books and book chapters, 1987-present.

PsycARTICLES (EBSCO)
Full text access to peer-reviewed articles from more than 50 journals in psychology, including journals published by the American Psychological Association (APA), covering general, specialized, applied, clinical and theoretical research in psychology. 1894-

Academic Search Elite (EbscoHost)
index of articles from the contents pages of over 22,000 journals, 1990-

JStor Arts & Sciences, General Science Collections (Archival)
a reliable and comprehensive archive of important scholarly journal literature.

ERIC on EbscoHost (Educational Resources Information Center)
Use ERIC on EbscoHost

CINAHL Plus with Full Text (EBSCO)
Indexes over 3,000 nursing and allied health journals, with cited references from 1,600 journals; provides full-text access to many journals and other sources, 1937-

SpringerLink
Full-text access to over 1,300 academic journals, 1997-

Internet Resources

The range of information on World Wide Web (WWW) is enormous. However, just because something comes packaged in a high tech format, doesn't mean it's well researched or accurate.

• American Psychological Association - http://www.apa.org/ The home page of the APA with links to useful resources.
• Psychology Home Page at CSUN - http://www.csun.edu/csbs/departments/psychology/index.html Course listings, names of professors and their interests.
• Classics in the History of Psychology - http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/ A full-text collection of "historically significant public domain documents from the scholarly literature of psychology and allied disciplines." Search by keyword or browse by author or topic.
• Federation of Behavioral, Psychological and Cognitive Sciences - http://www.thefederationonline.org/ An association of scientific societies with interests in basic research on problems of behavior, psychology, language, education, knowledge systems and their psychological, behavioral, and physiological bases.
• ETS Test Collection - http://www.ets.org "World's Largest Test Collection Database"
• PsychologyVirtual Library - http://www.dialogical.net/psychology/index.html Find journals, publishers, news groups and online libraries organized by subtopic.
• Internet Mental Health - http://www.mentalhealth.com The categories include disorders, diagnoses and medications. Learn about some side effects of drugs and symptoms of disorders.
• Current Topics in Psychology - http://www.fenichel.com/Current.shtml A directory with a quick reference collection of articles, Web sites, and research tools.
• AllPsych Online: The Virtual Psychology Classroom - http://allpsych.com/ One of the largest and most comprehensive psychology websites on the Internet.

Plagiarism and APA citation style

Remember to cite not only direct quotes, but also other people's ideas. If you paraphrase something, changing a few words to make it sound less like a direct quote, you still have to cite it. If you are uncertain, it is better to cite a source than to be accused of plagiarism for not citing something you should have.

APA

• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 2001.
  Reference Room BF76.7 .P83 2001
  Reserve Desk BF76.7 .P83 2001
  Floor2 BF76.7 .P83 2001
• APA Style Guide by Eric P. Garcia at California State University, Northridge.

Contact Information

Created and maintained by Eric P. Garcia
Questions or comments: eric.garcia@csun.edu

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