Psychology Research: Overview
Psychology is a broad subject area and Gleeson Library holds both print and electronic collections of psychology books, journals, and other materials.
See the right side menu for links to more detailed help guides.
Searching overview
In order to find as much information as possible on a topic, keep in mind that there are several ways to search in order to gather together enough research to write an essay, research paper or literature review.
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Author(s) – using databases or the library catalog, look up an author or known scholar in a particular subject area;
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Articles -- locate references cited in bibliographies in journal articles, books, texts or google scholar:
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Under the Search tab on the library home page, click on Journal Finder and enter the title of the journal (not the article)
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Books can provide a general overview of a subject or have a more specific focus:
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Under the Search tab on the library home page, click on Books to Search the Library Catalog by title and/or author
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Database searching allows you to use keywords, subject terms, author's name, or a combination to find articles, books, films and dissertations.
Research resources
Gleeson Library licenses a variety of online resources: Research Sources for Psychology
These include:
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databases for finding Journal and Newspaper articles;
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Reference Sources, including Psychiatry Online with the full version of the most recent DSM manual along with several full-text reference books;
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E-book collections with PsycNet being the most subject-specific for psychology; and
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Tests & Measures databases for locating reviews and other information about various tests and measurements.
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Online streaming videos: Films on Demand has a psychology video collection and Alexander Street Press has a Counseling & Therapy in Video collection. Psychotherapy.net features a diverse collection of counseling, psychotherapy, and addiction treatment training videos. Most of the videos show therapists conducting therapy and demonstrating clinical skills, along with pre- and post-session discussions. If you are off-campus you will be prompted to authenticate with your USFConnect login before viewing the videos.
Using Google Scholar
While there are limitations, sometimes Google Scholar is useful for finding research articles on psychology and social psychology.
Did you know you can set up preferences in Google Scholar that will enable you to link to article content available through USF's Gleeson Library? You can use our link resolver, Full Text Finder, to help determine if we have access to the full-text.
The settings can be saved in the browser on your own desktop, laptop, or mobile tablet. They can also be saved in the browser while you are doing research on a public workstation but will not be retained once you log out - you will need to reset the preferences each time you logon.
To set your preferences to University of San Francisco:
On the main Google Scholar search page, click the Menu icon in the upper-left corner (3 stacked horizontal lines).
Choose Settings and you will see this menu:
Languages
Library links
Account
Button
Click "Library Links" and type "University of San Francisco" into the search box, then press the Search button.
Check the "University of San Francisco - Full Text Finder" box and uncheck Worldcat. Click "Save"
Users can then click on the Full Text Finder links next to citations in Google Scholar if the full-text is not already available for free as a pdf or in HTML.
Also, on the main Settings landing page, you can modify the options in the Search Results settings to better suit your needs (uncheck the patents box, change the number of results per page, and set up the Bibliography manager to import citations into RefWorks.
Database searching
The primary databases for Psychology are: PsycINFO, SocINDEX with Fulltext, PubMed, ERIC.
PsycINFO is usually the best starting point for psychology research. This database is for individuals seeking information in the field of psychology and the psychological aspects of related disciplines, such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business, and law.
- Finding Empirical Research
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In PsycINFO, select Empirical Study from the Methodology menu
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In other databases, add the phrase (research or study) to your search
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Helpful hints:
Some empirical studies rely on the analysis of data sets collected by other agencies or institutions (e.g. medicaid data, hospitals, state or regional government agencies). This is called secondary data.
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If you are looking for original research or studies carried out with a particular population (i.e. human subjects) and do not want to have studies using secondary data, you can add these terms in parentheses . . . (participants or outcomes) . . . to one of the search boxes, along with (research or study).
See also: the Empirical Research page in this guide.
- Finding appropriate search terms
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use Indexes (AU) to search by author last name, first initial
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use Thesaurus, Relevancy Ranked (PsycINFO) or Subject Terms, Relevancy Ranked (SocINDEX with Full Text) to see what subject terms can be used for your topic
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- Limiting to studies done in the United States
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PsycINFO: Use the drop-down menu in a search box to select PL Location. Enter US in the search box
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SocINDEX with Fulltext: enter keywords in parentheses (united states)
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PubMed: enter keywords in quotations "united states"
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Tutorials and Guides
Database search guides
Links to additional tutorials
These tutorials were created by Trinity Western University.
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A tutorial on basic and advanced searching in PsycINFO on the EBSCO Platform.
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Citing Your Sources and Academic Integrity
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Gleeson Library resources for Citing Your Sources
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Gleeson Library web page on Academic Honesty, Plagiarism, and Research
APA Style
This is the style manual required for writing psychology papers in the correct format as well as for citing references properly.
The new, 6th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association has been released. The library has print copies with the call number BF76.7 .P83 2010 located in both the Gleeson Stacks and Gleeson Reference collection.
The new 6th edition also provides information about the digital object identifier, or DOI, and how to use it when citing electronic content (i.e. full text articles found online):
- A digital object identifier (DOI) is a unique alphanumeric string assigned by a registration agency (the International DOI Foundation) to identify content and provide a persistent link to its location on the Internet. The publisher assigns a DOI when your article is published and made available electronically.
Online help guides for APA style
The APA web site has various online text and video tutorials and a specific help guide on citing electronic sources. (pdf)
Northern Michigan University, Lydia M. Olson Library, has a well-maintained and extensive web site devoted to APA Reference Style. It includes a writing style guide and information on citing sources.
Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL):
To get assistance with writing your papers or interpreting the APA style (or any other writing style), the USF Learning, Writing & Speaking Centers staff are there to help.
Types of Psychology Papers
Empirical Studies
Psychology lab reports describe the events and outcomes of an original research project or experiment. In order for these results to be published and shared with other researchers and the public, they are written up in the form of a scholarly journal article, known as an Empirical Study in PsycINFO. These can also be referenced as empirical research, empirical research articles or just research articles.
The purpose of these reports is to explain how and why the experiment was performed, the results of the experiment, and interpretation of the results. Sections of a empirical research article include a title page, abstract, introduction, methods, results, references, and discussion.
Essays
Essays in psychology are similar to essays in other subject areas; the purpose of the essay is to clearly and concisely summarize a topic. A good essay will utilize logical arguments and will have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
Research paper
A research paper explores a specific theory, concept, or topic in depth. The first section should summarize the goals of the paper, while the second section presents and summarizes the issues, topics, or arguments. The final section should critically analyze the information and research that has been presented and offer a conclusion. Research papers can present or discuss theoretical formulations of psychopathology, or evaluate competing theoretical formulations on the basis of published data.
Literature review
A literature review should evaluate and summarize research that is related to a particular concept, theory, or topic. These papers are critical in nature and should present an overview of the field of research and a specific thesis. Arguments for the thesis should be presented in the main section of the paper. A literature review is sometimes referred to as a critical analysis.
Primary and Secondary Sources
Note: Primary and secondary sources are different than primary and secondary data. See the Empirical Research page for more information.
Primary (Scholarly) Literature
Primary sources are original objects or documents based on first-hand information. In the natural and social sciences, primary literature reports on the original research of an individual or group of researchers and is written by them -- a methodology called empirical studies. These reports are written for an audience of peers and are typically found in scholarly journals or presented as papers at conferences.
These articles or reports present the results of various kinds of research, including clinical case studies, empirical studies, longitudinal studies, qualitative studies, quantitative studies, and treatment outcomes/clinical trials. Primary research articles often have sections, such as "Methods," "Results," and “Conclusions."
Secondary Literature
Secondary sources are written about primary sources. They summarize, interpret, comment on, evaluate, and report the research of others that has been published elsewhere. They are generally written for people who have an interest in the subject but lack expertise on it.
Secondary literature can refer to some journal articles, including literature reviews; articles published in popular periodicals, such as Scientific American, Science News, and news magazines; textbooks; and reference works. Secondary literature synthesizes and repackages primary research.
Research versus Review Articles
Although scientific and other peer reviewed journals are excellent sources for primary research, not every article in those journals will be a research article. Content may also include book reviews, editorials, and review articles.
Since review articles include citations and are often quite lengthy, they may be difficult to differentiate from original research articles, at first glance. Since the authors of review articles are discussing, analyzing, and evaluating others' research, not reporting on their own research, review articles are not primary sources. They can be of great value, however, for identifying potentially good primary sources.