Getting background information willl help you better understand your topic and important concepts.
Handbooks
Our library subscribes to over 100 APA handbooks. These resources will provide you with a good overview of a specific area in psychology.
Some examples:
- Handbook of child psychology
- Handbook of community psychology
- APA Handbook of psychology and juvenile justice
To search for a handbook in a specific area, simply do a search in the library search tool Omni using the keywords "handbook" followed by the specific area in psychology such as for example: handbook and "social psychology"
Encyclopedias
- The Sage encyclopedia of theory in psychology
- The Corsini encyclopedia of psychology
- International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioural Sciences
- Encyclopedia of the history of psychological theories
Dictionaries
- APA college dictionary of psychology
- APA dictionary of psychology
- The Cambridge dictionary of psychology
E-book collections
A combination of the following databases may help you do a more comprehensive search of the literature relating to your topic.
Multidisciplinary databases offer you the opportunity to find a sample of journal articles related to your area of interest from various disciplinary perspectives .
Core databases
Related databases (some examples)*
- Child development and adolescent studies
- CINAHL (health)
- Criminal Justice Abstracts
- ERIC (education)
- Ergonomics abstracts
- Pubmed (medical)
- Sociological abstracts
- Studies on Women and gender abstracts
*for a more complete listing, see databases by subject webpage
Multidisciplinary databases
The following are a few resources that may help you with your research:
Research methods
To find books on research in psychology, do a subject search in the library search tool Omni using one of the following subject headings:
psychology - research
psychology, experimental
human experimentation in psychology
Here are a few examples of current books in our collection that may be relevant:
Books
- Towards a more perfect psychology: improving trust, accuracy, and transparency in research (2017)
- A new narrative for psychology (2017)
- Analysing qualitative data in psychology (2016)
- Practicing research: Why you're are part of the research process even when you think you're not (2016)
- The qualitative vision for psychology (2016)
- Creating models in psychological research (2015)
- Online research methods for psychologists (2015)
- Research and evaluation in education and psychology (2015)
- Longitudinal analysis : modeling within-person fluctuation and change (2015)
- Oxford handbook of quantitative methods (2015)
- APA dictionary of statistics and research methods (2014)
- Nonparametric statistics for applied research (2014)
- Straightforward statistics: understanding the tools of research (2014)
- Research methods and statistics in psychology (2014)
- APA handbook for research methods in psychology (2012)
- Research methods in psychology : investigating human behavior (2012)
- Handbook of research methods for studying daily life (2012)
Videos
- Non-experimental research methods (2017)
- Behind the statistics (2017)
- Key issues in psychological research (2017)
- Ethics in psychological research (2013)
- Psychology research in context (2008)
- Experimental research methods in psychology (2008)
- Exploring qualitative methods (2006)
Psychological tests (guides)
This resource will allow you to find a test that is appropriate to your research application. Here is a description:
The Mental Measurements Yearbook (MMY) provides users with a comprehensive guide to contemporary testing instruments. MMY also contains descriptive information (e.g., test purpose, publisher, pricing) and edited review(s) written by leading content area experts. This resource also includes the complete Tests in Print database. Tests in Print (TIP) serves as a comprehensive bibliography to all known commercially available tests that are currently in print in the English language.
Data
Data Services (MacOdrum Library) provides quantitative research data from various disciplines in the social sciences, humanities, and life sciences. Use this site to access a wide range of surveys conducted by Statistics Canada and other organizations, including some international. Read more ...
Statistics
The Department of Psychology provides statistical consulting to faculty, graduate students, and postdoctoral fellows (consulting is not available to undergraduates and members of other departments).
Consultants assist with tasks ranging from advice on study design, selecting appropriate analytic techniques, and troubleshooting data analyses to strategizing analysis plans for grant proposals and other large-scale projects. Read more ...
Writing in psychology
- Scientific writing for psychology (2015)
- Undergraduate writing in psychology: learning to tell the scientific story (2008)
- Making sense in psychology: A guide for research and writing (2015)
- Write it up : practical strategies for writing and publishing journal articles (2015)
- Writing in psychology (2014)
- Effective writing in psychology : papers, posters,and presentations (2012)
Citation Management tools
These tools help you save references you have found in your literature searches.
They also help format your paper in the citation style of your preferences.
Our library provides support for the following:
For more information about how to use these tools go to our Citation Management webpage.
Citing sources
- Publication manual of the American Psychological Association 6th Edition (2010)
- Publication manual of the American Psychological Association 7th Edition (2020)
- An easy guide to APA style (2017)
- Our Citing Your Sources webpage contains a number of links to resources to help you properbly cite your sources.
- Carleton University guide to APA style (tipsheet)