Introduction to Psychology [an error occurred while processing this directive]

 Guide to finding resources in the George T. Potter library

Introduction to Psychology

    February 12 and 14, 2007

     Shirley Knight, Reference Librarian                 Laura Benim, Professor

      sknight@ramapo.edu,L308, X7315               MPSY 101-0

 I. Library Homepage: http://library.ramapo.edu

  • Provides access to the catalog (OPAC), databases, interlibrary loan forms, etc.

II. Finding Books at the Potter Library

  • Catalog: use this to find books, journal titles NOT ARTICLES, government documents, reserve items, music,and movies owned by the Library. You may limit a search by language, year(s) of publication, type of material, etc. This may take a few seconds to load.
  • Search the catalog using Keywords to find material
    • For example: search for "psychology" or " psychological disorders" to locate a broad range of material and look for resources for your topics.
     

         OR

  •                                                        

  • Search the catalog using Subject Browse feature ONLY if you know the Library of Congress Subject Headings, for example:

  • Cognition and Emotion
  • Perception
  • Psychology
  • Psychotherapy
  • Social Psychology

                                                    Tips

    1. Start with broad searches. It is much easier to discard too much rather than start with too little.
    2. If you don't know the Subject Heading, use the Related Records tab located on the top of a catalog record to get to the headings. This will help you focus in on more relevant material.
    3. Can "virtually" browse the shelves by clicking on the call number in a record.

III. Reference Material

  • The reference stacks are located on the 3rd floor (this is also the library's entrance).

          

    Dictionary of Psychology
    Ref  BF 31 .C72
    Handbook of Personality Psychology
    Ref  BF 698 .H3345
    Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science Ref  BF 31 .E52
    Handbook of Social Psychology
    		Ref  HM 251 .H224
    Encyclopedia of  Emotions
    Ref  BF 561 .H35
    Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Growth and Development
    Ref  QP 84 .C26
    Cambridge Encyclopedia of Thinking and Reasonsing
    Ref  BF 441 .C265

         

          Tips

  1. Use reference books to gain an overview of your topic.
  2. Use the Bibliographies at the end of encyclopedia entries to find more information on your topic.

IV. Electronic Resources

Contains more than two million citations and summaries of scholarly journal articles, as well as related topics as social work, anthropology, sociology etc.
Psychology Journals
Encompasses a wide-range of topics from psychology, clinical social psychology, social welfare, criminology and more.

See Also:

  
A full-text database that provides information on hundreds of topics such as family studies, addiction studies, urban studies and more.
A multidisciplinary database that contains many full-text articles. May also limit to scholary (peer-reviewed) journals.

(Scholarly/Peer Reviewed/Refereed articles have been reviewed by a selected panel of experts in the discipline covered by that journal).

Tips
  1. Always switch to the Advance Search page in a database. This will give you more control over your results.
  2. Always use Boolean Operators-AND, OR, NOT when running a search. For Example: environment and "personality development"
  3. Always check your Spelling if the database results are Zero.
  • Journal Finder: this provides information regarding if a journal is available full-text online, in print in the library, or available on microfilm.
  • Interlibrary Loan: allows studens to borrow a book or article that the Potter library does not own. There is a link from the Journal Finder page.

Both of these links can be found under QUICK LINKS on the library's homepage.

V. Web Sources

  • Use the following Subject Resource under Psychology to locate supplemental information on your topics .

    

  • Current Topics in Psychology:  Assembled by a practicing psychologist, this collection of articles, weblinks and research tools is organized by topics: Addiction, Attention Deficient, Bipolar Disorder, Clinical/Abnormal Psychology, Emotional Intellegience, Famil Relations etc.

VI. Bibliography

  • Use Evaluating Websites to determine if the site is authoritative enough to use in your paper.
  • Use QandA NJ a 24/7 virtual chat with a reference librarian.