BHCC Library
& Learning Commons  

Reference area silent study area Reference area

PSY 103--Psychology of Adjustment: Information Resources

 

Consider the following guidelines for this project provided by Professor Cassara (see your project oral presentation sheet)
  1. Present biographic information on your assigned person(s). Include:


    • Where did/do they live and work? (maps that are found in the Reference section of the library or on the WWW can be helpful)
    • When did/do they live and work? (dates)
    • What caused them to study this material?
    • What lead them to formulate their theories and ideas?
  2. What is the nature of his/her/their research and theories? (Explain this in enough detail so that after your classmates hear your presentation, they will be able to explain these materials themselves.)


  3. Talk about how this person's work contributes to our understanding of personality and adjustment.


  4. Review one of the books (or several articles) that this person has written. First give a summary and then your reaction to it.

FINDING INFORMATION ON A PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIST

Workshop Objectives: After attending the library workshop students will better understand
  • The importance of thinking and planning before looking for information.
  • The importance of reference books to get an overview on your psychological theorist.
  • How to use the book catalog to find books by and about your psychological theorist
  • How to locate articles by your psychological theorist in a library subscription database.
  • How to locate and evaluate articles on the psychological theorist on the web
    • The BHCC Library Web file related to this workshop may be found at:
    http://www.noblenet.org/bhcc/adjust.htm
     (To find from BHCC Library homepage: Click “Instruction” link to go to “BHCC Library Instruction Support Files”.  Under “Behavioral Science” link to web file named “Psychology of Adjustment”) Plan your search for information before you start:
    It’s helpful to organize and have a plan of some kind before you “plunge into” your search.  Here are some important tips for BEFORE you start:
  • Read ENTIRE assignment and ask your instructor if you don’t understand any of it!  (This may sound overly basic, but Mr. Gordon knows of examples where students submitted incomplete assignments – in GRADUATE SCHOOL!)
  • Do “brainstorming” on paper about the sources you might consult to satisfy the requirements of the assignment, and also make a small plan for how you’ll search for information.  Here’s a sample “brainstorm” and plan, although yours should be more detailed. (The idea is to get yourself thinking!  Your “brainstorms” and plans will get better the more you do!):
    • SAMPLE “BRAINSTORM”:
    Hmm. I think I may focus on Martin Seligman.  I recall reading a review somewhere of one of his books “Learned helplessness,” and I’d like to learn more about him.   The assignment asks me to state where he lives and works.  I think he’s alive, and I think he’s a college professor, but I don’t know where, and professors sometimes change institutions, so I need a recent source.  I think I’ll search google.com for “Martin Seligman,” to see if I can find his official web page at his college – that way I’d know it was current information.  I also need to find out what drew him to his research topic. I’ll probably only find this information in a book or article written by Seligman himself, and not an encyclopedia, because it’s more personal.  But it will interesting to find out!          SAMPLE PLAN: 
    First, I’ll browse the reference shelves and try to find an overview article about Martin Seligman in an encyclopedia.
    Second, I’ll use the library’s subscription databases and locate 4 articles written by Martin Seligman, and see if Professor Cassara will approve them.IMPORTANT WARNING: Your assignment suggests that you prepare a bibliography of your psychologist’s work (the books, articles, and perhaps web pages written by the theorist you have chosen.)  Plan for this at the beginning of your search by writing down the complete identifying information for every source you consult.  We suggest keeping all the research you’ve done on your theorist together in a separate notebook, or folder.  (If you don’t do this, and then later want to prepare this bibliography, YOU WILL NEED TO FIND THE COMPLETE BIBLIOGRAPHIC INORMATION FOR EVERY WORK BY THE THEORIST, WHICH MAY TAKE HOURS!)

    Finding Information:  Looking In Books –  Two (2) complementary approaches to looking in books

    Approach 1: BROWSE THE SHELVES – At BHCC Library or ANY Library!   Here are a few books in the BHCC Library that probably have chapters or articles on your theorist:

    Magill’s encyclopedia of social science: psychology

    REF BF31 .M33 2003

    REF
    HF5382.5
    U503

     

    Companion encyclopedia of psychology

     

    REF BF31.C66 1991

     

     

    Handbook of educational psychology

    REF LB1051.
    H2354 1996

     

    Encyclopedia of education

     

    REF LB15.E47
    2003

     

    Encyclopedia of Psychology

     

    REF BF31 .E52 2000

      


    Important tips when browsing shelves: 
  • Books are arranged on the shelf by subject –  via a CALL NUMBER assigned to the book!  (A
    • book’s call number is like an address! “BF” are the letters assigned for psychology books.)
  • Reference books do not circulate, and have the call# prefix REF.
  • Many (but NOT all!) books on the same topic have similar call numbers, and so are shelved near
    • each other.  Therefore, get the call number of ONE book that interests you, and then look at
    books shelved next to this book.
  • Keep in mind that many books have table of contents and indexes.  USE THESE
    • TO LOOK FOR INFORMATION SPECIFICALLY ABOUT YOUR THEORIST  (This tip is particularly important for reference books! There are reference books on virtually every topic – maybe even one on your theorist alone!)Approach 2: USE THE CATALOG – At BHCC Library or ANY Library!   The catalog is a tool that lets you find physical books (and other items) in a library – every physical book has a record in the catalog!  A catalog does NOT contain the full-text of books! Here’s the web address for the BHCC Library Catalog: http://catalog.noblenet.org/search~S37/
    Important tips when using the catalog: 
  • Try an AUTHOR search to find books BY your theorist. (Be aware you probably will have to search
    • other library catalogs if you want a list of ALL the books the theorist has written.  The Library of
    Congress’s catalog at http://catalog.loc.gov/  is a good place to search to make such a list.)
  • Try a SUBJECT search to find books ABOUT your theorist (particularly helpful if your theorist is no longer alive.)
  • You will always need at least the call number of the book to find the book on the shelf! (We still
    • strongly recommend copying all the information down!)
  • When you find a catalog record for 1 book by or about your theorist, then click on the
    • book’s SUBJECT, to “pull up” all books with the same subject! (This may help you locate other books that may discuss works of the theorist.)

    Finding Information: Looking for Articles in Information Databases

    Information Databases contain high-quality information (STUFF NOT FOUND ON THE PUBLIC WEB) – such as full-text articles from the Boston Globe, and from magazines and journals  like Time, Psychology Today, and professional psychological journals.  Yet, databases can be confusing, because libraries usually have a lot of databases, and you need to know a bit about how to search the databases to find what you need.IMPORTANT NOTE: With a BHCC ID that has been activated at the Lending Services Desk, you can access all our databases from off-campus!  To use the databases from off campus, you’ll be asked to enter your last name and the 14 digit barcode# on the back of your BHCC ID.Here’s the web address for the BHCC Library Databases Web Page: http://www.noblenet.org/bhcc/databases.htm
    Here are some suggested databases to try: (THIS IS NOT AN EXHAUSTIVE LIST!  INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR PSYCHOLOGIST MAY ALSO BE IN ANOTHER ONE OF OUR DATABASE’S NOT LISTED BELOW, BUT WE SUGGEST TRYING THE BELOW THREE FIRST!)
  • Infotrac Web’s Biography Resource Center + Marquis Who's Who®   - Excellent biographical overviews of notable people, including psychologists; many entries have lists of further readings.
    • HOW TO GET TO IT: Click Infotrac Web from the BHCC Library Databases Web Page and then click Infotrac Web’s Biography Resource Center + Marquis Who's Who®  from the database menu page (the link to this database is near the bottom of the database menu page.).
  • EBSCO’s Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection.  –   Covers topics in psychology, with the full-text of articles from nearly 575 psychological journals.   
    • HOW TO GET TO IT: Click Ebsco from the BHCC Library Databases Web Page and then click Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection
  • Infotrac Web’sExpanded Academic ASAP – Covers a broad range of subjects, including psychology.  
    • HOW TO GET TO IT: Click Infotrac Web from the BHCC Library Databases Web Page and then click Expanded Academic ASAP from the database menu page.Important tips when using databases:
  • Some databases assign subjects to their articles.  This means if you find one article on a subject,
    • you can then click on the article’s SUBJECT, to “pull up” all articles assigned the same subject! 
    It is also possible to browse subject lists in these databases.
  • As with book catalogs, you also can try a TEXT or KEYWORD search using one or more words that
    • describe your topic.  This search looks for every appearance of the word(s) in the record, and “pulls up” all the records that contain the words.  (You may get a lot of articles, so we recommend using more words)  Typically, you can use this method with every database.
  • Databases do NOT contain every article that has been written about your theorist!  Typically, only
    • recent articles are in databases (articles published after 1980, or even later) 
  • Many databases allow you to SAVE an article to DISK, or EMAIL the article to yourself.  (This
    • is particularly important when you don’t have a printer available.)
  • If you are interested in searching for articles that appeared in the Boston Globe, or the New York
    • Times, or a favorite magazine or journal, THEN search our alphabetical list of all magazines,
    journals, and newspapers we get – either in print or in a database, at
    http://ph8vq3lq6p.search.serialssolutions.com/
  • Remember: databases can be frustrating!  There are many different ways to search them.  IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS, ASK!  DO NOT GIVE UP!
    • Finding Information: Prowling the Web
    A lot of information is on the web, which makes it very confusing very fast!  Also, no one monitors the quality of the information on the web – some web pages are accurate, while others are not. The key question to consider is…How do we know a website is trustworthy?  For every webpage you visit, consider the following questions: (You will need this for question 4 of your assignment!!)
  • How accurate is the information?  (Look for spelling errors and typos, a current creation date, well-supported arguments, and even peer review.) 
  • How credible is the information?  (Look for information on the author – name, job and job title, organization, affiliation, contact information, relevant credentials.) 
  • What kind of documentation does the information have?  (All facts – especially numbers – should have sources.  Look for a list of works cited or bibliography.)
  • How appropriate is the information?  (Look for balance – more than one view is acknowledged – and an objective rather than emotional writing style.  The author should also take care to distinguish between their opinion and fact.)
    •  Here’s a helpful webpage posted by Sonoma State University Library that talks more about evaluating information: http://library.sonoma.edu/research/subject/evaluate.htmlIn general, web pages posted by the government, or by educational institutions are trustworthy.  Their web pages have a “.gov” or “.edu” in the web address.**When no printer is available, try saving the web page to a disk.  Also be sure to write down the web page’s complete web address, because a saved web page may not give you the complete address.Good general search engine:  (REMEMBER: YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN ABOUT EVALUATING THE WEB PAGES YOU FIND USING GOOGLE!  )
    http://www.google.com    (Google has advanced search techniques – if you’re interested) Where librarians start Web research:  WEBSITES WE SUGGEST TRYING IN YOUR SEARCH FOR INFORMATION ABOUT YOUR THEORIST:  (These websites can be searched, or will lead you to other helpful websites. www.apa.org - American Psychological Association’s website.  http://www.dialogical.net/psychology/index.html - The “Psychology World Wide Web Virtual Library,” which is part of the World Wide Web Virtual Library. Some good research leads on topics in psychology.
     

    Other Psychology-Related Web Sites

    Famous Figures in Psychology -- this site contains many links to Web pages on past and current psychologists and psychology-related professionals.

    There is a good explanation of the APA Citation Format or consult the Assembling a List of Works Cited site.

    Implement the web application to use the NoodleBib site -- Create your folder to compile APA format bibliographic citations.

    More Web Site List:
    http://www.psywww.com/ -- Find pscyhology history and mega site links at this site.