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This guide is for research about psychology and counseling. If you are looking for counseling for yourself, that is Counseling Services in the Health Sciences Center, and they would like to hear from you.
Psychology runs on empirical studies. Most assignments, from the literature review in PSYC 2100 to the senior seminar, ask you to find, read and compare research articles, not textbooks or websites. Learn to tell an empirical article (method, participants, results) from a review or a commentary. The database filters help, but reading the abstract is faster than trusting a filter. Look for a method section with participants, measures and procedure. If there is none, the article is not empirical, however many studies it cites.
The guide also serves the social work and rehabilitation programs and the School Counseling M.S., whose students share many of these sources with the education guide.
Databases and indexes
- Behavioral Sciences Index. The core psychology database: about 2,500 journals, 1887 to now, with controlled subject terms and a methodology filter. Start here every time.
- Psychology Full Text. Full text for about 110 of the most-assigned psychology journals.
- Tests & Measures Directory. Descriptions, scoring, reliability and validity information for about 30,000 published and unpublished instruments.
- Social Work & Human Services Index. Social work, rehabilitation, disability services and social policy literature, for SOCW 3500 and REHB courses.
- Counseling Practice Video Library. About 600 demonstration sessions with transcripts, showing specific approaches with simulated clients.
Books and e-books
| Call numbers | Subject |
|---|---|
| BF 1–990 | Psychology: cognition, development, personality, social |
| BF 721–723 | Child and adolescent psychology |
| RC 435–571 | Psychiatry, psychopathology, therapy |
| HV 1–4959 | Social work and social services |
| HV 1551–3024 | Disability and rehabilitation services |
| LB 1027.5 | School counseling and guidance |
The current diagnostic manual is on two-hour reserve at the Level 1 desk, with a second copy in the Health Sciences Center. The previous edition circulates for anyone writing about what changed.
Specialized sources
- Finding a test is not the same as having it. The library can tell you what a published instrument measures and who sells it, but it does not lend copyrighted test forms. Your instructor or the psychology department controls access to the ones used in coursework.
- Open datasets. Replication and open-science repositories hold thousands of shareable behavioral datasets, which are useful for PSYC 2200 projects that cannot collect their own data.
- Your own study. Surveys, interviews and experiments with people need IRB review before you collect anything, including a survey of your friends for class.
- Local services data. County human services reports for Porter County are in the Health Statistics Navigator, which is described in the health sciences guide.
Citing and getting help
Psychology, social work and counseling use the author–date style in its 7th edition, and this is the field the style was built for. Cite a test by its authors, title, year and publisher. Cite a demonstration video by its producer, not the actors.
Corinne Haugland, the health sciences librarian, covers psychology and counseling and books consultations in Halvorsen 250 or online. School Counseling M.S. students can book her or Lucas Brekke. See also finding evidence in psychology.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. This psychology and counseling guide is fictional and is not mental health advice; the tests directory, video library and indexes it names are invented. The databases, call-number shelving, collections and librarians on this guide are invented, so nothing here can actually be searched, borrowed or booked, and none of it describes a real library.