Trexler Library | Muhlenberg College

Personality Psychology

Need help with your research? Contact:

Jen Jarson
Social Sciences Reference Librarian
phone: x3552
email: jarson [at] muhlenberg [dot] edu
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Need help after hours?
IM the Library at TalkToTrexler (for AIM, Yahoo, and MSN)
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Online Sunday-Thursday 2pm-10pm.
See Ask a Librarian for more information.

Selected Reference Materials

Annual Review of Psychology. (1950- ). Stanford, CA: Annual Reviews.
Main Collection 150.5 A615 v.1-
Also available online (and searchable). Search the library catalog by title.

*** Cervone, D., & Mischel, W. (Eds.). (2002). Advances in personality science. New York: Guilford Press.
Main Collection 155.2 C419a

Kazdin, A.E. (Ed.). (2000). Encyclopedia of Psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Reference 150.3 E563o v.1-8

*** Mroczek, D.K., & Little, T.D. (Eds.). (2006). Handbook of personality development. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Main Collection 155.25 H236of

*** Pervin, L.A., & John, O.P. (Eds.). (1999). Handbook of personality: Theory and research (2nd ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
Main Collection 155.2 P471h

VandenBos, G.R. (Ed.). (2007). APA dictionary of psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Reference 150.3 A639d

Weiner, I.B. (Ed.). (2003). Handbook of Psychology. New York: Wiley.
Reference 150 H236o v.1-12

NOTE: Items with *** may be particularly useful when browsing for topics/theories and developing research questions.

Finding Articles: Searching in PsycINFO

The PsycINFO database provides indexing of journals in Psychology and related fields from 1887 to the present. (Abstracts are included from 1984 to the present.) Books, book chapters, and dissertations are also indexed.

FIND PsycINFO

Library Homepage -- Articles A-Z (in the Find box) -- PsycINFO

SEARCH PsycINFO

1. Start with keyword searching on the main screen. In the empty Find fields, enter keywords that describe your topic. It's recommended to search across multiple fields when you're just getting started, so leave the drop-down menus at their Select a Field (optional) default.

PsycINFO search tips to remember:

Use ? for wildcard character. Example: wom?n retrieves woman and women

Use * for truncation. Example: therap* retrieves therapy, therapies, therapeutic, etc.

Use " " for phrase searching. Example: "obsessive compulsive disorder"

2. Browse through your results. Click on any article that looks relevant to see more information about it. Read the abstract, summarizing the article.

As you look through your results, use them to your advantage.

What other words could you use in your next search? Look in the title, keywords, and abstract sections of relevant article records.

What subjects could you use? Each article has been assigned subjects that describe the content of the article. The subject of one article should lead you to more like it. See more on subjects below.

When you find a useful article, don't forget to look at its reference list. Is there anything there you might be able to use?

Because subjects are standardized, they cannot be searched as easily as keywords. Use the results from your keyword searches to discover relevant subjects. You can also use the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms to determine the syntax and language of subjects.

Thesaurus of psychological index terms (10th ed.). (2004). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Ready Reference 025.4915 T413o

It may be more convenient to search the Thesaurus from within PsycINFO. Click on the Thesaurus link below the Advanced Search tab.

GET your articles

Once you have found an article you want, click on the Get It! link. Can you get the article online or in print?

If your article is not available online or in print, follow the Request on Interlibrary Loan link to the request form. NOTE: It usually takes between one and two weeks to receive articles via Interlibrary Loan.

Interdisciplinary Databases

These databases feature many psychology journals in full text. However, there is some overlap between their coverage, and neither database covers the entire discipline as well as PsycINFO. Go to these databases after you have gathered your citations from PsycINFO.

Academic Search Premier
Indexes 700+ psychology publications (non-academic and peer-reviewed), and contains some full text for many of them.

OmniFile (WilsonWeb)
Indexes 100+ peer-reviewed psychology journals, and contains full text for many of these titles.

Sage Journals Online
Provides access to all journals published by Sage (full-text online for 1999-present), including many psychology, psychiatry, and related journals.

Citing Your Sources

For help using APA Style, first consult http://www.muhlenberg.edu/depts/psychology/FindReadCite.htm#citations.

For additional information on APA Style, consult the following resources.

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). (2001). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Reference Desk Reserve 808.06615 p976m 2001 (at Reference Desk)

Concise Rules of APA Style. (2005). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Reference Desk Reserve 808.06615 C744r (at Reference Desk)

Writer's Handbook (University of Wisconsin--Madison)
http://www.wisc.edu/writing/Handbook/DocAPA.html

Trexler Library handout on using APA style: http://www.muhlenberg.edu/library/reshelp/apa_example.pdf.
This and other style guide handouts available from the library website. Library Homepage -- Citation Guides (in the Research Help box).