How to use this guide
Welcome to the general research guide for Psychology! Within the different tabs of this guide, you'll find resources to help you with your research and tips for improving your research skills. If you are looking for resources for a particular sub-field of Psychology, please the sub-field resource pages. The Data tab will open in a new tab, as it links to another Tisch Library research guide with resources to help you with your research.
If you have any questions about any part of the research process, you can always reach out to Cece, your subject librarian, via the box in the right column of each page.
If you have a more urgent question that won't wait for an email response, please visit the AskUs page on the Tisch website to chat with a librarian.
Reference Sources (background information)
What are reference sources?
A reference source is a scholarly discussion that summarizes and synthesizes topics, concepts, or the scholarly conversation about a particular topic/concept. Typically, a reference source does not contain original research. These sources provide important background and contextual information on your subject. Reference sources include bibliographies, dictionaries, encyclopedias, and handbooks. You can use this type of source to help narrow your research topic, brainstorm types of data that might support your thesis, and identify keywords and main ideas to use as search terms.
Select Reference Resources:
APA Dictionary of Psychology by ISBN: 9781433819445Publication Date: 2015This is a comprehensive glossary of key psychology terms and methods. Tufts' license only lets one user access the book at a time, so please close the dictionary when you have finished and try again in a few minutes if you are unable to access it initially.
A Dictionary of Psychology by ISBN: 9780199657681Publication Date: 2015This dictionary covers all branches of psychology. It is designed for students, lecturers, and the general reader with an interest in psychology.
- Credo ReferenceOnline reference resources from numerous publishers. This reference resource can be searched by individual title, broad subject headings, cross-references, audio and images. Use its research mapper to search for terms and topics that are interconnected and displayed in (a) visual form. Examples of titles are: Bloomsbury Guide to Art, Bridgeman Art Library Archive, Columbia Encyclopedia, Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, Harvard Dictionary of Music, and the Concise Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science. The complete list of titles is available on the CREDO Reference site.
- Gale eBooksGale eBooks is a database of encyclopedias, almanacs, and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research.
- Oxford Handbooks OnlineOxford Handbooks Online is a collection of the best Handbooks across many different subject areas. One of the most prestigious and successful strands of Oxford’s scholarly publishing, the Handbook series contains in-depth, high-level articles by scholars at the top of their field. Available subjects include Archaeology, Business and Management, Classical Studies, Criminology and Criminal Justice, Economics and Finance, History, Law, Linguistics, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, and Religion.
- Oxford ReferenceProvides web access to more than 100 major Oxford University Press dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference works in the humanities, social sciences, foreign languages, science, technology and medicine, the performing arts, and religion. Works can be searched separately or across the entire databases. Includes over 1.5 million entries.
