Psychology Overview - Resources
To research issues in psychology, such as a specific disorder, there are several key resources to explore.
Ask yourself:
Do I need an overview?
Do I need specific information on a diagnosis for a disorder?
Am I interested in finding books -- digital or print?
Do I want scholarly articles or dissertations?
Does my topic include medical or pharmacological issues?
Overview?
For a brief overview, consult an encyclopedia or dictionary. Try these online resources:
International Encyclopedia of Behavioral and Social Sciences (Elsevier)
The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology
Dictionary of Psychology (Oxford)
For a deeper overview of research on a topic, consult a handbook or an Annual Review, such as the following:
Annual Review of Psychology
Annual Review of Clinical Psychology
Each of the above is a good starting place. Each provides literature reviews of important and emerging areas of research.
With a handbook you can frequently find information on treatment, assessment, and areas for future research.
Try these excellent collections:
Oxford Handbooks Online (Oxford)
There you'll find 76 excellent titles such as:
The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Psychology
The Oxford Handbook of Traumatic Stress Disorders
The Oxford Handbook of Prevention in Counseling Psychology
The Oxford Handbook of Personality Disorders
The Oxford Handbook of Sleep and Sleep Disorders
The Oxford Handbook of Obsessive Compulsive and Spectrum Disorders
The Oxford Handbook of Impulse Control Disorders
The Oxford Handbook of Eating Disorders
The Oxford Handbook of Clinical Psychology
The Oxford Handbook of Anxiety and Related Disorders
Additional online handbooks on psychology topics from Wiley and Sage, two top publishers, include:
Handbook of Psychology
Handbook of Social Psychology
Handbook of Adolescent Psychology
Sage Handbooks on Qualitative and Quantitative Research
There are also several encyclopedias and handbooks in print in the EDP Library reference collection with excellent overviews of psychological disorders. Among them are:
Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science (BF311 .E53 2003)
Salem Health Psychology & Mental Health (BF636.P86 2010)
Looking for a Diagnosis?
Consult the DSM..
PsychiatryOnline contains the DSM-IV-TR (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) and several full-text psychiatry journals.