Over half of all social scientists are psychologists. "Psychology is best thought of economically as a low-cost science rather than a high-cost social science. In both use and economic patterns [of scholarly publishing] psychology literature seems to belong with the sciences."
"More than 51 million Americans experience diagnosable mental disorders. Of them, more than 6.5 million are disabled by severe mental illnesses, including as many as 4 million children and adolescents. Major depression, schizophrenia, bipolar illness, eating disorders, anxiety disorders, and other mental illnesses frequently impair normal daily activities such as working, sleeping and caring for oneself and others. yet only one in four affected adults receives treatment. And only one-third of children and adolescents who need mental health services get them." ~ U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
William James, 1910, said that "This is no science, it is only the hope of a science." However, psychology is based upon observation and experimentation. As one supporter said, "animal movements and human minds can be examined as carefully and scientifically as astrophysicists study galaxies."
Psychology is the systematic study of human and animal behavior. It is the study of how humans behave as they relate to their environment. Psychology is also the study of how humans learn or adapt to their environment. Psychology studies how the mind works and how the nervous system helps the organism to adapt successfully to its environment.
On one side is biology, on another medicine, and on another is sociology and anthropology. Historically, psychology has been strongly linked with the biological sciences, especially physiology and comparative biology.
Psychology deals with several important conceptual areas. Here are four that are especially important:
As is true of other social science disciplines, psychology researchers and teachers are often placed in groups with similar interests (schools). Here are a few of the more notable ones.
Structuralism studies the structure of the mind and content of consciousness. Introspection is the major method of investigation. There is a focus on the physical dimensions of consciousness.
Gestalt psychology is concerned with experience as a whole. There is some emphasis on perception studies.
Functionalism, assuming that the purpose of the mind is to help the organism survive, studies how the mind does that. William James was a noted advocate for this school.
Behaviorism examines observable behavior and not private mental states. There has been some focus on environmental determinism.
Psychometric research is test based. This school really began with Binet and his research on below average ability children. World War I testing of military recruits was a notable stimulus for this type of inquiry. In 1921, the Rorschach Inkblot test was created and it has since become an icon for psychological testing.
As with the other social science disciplines, there are limitless possibilities via psychology of this or that. For example, one might study the psychology of marketing, the psychology of elections, the psychology of music, or even the psychology of model railroading.
This is a branch of personality psychology. Because it involves the diagnosis of mental malfunction, and sometimes of bizarre behavior, it is popular with the mass media. Abnormal psychology is usually strongly clinical.
Applied psychology attempts to solve daily problems. Since there are many problem areas, scope is very broad. Because it has a practical rather than an academic orientation, it has had relatively low status in the past.
This is by far the largest and most popular sub discipline. The focus is on the diagnosis of mental disorders and prescribing solutions. There is considerable emphasis on therapy. The clinical tradition owes much to Freud. In the 1960s, behavior modification received considerable interest. Skinner showed how behavior could be changed by reinforcement of reactions to controlled stimuli.
This branch studies animal behavior in its own right and to better understand human behavior. Ethology studies animals and birds in their natural settings.
Here the focus is on perception, thinking, memory, images and language. Psycholoinguistics is the study of how language is acquired, used, and related to behavior. Recently, more emphasis has been placed on information processing.
This is the general practice of psychology examining behavior as it changes with age/development. Developmental psychology is closely related to applied psychology.
This branch studies the relationship between various behaviors and how differences arise.
Here, psychologists study and create more effective learning environments. Educational psychologists counsel students and teachers about learning problems. Often, educational psychology is located in the education college and is separate from the psychology department in the liberal arts college.
Environmental psychologists study the impact of the environment on various behaviors. There can be a strong relationship with architecture.
Industrial psychologists study perception, management, and social organization in order to make business and industry more productive and increase job satisfaction.
Psychologists study relationships between language and speech and various behaviors.
These two sub disciplines relate behavior to change in body, including brain, nerves, hormones, and biochemical changes.
Metrics are measurements so here the emphasis is on inventing and refining measures of competence and aptitude.
Social psychologists study how people relate to other people so that roles and norms are especially important. How interactions affect behavior and how behavior affects interactions also receive much emphasis.
Psychiatry is closely related to psychology, but is different because it is a specialization in medicine which hopes to understand and cure medical disease. The practice of psychiatry requires a MD. Psychiatry deals with the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental illnesss. Between 10 and 25 percent of the U.S. population suffer from a mental disorder. Specialties include child, forensic, military, mental retardation, drug abuse, aging, industrial, and suicide. Psychiatry often attempts to heal via prescriptive drugs.
The codes used here are another way of looking at the various fields or sub disciplines of psychology:
Psychologists study human behavior and metal processes to understand, explain, and change people's behavior. Research psychologists study physical, cognitive, emotional or social aspects of human behavior. Research often involves controlled laboratory experiments. Testing is another popular way of gathering data as is survey research and clinical studies. Today, more than 50 percent of research-trained psychologists work in nonacademic settings.
Applied psychologists counsel and conduct training, and apply treatments to a wide variety of conditions.
Clinical psychologists work in individual or group practice in clinics or hospitals. They assess and treat mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders, including substance abuse. Attention Deficit Disorder is another problem that has recently received much attention. Clinical psychologists work with the mentally or emotionally disturbed, helping patients to cope with or overcome illness or injuries.
Cognitive psychologists deal with the brain's role in memory, thinking, and perception. In the past few years, there has been increased interest in artificial intelligence.
Counseling psychologists help people deal with the problems in everyday living. They help people to accommodate to change or change life style. As society becomes increasingly stressful,the opportunities for counseling psychologists continue to grow.
Developmental psychologists study the patterns and causes of behavioral change from infancy to adulthood and to death.
Educational psychologists evaluate student and teacher problems and seek solutions to enhance the learning experience. There is considerable emphasis on what constitutes effective teaching and learning. Typically, this is more scientific than professional.
Engineering psychologists focus on the interaction (interface) between people and machines to discover and share how people work best with machines.
Experimental psychologists study the behavior process in humans and animals. They are particularly interested in relationships of behavior to conditions that can be manipulated in the laboratory. Motivation, thinking, attention, learning and retention, sensory and perceptual processes, effects of substance use and abuse are topics of interest.
Forensic psychologists apply psychology to legal issues and are often called upon to serve as expert witnesses, especially in dealing with issues related to an insanity defense.
Geropsychologists study a variety of behavioral problems associated with aging.
Health psychologists are concerned with how biological, psychological and social factors affect health/illness. They promote good health through counseling programs, often hoping to modify behavior.
Industrial and organizational psychologists apply psychology to management and marketing problems. They are particularly concerned with training and development, applicant screening test research, counseling and organizational development and analysis. They hope to improve employee productivity and work life quality.
Neuropsychologists explore relationships between brain systems and behavior. Stroke and head injury cases are of particular interest.
Quantitative and measurement psychologists create and evaluate the various methods and techniques for acquiring, analyzing and interpreting psychological data.
Rehabilitation psychologists work with stroke and accident victims, the mentally retarded and those with developmental disabilities.
School psychologists are normally involved in professional rather than scientific work. The help students, parents, teachers, and administrators to resolve learning and behavior problems.
Social psychologists examine personal interaction, including group behavior, leadership, attitudes, and interpersonal perception. Some linkage with social or cultural anthropology.
Sports psychologists help athletes focus on competitive goals, become more motivated, and deal with anxiety,and failure.
For quite awhile, educated people believed that all things were composed of some combination of the four elements of fire, air, earth, and water. The corresponding human humors were blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Human emotion/behavior was determined by the humor balance resulting in sanguine, irascible, melancholic, and phlegmatic character.
Psychology has its roots in philosophy and religion. Aristotle studied dreams, instinct, personality, and energy of the soul. The Greeks were especially interested in mind - body relationships.
By the 1700s, the course in moral philosophy was the capstone of liberal education. Such a course often evolved into a sort of psychology eventually leading to the notion of moral scientists who would study the individual in relation to sociology and brain physiology. The first U.S. Ph.D. was issued to G. Stanley Hall in 1878 and he opened the first U.S. research laboratory in 1883. In 1879, the first psychology laboratory was established by Wundt in Leipzig and experimental psychology began. Experiments were conducted with sensation and perception using introspective analysis. There was a focus on the development of the higher human mental processes.
Just four years later, in 1883, Hall established the first psychology laboratory in the U.S. at Clark University with an emphasis on child study. Hall was also the first president of the American Psychological Association. The American Journal of Psychology was established in 1887. In 1890, Cattell published Mental Tests and Measurements. This was the first use of "mental test." In the same year, William James published his Principles of Psychology and began what is now called "functionalism." A year later, Titchener brought the new experimental psychology to the U.S. from Germany. Laboratory work dominated the new discipline with a focus on conditioning and learning, sensation and perception. The American Psychological Association was established in 1892. In 1896, the first psychological clinic was established in the U.S. at University of Pennsylvania. Psychology became a "respectable" academic discipline, but one with close ties to medicine and the natural sciences.
From the beginning, learning research has had the potential to unify all fields of psychology. In 1900, John Dewey, began to publish works with a focus on social adjustment. Five years later, Binet published tests to predict academic success. By 1913, behavioral study had taken off and was popular by the 1930s.
Although psychology began in Germany, by now it had become a largely a U.S. phenomenon. Psychological Abstracts was born in 1927. In the 1930s, psychology was still a discipline with few members, about 3000 APA members. Most psychologists were employed in academe. Academic factions favored very different research approaches.
Both World wars, but especially World War II, created an enormous demand for psychology and psychiatry re: mental testing to evaluate and assign recruits, measure capacities and skills, and help those with mental difficulties. In 1908, Binet advocated the use of intelligence tests by the French army. In 1917, the Army Alpha test was quickly developed and administered to recruits. The tests worked well on more that 1.7 million recruits. This was the first major use of mental testing on groups rather than individuals. There was considerable Federal government interest and money. Psychotherapy, in Veterans Administration hospitals, really took off. Psychology found positions in many government agencies and private organizations. Between 1940 and 1978, APA membership grew by more than 1100 percent. Psychology became part of the U.S. mainstream.
There was a dramatic explosion in enrollment in psychology courses and programs after the War, especially in the clinical and applied areas. More colleges and universities have a psychology department with graduate degrees.
In 1966, Psychological Abstracts became a true database with controlled vocabulary soon to follow. Key words were taken from documents indexed. In 1977, the first major scholarly encyclopedia International Encyclopedia of Psychiatry, Psychology, Psychoanalysis, and Neurology was published. In 1992, the first AP psychology examination was given and by 1996 more than 15,000 high school students had taken the exam.
None of the other social sciences seems to influence psychology. Along with economics, psychology is the social science discipline with the largest and most fully developed literature. With economics, psychology is considered to the most scientific and behavioral of the social sciences. There is some interdisciplinary borrowing from biology and other natural sciences, including chemistry re: treatment of mental illness. Medicine also contributes to the psychological literature (note that is where psychiatric literature is found).
Psychology is sometimes a science and sometimes a mental health profession, a practice oriented field. Most of those in the profession are not involved in scholarly research and teaching. For example, in most states, a psychologist is someone who has an advanced degree in clinical psychology and a license to practice psychotherapy Unlike psychologists, "psychotherapist" is not regulated and qualifications vary dramatically. Psychologists in a research university setting often have little regard for psychotherapy since many of its beliefs and practices are not supported by evidence. For example, it simply is not true that abused children automatically become abusive parents since most do not. Since many APA members are involved in psychotherapy, some psychological scientists have left APA to form the American Psychological Society.
Freud's belief that mental processes are essentially unconscious contrasts with the mainstream social science view that man is rational and that a social SCIENCE is possible. Freud argued that culture results from the tension between constructive and destructive impulses. The social science view is that human nature may be changed. Many social scientists are uncomfortable with the notion that political, social, and economic events can be explained by child hood trauma, Oedipus complexes, father figures, castration fears, and the like.
From the Occupational Handbook:
* About 4 out of 10 psychologists are self-employed, compared with less than 1 out of 10 among all professional workers.
* Most specialists, including clinical and counseling psychologists, need a doctoral degree; school psychologists need an educational specialist degree, and industrial-organizational psychologists need a master’s degree.
* Competition for admission to graduate psychology programs is keen.
* Overall employment of psychologists is expected to grow faster than the average for all occupations through 2014.
There are at least 180,000 positions for psychologists. About 40 percent are in educational institutions, 30 percent in hospitals or health facilities, and 17 percent in governmental agencies. Today, many psychologists practice individually or in small clinics so that private practice accounts for more employment than in the past. There are many more opportunities for psychologists in business and commerce.
In order to practice, psychologists must be licensed. All 50 states require licensing or certification by a state board to practice independently.
Employment opportunities are expected to grow faster than the average for social science disciplines or professions. The outlook for doctoral psychologists is good. Since mental health problems continue or increase, opportunities are very good in health care. This is the best opportunity for MS graduates. Employee assistance programs are increasingly common. There are few opportunities for those with the BS.
"Psychology is a hodgepodge of sensitive subjective biography, of brain operations, of school achievement testing, of factor analysis, of Markov process mathematics, of schizophrenic families, of laboratory experiments on group structure in which persons are anonymous...." As is true of nearly all the academic disciplines, psychology is too fragmented with a large number of specialists who normally communicate only with others in their own specialty. The larger discipline of psychology lacks coherence and integration.
As a laboratory science, psychology has often dealt with an isolated and perhaps atypical slice of human behavior--often college students [an easily available population]. Thus, it is incapable of dealing with the full warmth, richness, and resourcefulness of human behavior. The artificiality of contrived situations in testing environments is a repeated concern. How real can laboratory-based research be? There are also concerns about the typicality or representativeness of those who participate in academic research. "If our interpretation of the human mind is based on the behavior of American college sophomores in artificially contrived situations and interpreted in terms of laws derived from domesticated rats and pigeons, then our psychology is truly culture bound."
Many lay people are fearful of psychology because it seems intrusive and perhaps manipulative. Psychological research may lead to brain washing, behavior modification and thought control. Several popular novels and science fiction stories tell of worlds where ordinary people are manipulated by the power structure using psychological techniques.
There are more psychologists in the U.S. than rest of world. Contemporary psychology is very much American in its emphasis and context. Some critics suggest that the discipline rests too much on one atypical culture.
Research involving human subjects is controversial and problematic. There have been enough untoward experiments to substantially involve the Federal government in protections for human subjects. Human subject review boards are found in every college or university that receives Federal funding. Animal rights organizations have long protested psychological research involving animals, including mice and rats. Some of these protests have involved destruction of laboratory facilities and the loss of experimental animals and data. In the past, and perhaps even today, some research participation has been coerced and uninformed. Some research invades privacy. Experimental manipulations of subjects have the potential to cause physical or psychological distress.
Some APA members want to restrict the use of psychological research by advertisers "pitching toys, video games, snack food" and the like to children. These professionals see psychology being used to manipulate the young. Others note that psychological principles are also used to convince people not to use drugs or drive after drinking. Consumer psychology is effective and somewhat controversial.
Much psychological research is trivial or irrelevant to the major concerns of everyday life. Measurement and testing has had the greatest utility, especially in matching prospective employees with appropriate positions. Such testing has undoubtedly improved work productivity. It is not clear if it has also improved the quality of life. Lack of standardization in concepts and measures has limited generalizations. Small, atypical samples have also been a problem. People tell you what will make them look good or what they believe that you wish to hear so there are serious concerns about reliability. Tackling insignificant problems with impeccable methods is a frequent criticism of psychological research.
More than the other social sciences, psychology faces quite a few negative stereotypes. Consider all the "shrink" jokes. Consider the movies and stories of white coated brain washers who modify and manipulate human behavior. Psychologists are the evil people who place the unwary in mental hospitals at the drop of the hat. Psychologists provide rationales to excuse any deviant behavior as caused by mental illness and get guilty people off the hook (no one need be responsible for their actions).
There is some concern that able students in traditional research fields such as cognitive and social psychology are pursuing non-academic positions as market researchers or management consultants, for example. Academic life has become more demanding and salaries may not be competitive. As one faculty member commented, "It's unlikely he's going to publish, go to conventions, or teach. ... A lot of the value that went into teaching him will be wasted. he will be lost in terms of that luster for the department."
Leading universities based upon number of papers is:
Leading universities based upon high impact citations is:
In general, psychologists rarely use the literature of other social sciences. ERIC is used by educational and school psychologists. Social psychologists do use the sociological literature. Psychologists make heavy use of the medical literature via MEDLINE. MEDLINE does a good job of covering many psychology periodicals and has better retrospective coverage for some. Data bases used and useful besides PsycINFO [ranked in use] are:
Educational and school psychologists much more likely to use indexing and abstracting services. Psychologists are more likely to use secondary sources than most social scientists.
Other subjects most likely to interest psychologists include:
Each of the fields and sub fields of psychology have their own emphases and vocabulary needs. Terms may have different meanings to different psychologists. The Library of Congress Classification Scheme does not adequately reflect the current scholarly discipline of psychology. While some psychology is found in BF and RC [psychiatry], other content is scattered widely throughout the classification scheme.
Typically, about 65 percent of the literature used by psychologists comes from periodicals. However, some studies find that books constitute the most highly cited items. Monographs, and edited collections are next in popularity. Normally, psychologists use articles issued within the last 5 years. Foreign language material is rarely used. Increasing field or sub discipline specialization makes generalization by discipline difficult.
Handbooks on various topics are often quite useful in psychology and may serve the same purpose as the annual review.
As mentioned for the other social sciences, literature searching normally involves finding a few relevant current cites and then following the citation trail backward. Scholars rarely ask library staff for help, but some graduate students do.
For students, University of Virgina Libraries has a good and typical academic guide.
Ebsco's Psychology and Behavioral Sciences database is relatively knew and not widely available in libraries. It is a full-text database covering about 600 periodical titles.
PsycINFO is now a separate department of the American Psychological Association. The first issue of Psychological Abstracts [no longer available in hard copy]appeared in 1927 and content coverage goes back to 1887. Over time, it became a comprehensive database devoted to psychology and psychological topics in other academic disciplines. Today, all of the PsycInfo products are derived from the one database established in 1967. Material from 45 countries and in 30 languages is included. All references are in English. About 2000 periodicals are examined. Coverage is selective and not cover to cover. Each monthly update includes about 4000 references. Provides citations and abstracts. Formats included are:
The disciplines and professions related to psychology are notably interdisciplinary and here include:
Thus, PsycINFO is useful for a variety of interdisciplinary topics such as consumer behavior in advertising.
PsycInfo includes a cited reference feature that allows users to retrieve related items or all articles in the database that cited a particular item. Where publisher links are included by the vendor, the user may be able to go to full text. However, the cited references feature was not well implemented in the beginning.
Note the importance of APA's Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms. The APA always uses the most specific descriptor possible. When new terms are added, they are not applied to the older records. A digital version is included within PyscINFO. The PsycINFO User Guide is also most useful. You should be familiar with the several APA databases.
The PsycINFO database is available from several vendors with the EBSCO and CSA versions being popular.
APA provides a full-text database that includes about 31,000 full-text articles from 50 peer-reviewed periodicals [most published by APA] and chapters from selected APA books. Soon, the database will include the full run of all 24 APA periodical titles going back to 1894. The ability to search by methodology is a useful feature.
Beginning in 2004, this database includes all APA books as well as a selection of titles from other publishers with access to individual chapters.
Beginning in 2004, this book review database replaced the hard copy Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books. About fifteen reviews appear in each weekly release.
This database is devoted to grey literature [almost all content beyond books and periodical articles]. Each APA database is available via PsycNET. Includes full text for most records. This content is not in PsycINFO.
Psychologists frequently create and use a wide variety of tests. Finding a particular test may be a challenge, especially where collections are limited. Many tests begin with the last name of a test's author. Typically, tests fit into two categories:
APS has a good introduction to finding psychological tests. Penn State Harrisburg has a good FAQ on this topic.
Mental Measurements Yearbook [available as a digital database at UT] is limited to commercial tests. Test Reviews Online is another useful search, but provides evaluations and not the tests. Searching the periodical literature is the best approach to follow when looking for experimental tests. If in doubt, assume the test is commercial since most popular tests are commercial. Tests in Print is a good starting place. Test price and availability information is often dated. Different tests may have similar names (Stanford ....) so you will need to know as much as possible about the nature of the test before you search. Date is often important since tests frequently are revised and go through several different editions.
Tests can create problems for libraries. According to APA guidelines, psychological test materials should be given only to those "qualified" to use them. Tests are usually circulated as library use only with no duplication allowed.
Practicing psychologists and counselors need current awareness materials, but much of this need is met by current awareness content via their professional memberships. There is always some interest in regulatory and other professional issues. Often, there is limited interest in primary source material,but there is considerable demand for synthetic material that summarizes the state of the art in a clear, practical manner. "How we do it good" material is always popular.
More likely, that service would be to those who are training for practice such as students in community colleges, colleges or universities.
Hot topics vary from time to time, but these are in demand at the moment:
Material on mental health problems associated with a particular environment such as work, school, and home is also needed.
Teachers need popular, synthetic material that is well organized and illustrated and deals with common problems. Age appropriate material is sometimes difficult to find. Material on tests and measurement may be in demand. Best website lists that are current and selective are popular. The APA has a good list of websites for high school teachers.
There is great variety in student interests. Much interest is related to class assignments, but other students are really concerned and interested and need more challenging,quality material. Again, material needs to be popular, clearly written, well organized with good examples, and illustrated. Psychology Today is often used as the model for this audience. Periodical articles and quality website material are popular.
A major problem faced by teachers, students, and lay people is that there is too much mental health material available today in print and on the web. It is often difficult to identify sources that are authoritative or at least well-regarded. A first stop, since many are concerned with particular problems, is the APA Help Center. The Open Directory Project [health and then mental health] is an excellent directory for web sources and Internet Mental Health is also very good. Clearly, public librarians have a challenge in selecting popular material [pop psychology] that's in demand but may be ephemeral and not evidence based.
New Age has now become Mind-Body. It remains popular, including a wide variety of alternative health (physical and mental) items. While few like the label, no single substitute has emerged but "recovery" or "self-help" comes closest. Originally, New Age and Mind - Body included almost everything outside the mainstream. Today, self-development and alternative health are good indicators of popular content that is more firmly rooted in the social sciences.
Recovery is the descriptor for material designed to help individuals overcome addictions of all kinds. Some dislike the label, but no substitute term has become popular. Co-dependency is another important term. From the Alcoholics Anonymous founding in 1935 with their now famous 12 step program, there are now more than 140 such groups dealing with such addictions as over eating and gambling. The early titles were from small, specialty publishers. Hazelden is the best known of these. The recovery movement has had some impact on contemporary psychological theory/practice, but is still dismissed by some scholarly psychologists. Recovery materials appear in three formats that may be troublesome for libraries:
A large number of recovery titles are available in audio formats. Some popular items are available only from the author or are sold only as part of attending a workshop.
Adult information needs in this area are often driven by such immediate problems as:
Since children, tweens, teens, and adults are often reluctant to admit before strangers that they have a problem, librarians need to consider how to make problem-solving psychological materials visible and easy to find without intervention by staff. Some public libraries may even consider reader's interest classification. In some cases, potential users will want to use this content in the library so that they are not identified.
Self-help material is more popular with women than men so this collection may wish to emphasize women's interests a bit more than men's.
Popular items on this subject focus on practical activities [5 steps for example] that result in self-improvement. Popular items are usually fairly short, easy to read and understand, with the how to do it broken down into several steps. The work makes the activities and the self-improvement look easy. There are usually easy to understand charts, tables, and graphs. Workbook questions and exercises to measure progress are popular (but cause problems for libraries). There is a notable trend away from the 12 step model to a more spiritual orientation. Many self help or popular psychology items are faddish with interest driven by the media. Demand may be intense but short. The authority and quality of many works is suspect. Some may be dangerous, but many are just silly--solve your problems with no effort. In the past, vertical file material has been useful. Today, that is replaced by quality web sites.
Memoirs vary in quality, but some are thoughtful, well written and extremely useful to the person suffering from a problem. It is cheering to know that someone else has faced a similar problem and has been able to overcome it.
Some authors note that teens and children represent the fastest growing segment of the depressed population. Most of what is said above, also applies to teens. They need popular, age appropriate, authoritative material on most of the topics mentioned above. Teens and children need material to help them understand themselves, their siblings, and their adult family members. Many need to cope with difficult family situations. There is considerable controversy about sexuality, addiction, and suicide. Finding quality material for younger teens and children that is age appropriate may be a problem. Censorship is a genuine concern. Realistic fiction (a sort of informal biblio-therapy) is often useful in communicating in a way that is difficult for non-fiction. This is also an area where censorship is a continuing and difficult problem, especially in more conservative material. It's difficult to provide teens and older children with the content that they need without offending someone.
Discuss the difference between a psychology and a psychiatry collection. Will the fact that the two collections are scattered by classification cause problems for users?
Some suggest that psychology is the "best" of the social sciences because it uses the experimental method in much of its research. What difference does this make?
Many library users are reluctant to ask for reference help when seeking psychological information because they don't wish to share their problem or concern. What, if anything, might a librarian do to overcome this barrier?
Many popular self-help items are of marginal quality and utility. How would you approach developing and maintaining a collection in this area?
Children and teens are affected by many of the same psychological information needs as adults. What collections and reference services would be appropriate for this audience? How might you anticipate and deal with controversial content?
Last major revision: August 2007.
