Subject searches from The University of Akron, Cummings Center for the History of Psychology:
Additional links:
If you have selected this assignment, you must choose a pioneer in the history of psychology to investigate. It is smart to choose someone that is:
To get some ideas for an appropriate pioneer:
If you need help selecting an appropriate pioneer, talk to your professor or a librarian.
According to your assignment sheet, your paper should include the following sections:
A. Personal Life: What was the individual’s background (birth place, education, family life, final resting place, etc.)? Try to find interesting details about this person.
B. Professional Contributions: Give an overview of this person’s contributions to psychology (theories, equipment, tests, etc.) In other words what was their legacy to psychology?
C. Personal and Professional Challenges: All pioneers had some type of challenge they had to overcome, whether it was personal or professional. What difficulties did this person have to overcome? Explain how you believe these challenges influenced this individual’s legacy.
D. Evaluation: Give a personal evaluation and critical analysis of this individual and their contribution(s) to psychology. Include what you found admirable about this individual, as well as what you thought might have been “wrong turns” in their life.
Books in the Library:
The library catalog may be helpful for your paper, depending on the person you choose.
You can type the name of your pioneer into the first search box (Find items that have: All these words:) to get the broadest results.
To get more specific results, trying typing the name of your pioneer into the Title or Subject search boxes. This will help you find works that contain biographical information.
Also remember to check the library's Reference collection, located on the first floor of the HJF Learning Center.
Articles:
You may also be able to find some articles that have useful information for this report. However, journal articles are often on biographical in nature. But you can use a database to locate book reviews of biographies on your pioneer.
For example, if you use Academic Search Elite, you can type the name of your pioneer in the first search box, limiting the search to Title. You can then type biography into the second search box. Book reviews of biographies will appear as part of the results. You can then check the library catalog to see if the library has access to those books or request them through ILL (see below).
Articles can also be helpful for the professional contributions part of your report. After gettting some background on your pioneer, search for their theories, equipment, tests, etc. that made them pioneers in the history of psychology. Other databases you can try include:
To learn more about these databases, go the the Historical Analysis Paper tab of this LibGuide.
Websites:
You can also use websites as sources for your report, but make sure not all of your resources are websites. Be sure to refer to the CRAAP Test LibGuide to determine if a specific website is a good resource.
National Academy of Sciences:
The National Academy of Sciences has made the entire Biographical Memoirs collection available online!
While the memoirs collection covers a broad range and includes many types of scientists, you may be able to find your psychologist. For example, John Dewey (psychologist and philosopher) has an entry.
Some books are available through your professor. Make an appointment to browse her shelves and see what is available to check out.
Don't forget other professors too. They may have historical books that would be of interest to you.
The EBSCO eBook collection includes titles covering many subjects. Click here to start searching for eBooks on your topic.
Google Scholar (2010) provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.
According to your assignment sheet:
"At minimum you should have 5 references (they can not all be webpages) and don’t forget to include in-text citations!"
If you need help with APA style, you can talk to your professor or a librarian. You can also check out our APA LibGuide.
If you can not find a book on your pioneer or need the full-text of an article, you may request the material through interlibrary loan, or ILL.
Just remember to request materials early, especially if it is a book or other physical material. Otherwise you may not get the resource in time.