Psychobiography: The Study of Lives
Psychology 38
Professor Demorest
Spring 2007
Reference Sources
- Dictionary of Psychology via Oxford Reference Online
- Biography Resource Center
- Publication manual of the American Psychological Association. (5th ed.). (2001). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. (FROST/SCI REF BF76.7 P83 2001)
- Using APA Format Purdue University's electronic handout for using APA style manual.
- Electronic Reference Formats Recommended by the American Psychological Association The APA's official citation format for electronic sources.
Indexes -- finding articles
- PsycINFO (1887–present) Index covering the professional and academic literature in psychology.
- PubMed (1966–present) MEDLINE, The National Library of Medicine's index to biomedical literature available through the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI).
- Academic Search Premier and Expanded Academic Fulltext articles from over thousands of journals in the social sciences.
Finding books in the Five College Catalog -- and beyond
It's always good to start in the Five College Library Catalog with the name of your person as a SUBJECT. Sometimes, as with Gandhi, there are different versions of the name and you want to find the one that is "official". There will also be subdivisions, such as Biography, Friends and Associates, Family, Childhood, etc. that can be useful. The UMass Catalog is a separate search, and may uncover additional material. It also might be useful to find some theoretical works on psychobiography -- such as Psychology -- Biographical methods or Personality – Research- Methodology. And if there aren't books specifically on your person, perhaps there are psychobiographies of certain types of people that might have some applicability -- such as Artists -- Psychology -- Case studies or Politicians -- Psychology -- Case studies or Presidents -- United States -- Psychology -- Case studies. The catalog also lets you see if a psychobiography has been written -- a subject heading like Dickinson, Emily --1830 1886 Biography-- Psychology lets you know that there are already (at least) two works on this topic.
If you don't find enough books in the Five Colleges, you can search thousands of library catalogs in World Cat You can then request books through Interlibrary Loan... but the books come through the mail so it takes TIME!
Archival Resources:
We have a great collection of archival material available in the valley. Archives contain primary sources-- such as diaries, letters, and photographs -- that can supplement the published sources about a person's life. The Five College Archives and Manuscripts Collections provides a good way to see what's available.
Internet Resource:
- William Todd Schultz, editor of the Handbook of Psychobiography (on reserve in Science) has his own website (http://www.psychobiography.com/) with some useful resources including a bibliography he compiles annually of articles and books on the topic.
Newspapers:
Sometimes interviews can be useful:
- LEXIS-NEXIS Academic Universe Fulltext of many U.S. and non U.S. newspapers.
- New York Times backfile (1851 to approximately 3 years from current date. From 3 years past up to current is in LexisNexis.)
- World News Connection fulltext news in translation from around the world. Includes newspapers, radio and television broadcasts. From 1994 to current.
Send comments to Susan Edwards (seedwards)