Research Psychology

Identify 

• What might be some options for me to use for data-gathering?

Evaluate 

• How can I know if they are appropriate for my situation, with the population I plan to study? Are they reliable, valid, etc? Do I have permission to use them for my research?

Locate

• How can I track down the full text of the items? 

Hello MS in Research Psychology students!

This guide is intended to introduce you to the resources and services the library has to offer as you progress through your program.

1. Start with the checklist and reach out to Kristen Hoffman, your librarian, when you have questions.
2. Then review the BEAM Method of using sources. This is a way of thinking about how you might use a source in your papers/projects and will frame the way you'll be searching the library resources for what you need. 
3. Next, navigate through the other tabs on the left, referring back as needed.

Let Kristen know if you have any feedback about this guide and reach out to her when you have research questions!

New Student Checklist

• Library Hours: spu.edu/library/about-the-library/library-hours.aspx
• Reserve a Study Room: http://spu.edu/library
• Study in the Quiet Study Zone room on the 3rd floor. Locker keys available for check-out at the Front Desk.

• Summit allows you to borrow from nearly 40 other college & university libraries in the Pacific Northwest. We share our materials!
• You will get an email message when your item arrives -- usually 3-5 business days after requesting
• Request through the SPU catalog:  spu.edu/library
• You must be signed in to the SPU catalog in order to request items!!
• You may also visit those libraries in person!

• The SPU Library provides access to millions of full-text articles through the databases
• spu.edu/library/article-and-research-databases

• Background: using a source to provide general information to explain the topic. For example, the use of the APA Handbook of Community Psychology to explain the core concepts of how diversity, multiculturalism, and inclusion relate to community psychology .
• Exhibit: using a source as evidence or examples to interpret or analyze. For a literature paper, this would be a poem you are analyzing. For a history paper, a historical document you are analyzing. For a psychology paper, it might be the data from a study.
• Argument: using a source as evidence to agree, disagree, or build upon. For example, you might use an editorial from the New York Times on the value of higher education to refute in your own paper.
• Method: using a source’s way of analyzing an issue to apply to your own issue. For example, you might use a study’s methods, definitions, or conclusions on gentrification in Chicago to apply to your own neighborhood in Seattle.

Excerpt revised from "How to Use a Source: The BEAM Method" by Wendy Hayden and Stephanie Margolin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Set up your Ebsco account to save articles in folders across all Ebsco databases (e.g. Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete).

1. Open an Ebsco database, such as Academic Search Complete or APA PsycInfo (list of all SPU databases)
2. Choose Sign In at the top of the screen. 
3. Click on Create a new Account to set up your personalized Ebsco account (not your SPU username and password).
4. Fill out the short form to create a new account. 
5. Remember to always sign in when adding articles to folders or they will not be saved! 

It can be extremely useful or necessary to listen to text-based readings rather than only to visually read them:

• Use your commuting, walking, or cleaning time to listen to your course texts!
• Listen while you visually read along with a text to try to increase comprehension and memory.
• Use as a writing strategy: listen to your own writing as a way to notice areas to improve.
• Use a a motivation strategy; if you don't feel motivated to do anything, at least listening to readings will allow you to make some progress and may re-engage you in your work.

SPU has a tool called SensusAccess, which can convert text-based files to audio (plus other ways to change file types).

1. Start at SPU’s SensusAccess Conversion Tool.
2. (Step 1 of process) Upload a PDF document (or text or URL) you’d like converted to a streaming audio file. (If you have a print book, scan to PDF the section you need. If you are starting with a text file in another format, go straight to Step 6.)
3. (Step 2) Select Accessibility conversion. This will send you a Word document, which will put header and footer info into correct places (it won't read you all those headers and footers) and which you can then edit otherwise as needed (don't need to listen to the 25 references at the end of the chapter? Delete them!).
4. (Step 4) Email the file to yourself at your SPU email address, which takes only a few minutes to process.
5. Re-start at SensusAccess Conversion Tool, and (Step 1) upload the Word document you’d been emailed. 
6. (Step 2) Select MP3 audio as the target format.
7. (Step 3) Select language of document and audio speed (choose default to start, then consider another speed later if necessary).
8. (Step 4) Email the streaming file to yourself. It may take longer to process, depending on the length of audio, but is usually ready with 5 min - 1 hour.

The streaming audio file will be a link in the email and is available for one week. If you need it longer, re-convert the Word file to mp3.

Happy listening!

audiobook by Clea Doltz is licensed CC BY 3.0.