Skip to Main Content
Accessibility Information

Psychology Research Guide

This guide is designed to help SNHU users finding research on psychology related topics.

Applied Psychology


Applied psychology is a branch of psychology that includes research to address real-world issues. Areas of applied psychology include business, community, forensic, environment, health, sports, and technology. The following resources can help you narrow your topic, learn about the language used to describe psychology topics, and get you up to speed on the major advancements in this field. To read more about this area of psychology, visit the Office of Applied Psychology on the American Psychological Association website This link opens in a new window. To find ideas for paper/research topics within child & adolescent development, visit these sites:

Applied Psychology Databases


Research in applied psychology utilizes core psychology resources, as well as resources in business, education, the environment, sports, and technology. You may find it helpful to search the following databases for your applied psychology topics or research questions, in addition to the core resources listed on the home page.

Applied Psychology Subject Headings


You may find it helpful to take advantage of predefined subjects or subject headings in Shapiro Databases. These subjects are applied to articles and books by expert catalogers to help you find materials on your topic. Learn more about subject searching:

Consider using databases to perform subject searches, or incorporating words from applicable subjects into your keyword searches. Here are some applied psychology subjects to consider:

  • education
  • emotional health
  • health and well-being
  • human rights
  • interventions
  • sports and exercise

Applied Psychology Example Search


Not sure what you want to research exactly, but want to get a feel for the resources available? Try the following searches in any of the databases listed above:

Applied Psych*

(Consumer OR Applied) AND Psych*

There isn't just one accepted word for this area of psychology, so we use OR boolean operators to tell the database any of the listed terms are relevant to our search. We use parenthesis to organize our search, and we stem or truncate the word psychology with the asterisk to tell the database that any ending of the word, as long as the letters psych are at the beginning of the word, will do. This way, the word psychological and other related terms will also be included.

Applied Psychology Organization Websites