Psychology Research Guide
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:
Encyclopedia of Applied Psychology by Call Number: Available Online (Click Title)ISBN: 9780080547749Publication Date: 2004-09-21
Applied Psychology by Call Number: Available Online (Click Title)ISBN: 9780199235919Publication Date: 2012-03-02
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.
- Business Source Ultimate - EBSCO This link opens in a new windowBusiness Source Ultimate includes news articles, peer-reviewed articles, case studies, country economic reports. It also includes company profiles, SWOT analyses, and interviews with executives and analysts.
- Child Development & Adolescent Studies - EBSCO This link opens in a new windowIndex to magazines and scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals on growth and development of children through the age of 21
- Education Database - ProQuest This link opens in a new windowMagazines, scholarly (peer-reviewed) journals and reports in the field of education
- Education Full Text - EBSCO This link opens in a new windowAbstracting and indexing of 478 periodicals as far back as 1983 and full-text of 204 periodicals as far back as 1996 in the field of education.
- Environment Complete - EBSCO This link opens in a new windowContains full-text for hundreds of journals and monographs covering the areas of agriculture, ecosystems, energy, and affiliated areas of study.
- Environmental Studies in Context - Gale This link opens in a new windowFormerly GREENR. Portal that covers the physical, social and economic aspects of environmental issues in articles, reports, and videos
- Family & Society Studies Worldwide - EBSCO This link opens in a new windowCoverage of research, policy, and practice literature in the fields of Family Science, Human Ecology, Human Development, and Social Welfare
- GreenFILE - EBSCO This link opens in a new windowIndex to magazines, journals, government documents and reports of information about environmental concerns
- Nexis Uni This link opens in a new windowNexis Uni provides full-text access to over 15,000 news, business, and legal sources. News coverage includes deep archives and the latest stories. Use the Company Dossier module to retrieve detailed company information and financial performance measures. The Company Dossier module also allows you to identify and compare companies matching specific criteria. This product also provides access to the renowned Shepard's Citations service for all federal and state court cases 1789-present. Nexis Uni is the new platform to replace LexisNexis Academic, which has been phased out by the vendor.
- SAGE Journals This link opens in a new windowThe SAGE Journals platform includes full text of scholarly journals from SAGE publications in many disciplines, such as, education, sociology, women's studies, criminal justice and business.
- ScienceDirect This link opens in a new windowOffers a collection of full-text, scholarly journals and eBooks in science, technology, medicine, and social sciences.
- SPORTDiscus with Full Text - EBSCO This link opens in a new windowBibliographic coverage of sport, fitness and related disciplines
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
- Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) This link opens in a new windowFounded in 1985, the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP) is the leading organization for sport psychology consultants and professionals who work with athletes, coaches, non-sport performers (dancers, musicians), business professionals, and tactical occupations (military, firefighters, police) to enhance their performance from a psychological standpoint.
- International Association of Applied Psychology This link opens in a new windowFounded in 1920, the International Association of Applied Psychology is the oldest and largest international association of individual members and affiliate international associations. As stated in Article 1 of its Constitution, its mission is: ...to promote the science and practice of applied psychology and to facilitate interaction and communication among applied psychologists around the world.
- Office of Applied Psychology - APA This link opens in a new windowAPA's Office of Applied Psychology leads the association's efforts for issues related to applied psychology, a branch of the field that uses psychological research, theory, and methods to address real-world issues.