Psychology  Tags: psychology psychiatry assessment apa_style podcasts measurement  

Popular or mass media articles appear in magazines geared to the general public.  The general purpose of the publications is to entertain and inform.  As commercial enterprises, they also seek to generate revenue through advertising and subscriptions.

Characteristics of popular press articles:

• May be anonymous
• Author generally has journalism, not subject specialization
• Vocabulary, sentence structure, and depth of concept geared to average reader
• Sources may be poorly cited
• Graphics and photos used for visual impact
• Generally short in length
• Advertising is prominent

A scholarly article presents the deliberation, analysis, and synthesis of a professional body of inquiry. Within this broad definition, a research or empirical article reports the methods and findings of original, scientific study.

A research article generally has the following characteristics:

• Authors have credentials appropriate for the research topic
• Abstract or summary of the report
• Statement of research thesis or hypotheses
• Statement of problem, background and review of previous research
• Explanation of methodology, subjects of study, etc.
• Presentation of data or results
• Discussion of data and what it means
• Conclusions and suggestions for further research
• Bibliography

Searches the web for scholarly journal articles and books.  Cannot 'look inside' most subscription sources so use as a supplement to the Libraries' databases.

(search results open in a new window)

To locate books in Raynor Memorial Libraries, use:

To locate books in the Google book project:

The Libraries' general databases usually cover a spectrum of resources from popular to scholarly.  A few that may be useful for locating popular articles on a topic are:

The Libraries offer scholarly, research oriented databases in all disciplines.  A few useful databases for the Psychology discipline are:

Articles discussed in Library Session:

Happiness Flash. (2009, August). Self, 31(8), 107.

Laurence Roy Stains.  (2003, April). Lighten up. Men's Health, 18(3), 114-117.

Sharon Begley.  (2008, February). Happiness: Enough Already:The push for ever-greater well-being is facing a backlash, fueled by research on the value of sadness.. Newsweek, 151(06), 50.

Guidelines and other advice:

Kendra Van Wagner. Becoming a Consumer of Psychology. About.com

Evaluate: Criteria for Articles.  and Identify Sources: Using Articles from The Signpost. Raynor Memorial Libraries Web site. Marquette University.

Finding information about an author's credentials and experience may require looking in a variety of sources.  Scholarly articles generally give some biographical information at the beginning or end of an article.  You can also use our guide to Biographical reference sources.  Don't hesitate to"Goggle' the person.