Research Guides: Psychology: Encyclopedias

After you choose a topic, what's the next step?

Find an overview article.

That way, you can:

Refine and narrow your topic
Discover background information
Identify keywords that will help you search for other resources
Obtain the first scholarly, citable source for your project

Reference works, particularly subject encyclopedias and handbooks, are full of overview articles and are perfect starting points for your research. Not only do you get authoritative content, you also get a recommended reading list which will lead you to other high-quality content.

Credo Reference
A collection of almost 900 encyclopedias
Wiley Online Library
Electronic Access for Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology, 4th ed.
ScienceDirect Reference Books
Use this Advanced Search page to search just within ScienceDirect's hundreds of scholarly encyclopedias.

Electronic Encyclopedias

Encyclopedia of Emotion by (ebook Collection ABC-CLIO)
"...includes more than 360 one- to three-page articles on emotions, their assessment, and their disorders (and treatment thereof), along with articles on relevant scholars and organizations. This work is distinct from one focusing on abnormal psychology in its inclusion of content on healthy states, e.g., happiness, joy, pleasure, and satisfaction. Among the intriguing entries are ones on burnout, eye movement, mood rings, (going) postal, thought stopping, and yoga. Citations to further readings and references follow each article."--Choice
Encyclopedia of Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment, & Recovery by eBook Collection (Sage)
Covers topics related to alcohol and other drugs of abuse, and also covers non-substance addictions. Topics are far ranging and include such vastly different areas as Gambling, Internet Addiction, Sex Addiction, Shopping Addiction, Criminal Justice System, Models of Addiction, Racial and Ethnic Minorities, Prevention, Therapies, to name a few. The 200-plus contributors are from academia; all articles include extensive reading lists for further study.
Mental Health in America: A Reference Handbook by eBook Collection (EBSCOhost)
Mental Health in America: A Reference Handbook examines the evolution of mental health policy in America from the almshouses of colonial times and the dawn of psychoanalysis in the early 1900s to the community mental health revolution in the 1960s and the insurance problems plaguing the field today.

Addressing such conditions as Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, anxiety, dementia, bipolar disorder, and depression, this work explores the changing definitions and explanations of mental illness and provides detailed analyses of treatments and their effects, including electroshock therapy, lobotomy, and psychotropic drugs. Readers will meet such key players as Horace Mann, who called for the insane to be made wards of the state, and assemblywoman Helen Thomson, an involuntary-treatment advocate referred to by her opponents as "Nurse Ratchett."--Publisher
Sage handbook of mental health and illness / edited by David Pilgrim, Bernice Pescosolido, Anne Rogers. by eBook Collection (Sage)
A wide-ranging and cross-national examination of many core issues in the sociology of mental health. It presents a variety of perspectives on fundamental substantive and policy issues in mental health and illness. Its scope and range make it ideal for scholars and students in a variety of disciplines concerned with social aspects of psychological distress and disorder. -- Allan Horwitz