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A Guide to Psychological Science: Books

Resources for Psychological Science

Browsing for Books

Books are shelved in general subject categories using the Library of Congress classification system. You may want to supplement your use of the catalog with browsing shelf areas for your topic. Below is a brief listing of some of the subject locations in the field of field of psychology.

BF Psychology

  • 172-175 Psychoanalysis
  • 180-210 Experimental Psychology
  • 231-299 Sensation. Aesthesiology
  • 309-499 Cognition. Perception
  • 501-504 Motivation
  • 511-593 Emotion
  • 608-635 Will. Choice
  • 636-637 Applied Psychology
  • 660-685 Comparative Psychology
  • 698-698.9 Personality
  • 699-711 Genetic Psychology
  • 712-720 Developmental Psychology
  • 721-723 Child Psychology
  • 1001-1389 Parapsychology

RC 321-571 Neurosciences. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry

  • 346-429 Neurology. Diseases of the nervous system, including speech disorders

RC 435-571 Psychiatry

  • 475-489 Therapeutics. Psychotherapy
  • 490-499 Hypnotism and hypnosis. Suggestion therapy
  • 500-510 Psychoanalysis
  • 512-569.5 Psychopathology
  • 512-528 Psychoses
  • 530-552 Neuroses
  • 554-569.5 Personality disorders. Behavior problems, including sexual problems, drug abuse, suicide, child abuse
  • 569.7-571 Mental retardation. Developmental disabilities

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Using Books Effectively

Sometimes people shy away from books because they are longer to read than a journal article. While this might be technically true, there are some tricks you can use to understand a book's structure and argument, so you DON'T have to read the whole thing. 

  • Read the table of contents 
  • Read the book's introduction/first chapter AND conclusion/last chapter - these present and highlight the main arguments
  • The end of chapter one will often provide a roadmap for the rest of the book
  • Skim chapter headings
  • Browse the index 

Once you have a good idea of the book's structure and argument through skimming, you can narrow in on the portions of the text most useful for your research.

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