Resources for psychology students are growing exponentially, as the field becomes a popular college major. However, the abundance of information can make it hard to find high-quality sites. This list offers online resources for psychology majors of all educational levels and fields of study.
1. American Psychological Association
If you want to start out with big influences, consider organization websites like the American Psychological Association’s (APA) hub, which is regarded as one of the most authoritative psychology websites to date. Psychology professors, as well as instructors from other fields, tend to accept most academic information cited by the APA. The site’s content varies widely. Its digital space features notable journal publications and verified blog entries.
If you need to locate a specific publication, APA’s publication and database section offers an extensive list of categories that includes databases, reports, affiliated journals, videos and digital learning content. In addition to databases, the site is home to news articles and sections like Psychology in Daily Life and APA Highlights, which sorts through popular press releases, op-eds and policy statements. They also offer a help center and resources for psychology in science and education at all levels.
2. National Institute of Mental Health
The NIMH site provides information on the medical aspects of mental health conditions like depression, PTSD and personality disorders. NIMH also includes an in-depth look at psychiatric medications grouped by category, how they work, what their side effects are and how patients respond to them.
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3. Pew Research Center
This resource site, known as a “fact tank,” offers information about trends that are shaping the world. You can find information in various formats because the organization conducts public opinion polling, demographic research and content analysis. Their page offers an expansive publication section where you can filter content by years. Their most user-friendly topic section lists over 100 elements that offer digestible articles on factors like technology impacts and social values. So, if you’re focused on social science research, this site has a lot to offer.
Two other organizational sites that offer a mix of news and free and limited publication access are Cognitive Neuroscience Society and the Association for Psychological Science.
4. Psychology Today
The proliferation of blogs that publish psychology-related content can make it hard to identify the credible ones. Amongst the array of websites that guarantee topics of psychology, Psychology Today is one that stands out for its quick reads of interesting and, oftentimes, unique topics. You can type almost any keyword imaginable and Psychology Today might have an op-ed or blog post about it. Although the website doesn’t offer full access to journal publications, most of their articles are based on academic and scientific news. So, you’ll find blog entries that summarize study findings or explain complex theories.
If you want to check the credibility of each post, the writer’s professional title is visible beside their name, giving you more information to judge its validity. The website offers a variety of sections, including trending topics, news and essential reads. The site’s navigation is seamless, as most blog articles include internal linking to relevant content.
5. Scientific American
Another credible news site, this award-winning publication’s website is unlikely to fall short of information. They’ve been in business for more than 170 years. That’s a lot of issues. Despite its more general audience, the site has free sections that cover topics like cognition, mental health and neuroscience. If you’re more about their publications, you can purchase a digital issue and/or a monthly subscription. But if you’re looking for simple homework sources, the free access to their blogs, podcasts and daily news can suffice.
6. Full-Text Research Databases of Journal Publications
If you need more sources or a bigger window of information, you can find useful databases that can guide you to psychology-related research. And if you’re lucky, you might find the best source to use for your counterargument or conclusion of your paper.
Here are some full-text resources that have some free options or some gated content that Florida Tech students can access via the Evans Library.
- MedlinePlus: The resourcefulness of this site is due to the thousands of clinical trial links psychology students can access related to substance abuse. A database-like list of over 700 articles offers students a look inside specific health issues like opioid misuse, addiction, depression, obesity and nutrition.
- JSTOR and Science.gov: These databases offer countless open access content like psychology academic journals and eBooks.
- PsycARTICLES and PsycEXTRA have essential full-text databases for psychology researchers and students. Both offer a 30-day trial for access to thousands of peer-reviewed journal articles dating back to 1894. Talk about going digital.
- PubMed Central (PMC): This website is home to the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) digital archives of biomedical and life sciences journal literature.
- National Archives and Records Administration (NARA): Although it isn’t directly identified as a psychology website, it provides a variety of digital sources like photographs and artwork that can be useful for historical context.
So, when you find yourself in the depths of Google and the relevance of your psychology research is blurry, it’s time to change gears and visit more-focused sites. With this list of online resources for psychology majors, you might save time and impress your professors in the process.
If you find yourself with more questions about psychology for your research, you can also browse Florida Tech’s psychology blog section and explore topics on applied, forensic and behavioral psychology.