Psychology - Senior Seminar : Databases

The Carl S. Swisher Library has resources for identifying testing and measurement tools. This guide provides resources that index, and in some cases, provides the full-text of the measurement tool.

Most tests are copyrighted and must also be purchased from the publisher. Sometimes you can view a test because it has been published in a journal article or in a dissertation or in a book,  (And sometimes it will be necessary to contact the author of the test to obtain a copy of the instrument-if so, a librarian can help you find the person's contact information.)

Once you find a test, please consult your professor about obtaining copyright permissions (if necessary) and other actions you may need to take before you use the test. Also, the American Psychological Association (APA) provides answers to frequently asked questions on published psychological tests, unpublished psychological tests and additional information on the proper use of tests. 

Other possible resources

Depending on your topic, you may also want to search journal databases in the following disciplines as well. (Links will display B-CU journal  database resources listed in the  Library's  AtoZ database index page.)

• African American History
• Business
• Education
• Health Sciences
• Nursing

The following are database search tips are compiled from' suggestions by B-CU librarians:

• The Dissertations and Theses (Proquest) database is a helpful source for finding a copy of a measurement tool.
  • Try typing the name of a measurement tool or scale in the database.  Then look at the appendices of each dissertation in the search results to see if they have included the full-text measurement tool.
  •  Search by the name of a scale/tool. (Also sometimes search by its acronym i.e. the abbreviation/letters of the scale)
• For journal databases:
  • search for articles in our databases by subject (example:. the name of a scale. (Also sometimes search by its acronym i.e. the abbreviation/letters of the scale)(or also its author) . If an author wrote about the subject, chances are all or part of the scale may be in his or her article (and not always in one full edition, but sometimes the parts of the scale are scattered throughout the article).  The author's References also may yield other sources.
• Another possible source is to try doing a "Google Advanced Search", where you can narrow your search by domain - for example type (in "use these exact words") the name of the scale (or author), but limit your search by domain, such as edu  .

Once you locate a helpful citation or reference,  follow the steps below:

1. Search the B-CU library catalog to see if the library has the book or  journal article.

2.. If the library does not have the item you need, remember that the Library's Interlibrary Loan (ILL) service can submit requests to borrow books or make copies of articles for journals not in the library's collections.  This is a free service. 

(ILL cannot borrow the tests themselves, but if a book or journal article has a copy of the test within its other contents- then the library can request to borrow the book or request a copy of the journal article.)

3.  At any time please contact a librarian at askalibrarian@cookman.edu  with any questions you may have.

 (Also refer to  Psych Tests & Measurement section of this guide, for other resources that will  help you find a copy of a measurement tool).