Hours of Operation
Psychological Tests
Locating Psychological Tests
Books and Theses
Videotape Library
Computer and Audio Visual Equipment
The Resource Center (RC) contains valuable resource materials for undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty.
Hours of Operation
The RC is open approximately 40 hours a week during the Fall and Spring semesters. Summer hours are more limited. Check for hours of operation posted on the Resource Center door.
Psychological Tests
One of the primary functions of the RC is to maintain the Department's Psychological Test Inventory. The RC graduate assistants can assist students and faculty in locating tests for research, clinical, or academic applications. The test inventory is used by graduate students who are learning to administer and interpret psychological tests in the context of one of the Department's various graduate assessment courses. Graduate students enrolled in clinical practica experiences or serving as Head Start graduate assistants also use the tests in their roles as clinicians in training. Undergraduates may use some of the tests while completing coursework or supervised research. However, there are Department of Psychology Guidelines limiting the use of our psychological tests to individuals trained in their administration and interpretation. The tests are also used for research projects conducted by students and faculty in the Department. A student wishing to examine or check a test out of the RC must be working with a departmental faculty member who is responsible to supervise the test use by the student. The faculty member must sign an Authorization Form which authorizes the student to examine or check out the test(s) authorized by the student's faculty supervisor. If you are having trouble finding the psychological test best for your particular needs, Eye on Psi Chi has an excellent article on How to Locate Measurement Instruments.
Locating Psychological Tests
If you are having trouble finding a psychological test that fits your needs, you may want to visit the International Personality Item Pool to search the hundreds of questionnaires that can be downloaded there, or try a careful search in a popular search engine such as Google. Many well-established questionnaires are available online and there are several ways to find them. You will be most successful finding an instrument you are looking for if you already know its name. For example, if you type "BIS/BAS scales" (with quotes) into Google, you will quickly find the full text of the instrument on the author's web site.
Another good way to track down instruments online is to first find a sample item from the instrument and then search for web pages that contain that item. Note that many research articles provide sample items from the measures that were used. So if you read in a research article that one of the items from Lay's (1986) Procrastination Scale is "I do not do assignments until just before they are to be handed in", and you search on this item (with quotes around it) in Google, you will quickly find the full instrument. If you don't already have a sample item from the instrument, searching with keywords such as method results discussion procrastination scale is very likely to produce research reports that use or at least cite a procrastination scale, and possibly even provide a sample item. Of course, you should always carefully inspect any instrument that you find online to make sure it is the real thing, and not a modified version.
Books, Journals, and Theses
The RC maintains a variety of books and journals that are of interest to students and faculty. Our book inventory includes books of interest on topics such as getting into graduate school, psychological assessment, test reviews and critiques, and many others. The RC also has a variety of scientific psychology journals including the American Psychologist, the Journal of Clinical and Consulting Psychology, and others. A copy of the thesis of each graduate of the Department's graduate programs is also kept in the RC. The catalog of theses provides helpful information to graduate students who are pursuing their research interests and also shows the wide range of research projects our graduate students undertake.
Videotape Library
The RC has an extensive catalog of psychology videotapes. The videotapes cover a variety of topics including diagnostic issues, clinical case studies, the brain, forensic psychology, and psychotherapy techniques. There are annotated outlines available for each video. Videos can be checked out by graduate students with the approval of a faculty sponsor.
Computer and Audio Visual Equipment
Audio visual and computer equipment is available for use by faculty, staff, and students in the RC including:
Pentium class personal computers with image and text scanning capability, color and laser printing, and computerized scoring of psychological tests
VCR/TV carts
VHS camcorders
Slide projectors
Computer projectors
If you have any questions about the Department of Psychology Resource Center, please contact Dr. Lynn Bartels at lbartel@siue.edu or 650-2202.