Concise Encyclopedia of Psychology

In this brave new world of ever-evolving technology and ever-broadening paradigms in which everything we've ever learned is being called into question and everything we studied in school is becoming as useful in everyday life as Latin, from time to time reality will give us a wink and assure us that yes, there still remains some ground beneath our feet. I just experienced it.

Imagine this: A college student approaches you after having searched online, gone through MeL, and still not found something he can grab hold of to get him started with his paper on a psychological theory. You log into MeL and turn the screen to face him and attempt to recreate his search as he leads you through. You ask him what psychological theory he is looking for. He says it has to be a real one. "Yes," you reply, "but do you have a certain one in mind?" He doesn't. It turns out he tried to use MeL to look up the name of an editor of an encyclopedia of psychology which would give information on several such theories to choose from.

A light bulb appears above your head. He is looking in the wrong place. You need to help him by showing him a print source you wondered if you'd ever use again in a million, billion years. But it was exactly what he was looking for. The Concise Encyclopedia of Psychology (R 150.3 CON) is a wonderful voluminous source of material if you're looking for psychological theories, therapies, etc. Even wikipedia hasn't caught up to its thoroughness. (Naikan Therapy, a Japanese form of psychotherapy based on Jodo Shinshu Buddhism, doesn't even have a wikipedia entry--yet. Ditto for experiential psychotherapy, eidetic psychotherapy, sympton remission therapy, or idiodynamics. Any of you brave new reference librarians want to take on the challenge?) The article on Reaction Time is much more in-depth than the sketchy little blurb found in wikipedia. An Appendix includes the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. It's worth a look.

GOOD NEWS!!

Good News!!