Psychology

Collection overview

The Psychology collection in Senate House Library is a leading national resource, which holds the collections of the British Psychological Society. The periodicals collection is especially strong. There is a collection of psychological tests and manuals.

Most key areas of Psychology are covered:

Animal behaviour
Biological
Child and Adolescent psychology and psychiatry
Cognitive
Developmental
Forensic psychology
Health psychology
Historical
Hypnosis
Mental health
Methodological
Occupational
Parapsychology
Psychiatry
Psychoanalysis
Psychotherapy
Social
Testing

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History of psychology

The library has in important collection of early psychological texts most dating from the nineteenth century or earlier. To browse a list of our holdings please search by classmark in our online catalogue by selecting Mixed/Local and entering the phrase Early texts and B.P.S. Texts in the search field. These books are held in Stack and can only be fetched by Special Collections staff and read in the Special Collections Reading Room.

The History of Psychology Centre at the British Psychological Society has compiled a useful chronology of psychology in Britain.

See also the book Psychology in Britain: historical essays and personal reflections, edited by Professor Geoff Bunn.

Collection location

Most books are located on the 6th floor
All items available on open access will display the location PSYCHOLOGY, with the classmark prefix 67 eg. PSYCHOLOGY 6th Floor (67) IMNJ Pre
All periodicals except for the most recent issues are shelved in the Tower and display the location Stack Service. Click on the 'Request' icon on the right side of the Classic Catalogue for a specific title to be fetched. Most recent unbound issues are held in the Periodicals Reading Room on the 4th floor.
To browse all of our journal titles see the A-Z list of our Psychology journals and A-Z list of our Psychology eJournals. For more information on finding journals, see our journals resources page
Psychological tests and manuals with the classmark (67) Office Tests will need to be requested from the issue desk (restrictions apply - please consult staff for more information).
Some items are held in the closed access stacks. These will display the location Stack Service. Click on the 'Request' icon on the top menu of the Classic Catalogue for a specific title to be fetched. For some materials this function is unavailable and you will need to place your request at the Stack Service desk on the 4th floor.
The Reference section can be found adjacent to the Psychology books – this includes dictionaries, encyclopedias, indexes and test sources
To locate individual titles use the online catalogue

Psychological Tests

For further information, please see Finding Psychological Tests and Psychological Scales and Questionnaires

Related collections

Health Sciences collection – sports psychology
Philosophy collection – cognitive science and consciousness studies
Social Sciences collections
Special Collections - the Harry Price Library holds works on psychical research

Classmarks for Psychology

All classmarks in this collection have a numerical prefix of 67, eg PSYCHOLOGY 6th Floor (67) IMNJ Pre

IA: General psychology

IB: Physiological psychology

IC: Sensation and Perception

ID: Feeling and Emotion

IE: Motor Behaviour

IF: Cognitive psychology

IG: Personality and intelligence

IH: Differential psychology

II: Psychology of special groups

IJ: Mental health

IK: Depth psychology and psychoanalysis

IL: Abnormal and clinical psychology

IM: Psychiatry and psychotherapy

IN: Forensic psychology

IO: Parapsychology

IP: Social psychology

IQ: Developmental psychology

IV: Child psychology and psychiatry

IW: Applied and organisational psychology

For a more detailed explanation of classmarks see the Library's leaflet 'A guide to the classification scheme'.

Other libraries

For more information about Psychology collections in other academic libraries in the London area, please see consult the M25 Consortium of Higher Education Libraries website: www.m25lib.ac.uk. For elsewhere in the UK, consult the Consortium of University and Research Libraries catalogue: www.copac.ac.uk