Skip to Main Content

PSY 252 "Personality Theory", Kochmanski

Video for Physical Books Step 2

If you prefer a video demonstration, see this YouTube video. If you prefer text/images, just scroll down for step-by-step instructions.

Physical Books Step 2: Choosing the Right Book

Sometimes a book's title (or even its author listing) can be misleading. This page will help you make sure that the book you've found is right for your assignment.

Click on the title for the book you are interested in, and you'll see its catalog entry.

Look at the information in the catalog entry to decide if you want this book. Sometimes the entry will have a summary:

 

Or a listing of the table of contents:

 

Sometimes there will be links to more information from other sources. Click those links to read additional summaries or reviews from Syndetics, Google Books, or LibraryThing.

 

It's a good idea to look at a book's information, because sometimes the title doesn't give a lot of information, or may be misleading. You may find a book with your theorist listed as the "author" even if they didn't technically write it. Let's look at this example:

 

This book came up in an author search for "Sigmund Freud." However, another name is listed next to the title, and the author heading lists 2 names. This catalog entry doesn't have a summary, but the Google Books link gives more information:

 

Notice that this is a "biography," not an "autobiography." So it looks like it's a book about Freud, not by him. Why did it come up in an author search if he didn't write it? Maybe it includes a lot of quotes or excerpts of Freuds's writings, so it listed him as a second author. So this book won't work for your assignment, and you'll need to look at your other search results to find something else.