SOCI 422: Sociology of Mental Health and Illness: Home

To find the most relevant items, use a Keyword search to identify several relevant Subject Headings.  For instance, a Keyword search for "positive psychology" (including the quotation marks to search the two words as an exact phrase) yielded these Library of Congress subject headings:

• Positive psychology.
• Happiness.

Note the special linking in subject headings:

• Mental Illness -- Social aspects
• Social Psychiatry
• Sociology, Medical.

One of the major components of your grade in this class is a research project.  The resources provided here will help you complete your research.

I recommend a few strategies to start:

• Brainstorm a list of keywords about each concept in your topic to use as search terms
• Start with Sociological Abstracts (in the database list below)
• If you get stuck, contact me and/or schedule an appointment to talk about your research.
• BONUS: You can use Oxford Bibliographies Online to find information about major theorists, journals and books on topics like medical sociology and the sociology of mental illness. 

Look for subject headings, descriptors, etc. in item records that match your topic to zero in on that database's terms

• For instance, in Sociological Abstracts [Subjects]:
  • medical sociology
  • illness
  • health

Think about the topic of the database: don't need to search "health" in PubMed.

Remember Articles+ and Google Scholar for interdisciplinary topics.

Silver Linings Playbook

Available at the Media & Design Center at the Undergrad Library on DVD and Blu-ray