Skip to Main Content

Social Studies: Psychology

General Social Studies and History resources, as well as more specific topic guides.

Reference Databases

Search the AccessIt Library Catalog


Search the library catalog for print and eBook titles on specific psychological disorders, theories, and psychologists, etc.

Psychology Careers & College Prep

APA Style Tips

  1. Double spaced
  2. 12 point, Times New Roman font
  3. 1 inch margins
  4. Page header should be a shortened version of the title (not to exceed 50 characters), in all capital letters, situated flush left at the top of every page. The page number should appear flush right in the header at the top of every page. 
  5. The title page should list the title of the paper, the author's name, and the name of the class centered vertically and horizontally on the page. The page number and header should be positioned (as directed above) with the title page page header only appearing as follows: Running head: TITLE OF YOUR PAPER. On subsequent pages, the header should be: TITLE OF YOUR PAPER. 
  6. For more specific information, see the following sample paper from the Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab).

Source: Angeli, E., Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Anderson, M., Soderlund, L., & Brizee, A. (2013, March 3). General format. Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

Citing Sources and Creating a Reference List

  • Remember to use pre-formatted citations from digital sources when available. Don't forget to double check for accuracy.
  • For sources that do not provide formatted citations, use Noodlebib Express. 
  • For more detailed information on citing sources, visit Purdue's OWL (Online Writing Lab).

Reference List Format

  1. The reference list should appear at the end of your paper on it's own page.
  2. Heading centered at top of page: References (add NO additional formatting)
  3. Entire page double spaced
  4. Authors names are inverted (last name first); list the author's last name and first and/or middle initials. 
  5. Citations are alphabetized by the first letter of the first word of the citation.
  6. Capitalize all major words in journal titles; capitalize only the first letter of the first word of titles of books, chapters, articles or Webpages.
  7. Italicize titles of longer works such as books and journals.  
  8. First line of citation flush left; all subsequent lines indented a half inch
  9. Proper punctuation and capitalization is used.

Standard format for in-text citations in APA Style
Follow the author-date method of in-text citation. At the end of the passage, include the author's last name and the date of publication in parentheses. Notice that the in-text citation comes before the period and becomes part of the sentence. When no author is listed, use the title or a shortened version of the title. If you are quoting directly from the source, a page number must be included in the in-text citation. See example below. Page numbers are optional for paraphrased information. 

Direct Quotation
She stated, "Students often had difficulty using APA style" (Jones, 1998, p. 199), but she did not offer an explanation as to why.

According to Jones (1998), "Students often had difficulty using APA style, especially when it was their first time" (p. 199). 

Paraphrased version
According to Jones (1998), APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners.

APA style is a difficult citation format for first-time learners (Jones, 1998, p. 199).

For more examples, visit Purdue's OWL APA Guide.

Print & eBooks