Please note the Psychological Sciences Companion Document is in draft form. Feel free to review and send comments and suggestions to Jenny Bowers (jennifer.bowers@du.edu) or Nicole Carpenter (ncarp@uci.edu), Psychology Committee Co-chairs.
The draft companion document is now in a open comment period. Please submit your feedback through an open form.
The ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education is a guide designed to enhance the information literacy skills of students in higher education. The Framework emphasizes the development of integrated abilities that encompass the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning. These frames are intended to be flexible and adaptable, allowing librarians and educators to tailor their instruction to the specific needs of their students and institutions.
The Companion Document to the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education: Psychological Sciences is designed to support all those who provide in-person or online information literacy instruction to students studying psychology and/or related fields.
This document aligns with the Framework and details what each frame can mean in the context of information literacy for psychology students. Knowledge practices and dispositions specific to information literacy in the field of psychology are also provided. Each institution will need to determine how and in what context the frames are deployed.
The APA Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major Version 3.0 (2023) were consulted while developing this companion document, with a focus on Learning Goal 2: “Scientific Inquiry and Critical Thinking,” Learning Goal 3: “Values in Psychological Science,” and Learning Goal 4: “Communication, Psychological Literacy, and Technology Skills.” The Guidelines 3.0 also explicitly highlight “the obligation of psychological science to contribute to fairness and justice,” (p. 27) and our document intentionally incorporates indicators that address equity, diversity, and inclusion. Learning Goal 1: “Content Knowledge and Applications” includes the seven integrative themes from the APA Introductory Psychology Initiative Student Learning Outcomes for Introductory Psychology (2021) that provide further guidance for literacy instruction through a psychology lens.
APA Guidelines goals, as they are written throughout the companion document, are standardized in an abbreviated format. Text in italics is added language specific to that frame. Each goal has Foundational indicators (e.g., first and second year coursework) depicted in lowercase letters (e.g., 2.1b) and Baccalaureate indicators (e.g., completed coursework for the major) represented by uppercase letters (e.g., 2.4C). The selected indicators within each frame are verbatim text from the APA Guidelines which highlight relevant connections to the Framework for Information Literacy. Within the Learning Outcomes and Activities section, we have included the primary indicators (but not every possible one) that align with the activities. The full list of goals and indicators connecting the APA Guidelines to each frame is in the Appendix
Additionally, each frame references selected ethical standards and guidelines of the American Psychological Association and the Canadian Psychological Association.
Nearly all research in the field of psychology is built upon a corpus of scholarly literature and associated data developed over decades. Therefore, students studying psychology can model core research skills and habits based on practices that are relatively stable. The American Psychological Association emphasizes the importance of approaching psychology as a science and expects that students will develop their skills of “scientific reasoning and investigation, including developing proficiencies in research methods and statistics” (p.10). The general public is interested in psychology topics, and a large amount of non-peer-reviewed information related to psychology is disseminated by various means and formats. Students must diligently investigate and critically evaluate the authority and methodologies of those who create and disseminate information in the field. This process also involves reviewing study samples with attention towards what groups of people have been included or excluded, and how lack of representation may affect our knowledge of psychology.
Psychological science research faces several significant challenges that are also prevalent in other fields. One major issue is reproducibility, which refers to the difficulty in replicating study results due to methodological inconsistencies. The ethical use of artificial intelligence (AI) in research is another growing concern, as it raises questions about privacy, bias, and the potential misuse of data. Funding challenges continue to impact the scope and quality of research, with political influences further complicating the landscape. Additionally, the phenomenon of disappearing data, where valuable research data becomes inaccessible over time, poses a threat to long-term studies. The withdrawal of support for diverse perspectives and the shifting conversation around academic freedom also hinder the ability of instructors to cover a wide range of concepts, ultimately affecting the richness and inclusivity of psychological science research.
Those providing instruction for psychology students need to recognize that each student will come to the discipline with different experiences, levels of understanding, and motivations. Instruction should be adjusted based on individual student needs and information literacy competency to effectively support course learning goals or outcomes.
Association of College and Research Libraries. (2015). Framework for Information literacy for higher education. Association of College and Research Libraries. https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework
American Psychological Association. (2017). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of conduct. https://www.apa.org/ethics/code
APA Board of Educational Affairs Task Force on Psychology Major Competencies. (2023). APA guidelines for the undergraduate psychology major; Version 3.0 Empowering people to make a difference in their lives and communities. https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/undergraduate-major
Canadian Psychological Association. (2017). Canadian code of ethics for psychologists. https://cpa.ca/docs/File/Ethics/CPA_Code_2017_4thEd.pdf
Dahlen, S. P. C., & Hanson, K. (2023). In their words: Student reflections on information-seeking behaviors. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 49(4), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102713.
Dovidio, J. F., Durso, F. T., Francis, D. J., Klahr, D., Manly, J. J., & Reyna, V. F. (2010). STEM: Psychology as a core science, technology, engineering, and mathematics discipline. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/pubs/reports/stem-discipline
Godbey, S. (2017). Disciplinary applications of information literacy threshold concepts. Association of College and Research Libraries.
Heffernan, K. (2020). Loaded questions: The framework for information literacy through a DEI lens. College and Research Libraries News, 81(8), 382-386. https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.81.8.382
Hosier, A. (2017). Creating learning outcomes from threshold concepts for information literacy instruction. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 24(1), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/10691316.2017.1246396
Mena, Jasmine A. (2023). Social justice pedagogy: Diversity, equity, and inclusion in the teaching of psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 50(2), 95-98. https://doi.org/10.1177/00986283221130697
Shierling, S. R. & Eaker, R. (2023). Reading the psychology pre-source: Scope notes, citations, help sheets, and more. In H. G. Rempel & R. Hamelers (Eds.), Teaching critical reading skills: Strategies for academic librarians (Chapter 37). ACRL.
The Psychological Sciences Companion document represents the committed and sustained work of Psychology Committee members over many years. In January 2016, the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education was adopted by the ACRL Board. Shortly thereafter, the Psychology Committee began discussing how the Framework might be adapted to support the specific disciplinary information literacy needs of Psychology students.
Building on the groundwork laid by previous committee members and under the leadership of Chair Julia Eisenstein, in 2021 the committee conducted a literature review of information literacy in psychology and related fields, and reviewed the Social Work and other disciplinary companion documents for ideas about how to construct our document. Members selected one of the six Frames and worked in pairs, paying particular attention to how the Frame’s knowledge practices and dispositions could be situated within a psychological context. The pairs also mapped the Framework to and integrated three key documents:
Direct connections with these documents inform the Psychology Education and Psychology Practice sections. To further support practical applications of the companion document, the Committee also developed learning objectives and corresponding activities for each Frame.
In 2022, the committee submitted the draft Psychology Companion Document to the EBSS Executive Committee for initial review and after addressing suggested changes, the draft was approved by the Executive committee. When the APA Guidelines were revised and approved in August 2023 (APA Guidelines 3.0), this provided an opportunity for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 EBSS Psychology Committee members (chaired by Nicole Carpenter and Jennifer Bowers) to reexamine current psychological practice and pedagogy and consider how best to align the Framework with updated disciplinary learning outcomes. Since that time, the Companion Document has been reviewed by: the EBSS Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee; EBSS Executive Committee; reviewers from the APA Board of Educational Affairs Task Force on Psychology Major Competencies and the APA Committee on Associate and Baccalaureate Education (CABE); Karin Heffernan, our liaison from the Information Literacy Framework Standards Committee (ILFSC); and members of the EBSS community.
EBSS Psychology Committee. (2025). Companion document to the ACRL framework for information literacy for higher education: Psychological sciences (Draft). https://acrl.libguides.com/psychology_companion
