Please note the Psychological Sciences Companion Document is in draft form. Feel free to review and send comments and suggestions to Jenny Bowers or Nicole Carpenter, Psychology Committee Co-chairs at jennifer.bowers@du.edu or ncarp@uci.edu.
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 Technical 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. 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.
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.
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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
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