Where to find psychological inventories?

May 8, 2009 5:03 AM

Where can I find a copy of the Modified Erikson Psychosocial Stage Inventory (MEPSI) developed by Darling-Fisher & Leidy?

I'm a psychology undergrad in desperate need of a copy of this inventory for a case study that's due tomorrow afternoon. Yes, I know. I shouldn't have procrastinated.

Can anyone tell me where to find this online? If it's not online, can some one tell me if it is published in a book I might be able to find?

While you're at it, can you tell me where to find Maslow's Basic Needs Satisfaction Inventory?

Thanks in advance!

posted by tipthepizzaguy to Science & Nature (6 answers total)

Does your school have a psych/science/social science librarian who can help you out? Many university libraries even have online chat systems to contact librarians from home. To the best of my knowledge, psychological inventories are sold or licensed as research tools for big bucks. There is probably a way to get them as a student, but it might be hard to get them for free on the internet.
posted by ladypants at 6:27 AM on May 8, 2009

Best answer: Here is the APA's guide to finding tests. Here are some research guides to finding tests.

If an instrument is available online, you can usually find it in the Mental Measurements Yearbook, PsycInfo, or Health and Psychosocial Instruments (you would have to check your library catalog to see if you have access to these). However, often test publishers require a fee for testing instruments and restrict access to professionals, or if a test is developed by researchers and not published, then you have to contact them for a copy.

There are a few books that might have the instruments. Measures for Clinical Practice, by Corcoran and Fisher, and Measures of Personality and Social Psychological Attitudes, by Robinson et al. both contain full tests. I would contact a librarian at your university for more help (there might even be a psychology librarian if you're lucky!).
posted by unknowncommand at 6:53 AM on May 8, 2009

The suggestions above are where I'd start. But if you're looking for an older test that may not be available online, you could have some luck backtracking references in journal articles until you find the original article introducing the measure. I've sometimes found that the entire inventory will be in the appendix of the original article, if your school's library stocks the correct journal.
posted by Stacey at 7:05 AM on May 8, 2009

Sorry, I should have said "if an instrument is available *at all*, you can usually find it in...blah blah blah". Whether or not the fulltext is available online might depend on your library's subscriptions.

For example, in the database PsycInfo (the main database for searching the psychological literature), you can get a citation for the article where the authors of your test first published about it:

Measuring Eriksonian development in the adult: The Modified Erikson Psychosocial Stage Inventory. Darling-Fisher, Cynthia S.1; Leidy, Nancy K. Psychological Reports. Vol 62(3), Jun 1988, pp. 747-754.

It may or may not have the instrument, but I don't have access to that journal electronically (and I can't check for the print right now). You might check your library catalog to see if you have it.
posted by unknowncommand at 7:22 AM on May 8, 2009

Response by poster: I didn't end up finding that exact instrument, but I did find something similar in the Corcoran & Fischer book. Thanks!
posted by tipthepizzaguy at 2:56 PM on May 11, 2009

Oh yay, I'm glad.
posted by unknowncommand at 7:46 PM on May 14, 2009