Psychology on the Web

A Student Guide

Stuart Stein

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781317904663
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Psychology

Psychology on the Web: A Student Guide is directed at those who want to be able to access psychology Internet resources quickly and efficiently without needing to become IT experts. The emphasis throughout is on the location of high quality psychology related Internet resources likely to be useful for learning, teaching and research, from among the billions of publicly accessible Web pages.

Whilst the author has drawn on a large volume of technical literature, it is written on the basis of practical experience acquired over many years of using Internet resources in the context of teaching undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the social sciences covering a wide range of topic specialisms, and in informing academic staff. In addition to extensive coverage of topics relating to the efficient location of files and Web sites, Part III provides a substantial and annotated list of high quality resources likely to be of use to students of psychology.

The work is structured so that it will be found useful by both beginners and intermediate level users, and be of continuing use over the course of higher education studies.

Part I

WEB RESOURCES

1 Introductory glossary

2 Web addresses: what’s in a URL?

3 Evaluating and referencing Internet resources

1

Introductory glossary

When I wrote Learning, Teaching and Researching on the Internet in 1998 a very significant proportion of the undergraduate students that I taught, and many academic staff, were relatively unfamiliar with the Internet, the Web, and the files and interactive forums that were publicly accessible to them over their own Internet-linked PCs, or educational networks. Accordingly, I included separate chapters detailing the structure of the Internet and how to use Web browsers. This has now become largely unnecessary. Nearly all new undergraduate students have had experience of using the Internet from schools, and many of these have also had Internet access at home. University academic staffs, through a variety of institutional programmes, as well as through targeted grants provided by higher educational funding councils, are equally familiar with the rudiments of Internet structure and the use of Web browsers.

Nonetheless, there are always some terms that it is not always easy to conjure up from memory, or even that one desires to store there, but which are necessary for the narratives that follow. Accordingly, and in order not to clutter up the text with definitional issues, some of the more central terms are defined here as well as in the Glossary at the end of this book. The meanings that you impute to some of these terms (e.g. Web pages/pages) may differ from those that I employ. Before proceeding cast a quick glance over them to see what is available and, perhaps, brush up on one or two that have slipped from memory, or that are unfamiliar.

Anonymous users Refers to a specific category of user, one who is entitled to access all, or particular, files on an Internet-connected server. Generally, anonymous access rights are granted by Web server administrators so that anyone who has access to a Web browser can access files on the machine in question, by keying in the appropriate URL (see definition below). It is a means of making files publicly available.

Client The software application that resides on the PC or network of the user that is used in order to request information or processing of data from a server (see definition below).

Explorer The name of the Microsoft operating system’s file management application. It is accessible from the Programs option on the Start menu.

Hits Refers to the number of entries included in a database that relate to the query entered by the user searching it.

Home page Generally used to refer to the introductory page of a Web presentation, the one to which all other pages are linked, which, in turn, usually link back to it.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) A structural mark-up language that indicates to specialized software applications that can read it how the text, graphic images, and video and audio files associated with it are to be displayed. HTML is concerned principally with the structure of documents, rather than with their appearance.

Internet Service Provider Generic term that covers private companies providing Internet connectivity and additional online services to users, usually in return for a monthly subscription fee.

Publicly accessible Here refers to files that can be accessed without having to pay fees, and excludes those that are available only to persons who have access to particular networks of organizations, whether commercial, military, governmental, or other.

Search engine A tool for interrogating a database of information relating to electronically accessible resources (files).

Server/Web server A term for the computer that serves up files to those entitled to have access to them when a request is made through a client application.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator) An Internet address. These have standardized formats. The URL specifies the type of Internet service that is being accessed (World Wide Web, FTP, etc.), and the file path of the resource being sought. The URL is the entry that is inserted in the location/go box in a browser.

Web pages/Web files Strictly speaking, a Web page is the file that appears in the browser window when a URL/Web address is accessed. These pages may be in varying formats. Some of them are Web pages in the strict meaning of the term, that is, pages that are written in HTML, i.e. Hypertext Markup Language. Many, however, are written in other formats, including Word documents (.doc extension), Portable Document Format (.pdf), or Text (.txt). In fact, referencing pages in this context is misleading, as what is being accessed is a file. A Web page is an HTML file, with the suffix .htm, .html, or .shtml. These may include links to other files, such as graphic files, which are downloaded at about the same time.

When I employ the term Web page/s or page/s, I mean to refer to flies, which may, or may not, be HTML files. There are many files that can be accessed over the Internet that cannot be displayed in a Web browser, although they may be downloaded through its use (e.g. software applications).

2

Web addresses: what’s in a URL?

Internet addresses enable the downloading of required files, and are important tools for assisting in identifying certain characteristics of the individuals and organizations that upload them. They can also be useful for tracking down files that have been relocated, and identifying their authors, this frequently being the only assist to tracking their current Internet locations, if any. As a not uncommon reason for being unable to access a particular file is that the author of the link has mistyped the address, knowledge of how addresses should be compiled, or are likely to be structured, permits rectification of their errors and access to files erroneously referenced.

Understandably, many Web authors are not especially Internet or Web savvy. Their objective is to get their messages across. These are frequently uploaded in the form of a series of Web files (pages), constituting a Web site (presentation). The pages, with the exception of the Home or entry page, may carry little information other than the contents, as their authors appear to assume that those accessing any part of the presentation will enter through the front door, as it were.

Most of those accessing pages, however, will do so following the submission of a query to a search engine. These do not distinguish between Home and other pages. So, when someone accesses pages other than the Home page, they may have very little information to go on as to who owns the site, who authored the page, and where the related pages, if any, are. Sometimes there are navigational aids in the form of links to a Home page or an email address. Too often, there are not.

Here is one illustration. In searching for resources on Pavlovian conditioning, I came across a link, via a search engine, to http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/olc/dl/27748/kle90462_ch03.pdf. This is a 44-page PDF file entitled Principles and Applications of Pavlovian Conditioning. No author is mentioned. From browsing the contents I concluded that this was a scholarly discussion of the subject. On the first page it was indicated that this was Chapter 3; therefore, part of a book, the rest of which could also be online. However, as no author was mentioned, it would be impossible to reference it, doubts would remain about its authority, and as there were no navigational aids, it was not possible to establish whether other chapters were available online, although experience and examination of the URL suggested to me that they would not be. The URL, or address, was the only navigational aid available, and it provided me with answers to these questions, as illustrated below.

URLs, pronounced Earl or U R L, are Internet addresses, not just Web addresses. URL denotes Uniform Resource Locator. URLs reference the location of files of all types that are accessible from computers that are connected to the networked infrastructure that we refer to as the Internet. A URL is the virtual equivalent of the postal address or telephone number. It needs to be inserted in an Internet-related software application, such as a browser, in order to download the file that it references. In what follows I will be referring only to some files, namely, Web pages.

Just as substantial numbers of people and families change their geographical location, a very significant number of files stored on Internet-linked servers move virtually, in the sense that they have a different URL or address. Important differences exist between the components of this analogy.

■ Knowledge of a postal address, or a phone number, provides very little information about the persons whose address or phone number it is, other than geographical location, which might be associated with other variables, such as socio-economic status. Knowledge of the URL invariably provides more detail.

■ Knowledge about the occupant associated with a particular postal address does not provide much information about their subsequent location if they have moved, although the occupant might still be contactable through possession of...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• About the author
• Acknowledgements
• Part I Web Resources
• Part II Locating Internet Resources
• Part III Psychology Internet Resources
• Part IV Sundry Matters
• Glossary
• Index