Exploring Cyberspace: The Online World of Psychology

This week, I will focus on various websites and blogs that give general information as well as current research in child psychology. I evaluated the blogs and websites using the Webby Awards and IMSA criteria, the links to all these sites can be found in my link roll, which is located on the right just below my post label cluster. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) aims to inform the general population about many mental health disorders as well as precautions and possible treatment. The site offers a variety of general resources as well as current and past news headlines. Similarly, The Child Psychologist offers a vast amount of information from Down syndrome to characteristics that may indicate a child to be gifted or talented. Unfortunately poor organization within this website leaves a large body of text on the home page. Science Daily, offers more specialized information, it is easy to navigate and readily accessible to all web users. This site is an excellent source for news articles in various psychology fields such as child, cognitive and developmental psychology. The site contains video and news feeds, as well as book reviews. The Society of Pediatric Psychology serves as an information center to those wanting to pursue a career in pediatric psychology. The site provides information on a number of opportunities available in the field as well as how to become a member. PsychCentral, on the other hand is a mecca for teachers, students, and the general public alike. This website contains its own blog, as well as news, research, and quizzes among other things. The content is kept current and boasts information from journals, articles and essays. This site which uses the tag “Learn. Share. Grow,” offers an opportunity of doing just that by making the site both easily navigable and aesthetically pleasing. When the journals at PsychCentral fail to meet a thirst for knowledge or information Psychiatric Times is rich in journals composed by the psychology and doctorate scholars. This website however, is not very aesthetically pleasing and unfortunately not interactive, but may be used for textual evidence. Chicken and Cheese is a blog to read when looking to end the day on a lighter note. Chicken and Cheese is written by Mrs. Chicken, an East coast freelance writer, who with her husband raise their daughter known only as ‘The Poo.’ This colorful blog is a great site to visit when parenthood proves to be too challenging. When searching for a blog with more authority search no further than Cognitive Daily. This highly influential blog written by psychology professor, Greta Munger focuses on cognitive psychology with posts written "nearly every day," and in some cases twice a day. Cognitive Daily is very professional looking site with links to other interesting blogs. Another informative site is Research Blogging, which offers a list of psychology blogs ranging from child psychology to mental disorders such as autism. Although not nice to look at, this highly navigable site surely offers a blog to fit both ones interest and need. Last but definitely not least is the children's health section in WebMD, as seen on the right, which boasts the tag “Better information. Better health.” This informative site offers an array of news and video clips as well as an opportunity to ask specific questions and receive answers, this along with message boards and a community allows the site to be highly interactive. WebMD also breaks down children’s health into separate ages and stages in development making the site exceptionally navigable. One of the sites highlights is the blog written by Dr. Steven Parker, who writes about a variety of topics and uses personal experiences to strengthen his comments.