On this page
Research help
This guide will provide assistance with finding scholarly material to support the research paper assignment. For Library research help, please contact Moninder Lalli, Librarian for Sociology / Anthropology by email moninder_lalli@sfu.ca or Ask a librarian.
Another library guide of interest: Canadian health care policy
Essay
Start Your Research Here - This page gives you an overview of the research process, or in other words how to find materials for your essay.
Selected handbooks and encyclopedias
Use encyclopedias, handbooks or textbook for overviews, definitions, and to identify key authors or concepts.
- A companion to medical anthropology
- Encyclopedia of medical anthropology: health and illness in the world's cultures. RA 418 E354 2004 (2 vols)
- Handbook of depression
- International encyclopedia of public health. 6 vols. RA 423 I58 2008
- Oxford handbook of acculturation and health
- Routledge Handbook of Chinese Medicine
- Routledge Handbook of Medical Anthropology
- SAGE handbook of mental health and illness
Find journal articles
The first three databases (below) will provide articles from sociological and anthropological journals. If the full-text of the article is not available, use the "Get@SFU" link to find it or to initiate an inter-library loan request.
- Anthropology Plus - main database for Anthropological journals
- TIPS: For articles with an "anthropological" angle, try the following search terms
- (cultur* OR ethno* OR anthrop*) AND (mental* OR psychologi* OR depress* OR anxi* OR somat* OR medicaliz* OR psychologiz*)
- (cultur* OR ethno* OR anthrop*) AND (mental* OR psychologi* OR depress* OR anxi* OR somat* OR medicaliz* OR psychologiz*) AND [name of your population group]
- DE "Cultural ethnography" AND
- DE "Cultural ethnography" AND (mental* OR psychologi* OR depress* OR anxi*)
- DE "Cultural ethnography" AND (decolon* OR somatiz* OR medicaliz* OR psychologiz*)
- DE "Cultural ethnography" AND (decolon* OR somatiz* OR medicaliz* OR psychologiz*) AND [name of your population group]
- TIPS: For articles with an "anthropological" angle, try the following search terms
- AnthroSource - Full-text access to journals produced by the American Anthropological Association
- PsycINFO - The most inclusive database for research in psychology. PsycINFO Quick Guide
- TIPS: For articles with an "anthropological" angle, try the following search terms
- (DE "Ethnology" OR anthropolg* OR ethnograph*) AND [your topic words limited to "subject" field]
- (DE "Ethnology" OR anthropolg* OR ethnograph*) AND (mental OR psychological OR depress* OR anxiety)
- (DE "Ethnology" OR anthropolg* OR ethnograph*) AND (mental OR psychological OR depress* OR anxiety) AND [name of your population group]
- (DE "Ethnology" OR anthropolg* OR ethnograph*) AND
- TIPS: For articles with an "anthropological" angle, try the following search terms
- Global Health - Provides information on international health, biomedical life sciences, non-communicable diseases, public health nutrition, food safety and hygiene, and much more from around the world
- MEDLINE / PubMed - biomedical and health literature, covering research, clinical practice, administration, policy issues, and health care services
- TIPS: For articles with an "anthropological" angle, try the following search terms
- [your topic word] AND DE
- [your topic word] AND DE "Anxiety Disorders/ethnology"
- [your topic word] AND DE "Attitude to Health/*ethnology"
- [your topic word] AND DE "Depressive Disorder/*ethnology"
- [your topic word] AND DE "Depression/*ethnology"
- [your topic word] AND DE "Hypochondriasis/ethnology"
- [your topic word] AND DE "Mental Disorders/*ethnology"
- [your topic word] AND DE "Somatoform Disorders/*ethnology"
- [name of your population group] AND [any of the above descriptor terms]
- TIPS: For articles with an "anthropological" angle, try the following search terms
- CINAHL Complete - database focused on nursing and allied health
- Sociological Abstracts - includes anthropological and sociological journals
- Bibliography of Indigenous Peoples in North America
"citations for books, essays, journal articles, and government documents on all aspects of Native North American culture, history, and life" (note: Subject term Native Americans sometimes used for Canada, as well as First Nations) - Women's Studies International
For additional information on health issues, try: Global Health list of databases
Selected journals
- Chinese Medicine and Culture
- Search: mental AND PUBID(4451207)
- Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Medical journals
- It may be helpful to search directly within the search engines of these journals
Find books in the Library
Library Catalogue search guide
Search the SFU Library Catalogue, using either the Basic or the Advanced search
- (mental* OR psychologi* OR depress* OR anxi* OR somat* OR medicaliz* OR psychologiz*) AND [your topic words]
- (cultur* OR ethno* OR anthrop*) AND (mental* OR psychologi* OR depress* OR anxi* OR somat* OR medicaliz* OR psychologiz*)
- (cultur* OR ethno* OR anthrop*) AND (mental* OR psychologi* OR depress* OR anxi* OR somat* OR medicaliz* OR psychologiz*) AND [name of your population group]
- (Indigenous psychology) AND (mental* OR psychologi* OR depress* OR anxi* OR somat* OR medicaliz* OR psychologiz*)
- (Indigenous traditional knowledge) AND (mental* OR psychologi* OR depress* OR anxi* OR somat* OR medicaliz* OR psychologiz*)
- (traditional Chinese medicine OR TCM) AND (mental* OR psychologi* OR depress* OR anxi* OR somat* OR medicaliz* OR psychologiz*)
- (psychological humanities OR medical humanties) AND (mental* OR psychologi* OR depress* OR anxi* OR somat* OR medicaliz* OR psychologiz*)
- (narrative therapy OR narrative medicine) AND (mental* OR psychologi* OR depress* OR anxi* OR somat* OR medicaliz* OR psychologiz*)
- "mental* ill*" AND (anth* OR ethnol* OR ethnogr*)
- (mental OR psycholog*) AND (health OR ill* OR well*) AND (anth* OR ethnol* OR ethnogr*)
- (anthropolog* OR ethnograph* OR ethnolog*) AND (health OR disease* OR illness OR healing OR medic*)
Combine different concepts using AND
Combine same concepts using OR
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase
Use brackets for synonyms
Use asterisk (*) for different endings of words
Use pull-down menu and select, "Source Types" as "Books"
Note: For Catalogue Search, when combining concepts, use CAPITAL letters ( "OR", "AND")
When you find a useful book, click on its "subject" to find more books on the same topic
Selected books
- A concise introduction to mental health in Canada [print]
- A disability of the soul : an ethnography of schizophrenia and mental illness in contemporary Japan
- Acupuncture for Brain: Treatment for Neurological and Psychologic Disorders
- Afflictions: Steps Toward a Visual Psychological Anthropology
- Anxiety as Vibration: A Psychosocial Cartography
- Anxiety disorders and aboriginal peoples in Canada : the current state of knowledge and directions for future research
- Arts of Indigenous Health and Well-Being
- Asian Indigenous Psychologies in the Global Context
- Challenging hidden assumptions : colonial norms as determinants of aboriginal mental health
- Chinese Mental Health Scale Translation
- Complementary and alternative medicine sourcebook [print]
- Culture, Diversity and Mental Health - Enhancing Clinical Practice
- Current issues in mental health in Canada : the mental health of First Nations and Inuit communities
- Dao of Madness: Mental Illness and Self-Cultivation in Early Chinese Philosophy and Medicine
- Decolonizing ''Multicultural'' Counseling through Social Justice
- Depression : a silent culprit in health and disease
- Depression : a very short introduction
- Depression : current perspectives in research and treatment
- Facing the mountain : Indigenous healing in the shadow of colonialism [print]
- Foundations of Chinese Psychotherapies: Towards Self-Enlightenment
- Global mental health : anthropological perspectives
- Global Psychologies: Mental Health and the Global South
- Indigenous and cultural psychology : understanding people in context
- Indigenous Knowledge and Mental Health: A Global Perspective
- Indigenous Psychologies in an Era of Decolonization
- Indigenous psychology in Africa : a survey of concepts, theory, research, and praxis
- Locating health : historical and anthropological investigations of place and health
- Madness, disability, and social exclusion : the archaeology and anthropology of "difference"
- Medicine As Culture: Illness, Disease and the Body
- Mental Health in China and the Chinese Diaspora: Historical and Cultural Perspectives
- Mental health in China : psychologization and therapeutic governance
- Mental Health, Mental Illness and Migration
- Neurasthenia-depression controversy : a window on Chinese culture and psychiatric nosology
- Neurobiology of Chinese herb medicine
- Nobody's normal : how culture created the stigma of mental illness [print]
- Principles and practice of narrative medicine
- Recovery from depression using the narrative approach : a guide for doctors, complementary therapists, and mental health professionals
- Re/Imagining Depression: Creative Approaches to Feeling Bad
- Transforming emotions with Chinese medicine : an ethnographic account from contemporary China
- Understanding depression in aboriginal communities and families
Browse Books Using Subject Headings
Catalogue Search / Browse then change "Title" to "Subject" and enter your subject term
Also try the names of specific countries as "sub-heading"
- Anxiety disorders
- Cross-cultural counseling
- Depression, Mental
- Depressive disorder
- Ethnopsychology
- Indigenous peoples -- Mental health -- Canada
- Medical anthropology
- Medical care -- Canada
- Medicine, Chinese
- Medicine, Chinese Traditional
- Mental health
- Mental health - Canada
- Minorities -- Health and Hygiene
- Narrative medicine
- Native peoples -- Mental health -- Canada
- Transcultural medical care
- Women -- Diseases -- Social aspects
Government documents and statistics
Canada
- Health Canada
- Health care system and services: Reports and publications
- Public Health Agency of Canada
- Canadian Best Practices Portal
- British Columbia Ministry of Health
- British Columbia Health Authorities (e.g. Vancouver Coastal Health)
- Provincial Health Services Authority
- Statistics Canada
- Search: mental* AND (ill* OR health)
- Subjects:
Library guides
- Library Research Tutorials. Animated tutorials on search techniques for finding books and journal articles.
- Annotated bibliographies
- Evaluating sources
- How to find journal articles
- Library Catalogue search guide
- What is a scholarly (or peer-reviewed) journal?
- What is plagiarism? Guide to common forms of plagiarism and how to avoid them
Presentation skills
- Resources on developing your participation skills
- Resources to help you improve your presentation skills
Writing help
Student Learning Commons provides assistance and numerous, helpful guides.