APA Style originated in 1929, when a group of psychologists, anthropologists, and business managers convened and sought to establish a simple set of procedures, or style guidelines, that would codify the many components of scientific writing to increase the ease of reading comprehension. They published their guidelines as a seven-page article in Psychological Bulletin describing a “standard of procedure, to which exceptions would doubtless be necessary, but to which reference might be made in cases of doubt” (Bentley et al., 1929, p. 57). (Source: APA Style Website)
Resource Type |
In-text Citation |
Bibliography/ Works Cited |
Book | (Jackson, 2019; Sapolsky, 2017; Svendsen & Løber, 2020) |
Jackson, L. M. (2019). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000168-000 |
Chapter in an edited book (If the chapter is from an authored book, use the book citation) |
(Aron et al., 2019; Dillard, 2020; Thestrup, 2010) | Aron, L., Botella, M., & Lubart, T. (2019). Culinary arts: Talent and their development. In R. F. Subotnik, P. Olszewski-Kubilius, & F. C. Worrell (Eds.), The psychology of high performance: Developing human potential into domain-specific talent (pp. 345–359). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000120-016 |
Article in a print journal | (Grady et al., 2019) | Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. |
Article in an electronic journal | (Grady et al., 2019) | Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185 |
Website | (Bologna, 2019; Roberts, 2020; Toner, 2020) | Bologna, C. (2019, October 31). Why some people with anxiety love watching horror movies. HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/anxiety-love-watching-horror-movies_l_5d277587e4b02a5a5d57b59e |
An American Psychology Association hosted website with information on APA citation and related resources.
APA Style Official Reference Examples
Examples of the most common works that writers cite.
Online writing lab with formatting tips and sample papers. The "Cite your source automatically" feature on Purdue Owl pages is part of another website, and not recommended.
Citation examples, videos, and formatting guides for MLA, APA, and Chicago styles.