APA Citation Samples

Some examples, from pages 9 and 10 of the 2002-3 Student paper and thesis handbook for the M.A. Couseling Psychology program. (Many of these are fictitious citations which can serve as models):

EXAMPLES OF COMMON REFERENCES
Below are examples of APA format for books, journal and magazine articles, unpublished lectures, nonprint media, and some citations that you will not find in APA (for example, Jung's Collected Works or the Bible).

1. Unpublished Lecture

deVries, H. (1990, June). Ecofeminism. Unpublished lecture presented at Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpinteria, CA.

DeSanna, R.A. (1990). Amor and Psyche: A tale of feminine initiation and psychological transformation. Unpublished master's thesis, Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpinteria, CA.

In book titles, capitalize only: a) the first word; b) proper nouns; and c) words which follow a colon (:). Book titles should be in italics. List the state only if the city of publication is relatively unknown. When used, states are abbreviated using U.S. Post Office abbreviations (see p. 218 of the APA Publication Manual).

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text revision). Washington, DC: Author.

Jung, C.G. (1969). Four archetypes. In H. Read (Ed.). The collected works of C.G. Jung (R.F.C. Hull, Trans.) (Vol. 9, pp. 24-40). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.)

Webster's new collegiate dictionary. (1993). Springfield, MA: Merriam.

The Jerusalem Bible. (1966). (A. Jones, Ed.). Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

Freud, S. (1961). The ego and id. In J. Strachey (Ed. and Trans.), The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (Vol. 19, pp. 3-66). London: Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1923)
Note: In the text citation, give both dates--i.e., list as Freud (1923/1961). This "double date" form is used only for translated works (which include Freud and Jung).

Each major word of the magazine or journal title is capitalized (unlike book titles). Be sure to list page numbers of the article.

Gardener, H. (1981, December). Do babies sing a universal song? Psychology Today, 70-76.

Seligman, M.E. (1987). What is a dream? Behaviour Research and Therapy, 25(1), 1-24.

This form is used for personal conversations, interviews, telephone conversations, and letters. The citation is listed in the text but is NOT listed in the References.

J. O. Reiss (personal communication, April 18, 2001)

Entries from journals and dreams are cited in the text but NOT listed in the References.

(Author's personal journal, September 18, 2002)

(Client's dream, August 8, 1994)

Costa, P. T., Jr. (Speaker). (1988). Personality, continuity, and changes of adult life (Cassette Recording No. 207-433-88A-B). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Crystal, L. (Executive Producer). (1993, October 11). The MacNeil/Lehrer news hour. New York and Washington, DC: Public Broadcasting Service.

Maas, J. B. (Producer), & Gluck, D.H. (Director). (1979). Deeper into hypnosis [Film]. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Shocked, M. (1992). Over the waterfall. On Arkansas traveler [CD]. New York: PolyGram Music.

Bower, D. L. (1993). Employee assistant programs supervisory referrals: Characteristics of referring and nonreferring supervisors [CD-ROM]. Abstract from: ProQuest File: Dissertation Abstracts Item: 9315947

Meyer, A. S. , & Bock, K. (1992). The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon: Blocking or partial activation? [On-line]. Memory & Cognition, 20, 715-726. Abstract from: DIALOG File: PsycINFO Item: 80-16351.

Miller, M. E. (1993). The Interactive Tester (Version 4.0) [Computer Software]. Westminster, CA: Psytek Services.

VandenBos, G., Knapp, S., & Doe, J. (2001). Role of reference elements in the selection of resources by psychology undergraduates. Journal of Bibliographic Research, 5, 117-118. Retrieved October 13, 2001 from http://www.online.pacifica.edu/pgl/
(this is a fictitious entry)