Resizing one layer

I'm sure there must be a way to do this but I haven't had any success yet.

I drag a layer from one image to another and find that it is just not the right size. Is there a way to resize this (similar to Image>Image size) without having to take it out to an independant image resizing and then dragging it back into the target image.

Depends on what you are doing -

transform & scale or free transform and pull the sides?

J.
-

Yup, there sho is. Just click on the layer in question in the layer palette to make it active. Then click on Edit >> Transform >> Scale.

Now, drag one of the corners to make the layer the size you want.

As DeeplyDigital says, the Transform tool is your friend.

I typically paste or drag the image onto a new layer, then Ctrl-T to activate the transform tool, then with the Shift key depressed (to ensure proportional re-sizing), grab a corner and re-size. You can also rotate and position the re-sized image while in Transform mode.

Transformations do, of course, alter image quality. So you may have to account for that before or after you do the transformation.