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February 5

PSYC 330: Developmental Psychology: Infant/Child: Fall 2008


"Lot in Life"  Research Guide (Phillips)

For this assignment, you must investigate your "Lot in Life." To do so, you are required find and assess information on your Lot in Life. This guide will assist your search for quality information.

 

 

Finding a general article
This assignment requires you to find a 'general article' on your Lot in Life. This can easily be done by finding a book about the general issue in your 'Lot' and selecting a chapter that provides further details on the particular issues.
 

Step 1:
Brainstorm key vocabulary terms to describe your Lot in Life.

  • What are all the ways you can describe your Lot?

  • What aspect of your Lot are you most interested in? Diagnosis? Treatment?
     

Step 2:
Use the vocabulary terms to search for books that discuss your Lot broadly.
Select a chapter from that book.

  • Search the Library Catalog for a book on the general topic.

  • If we don't have many items on your topic, search Submit search to SDCircuit.

  • A book chapter will provide an overview of the issue/topic.

  • Look at a chapter's reference list for empirical articles; find them and use them!
     

 

Finding a journal article
 Students will be using PsycINFO, the primary database of psychology research literature to find their journal articles.

Every Lot in Life is different, so each person will have to approach their searches differently.

 

Research tip How to
Identify more search terms Click on Thesaurus
 
Search by a particular age group In Advanced Search click on:
Refine Search>Age Groups
 
Search for empirical studies In Advanced Search click on:
Refine Search>Methodology>Empirical Studies
 
Search for literature reviews In Advanced Search click on:
Refine Search>Methodology>Literature review
 
Search for word variants
e.g. sex*=sexes, sexual, sexism		 Use the truncation symbol: *

 

Comparison Chart:  Empirical studies and Literature reviews
 
Empirical studies:
  • have data that has been collected by such means as experimentation, survey methodology, or observation. 
  • have a methods section because it reports on an experiment.
  • try to measure something: a behavior, reaction, treatment, etc.

 

 Literature reviews:
  • do not have the usual parts of an APA report, since it does not report on a single experiment.
  • briefly summarize and critique each study and discuss how the findings relate to other

 

Finding a community organization/Using the Web
 There is an enormous amount of information on the web. Much of it is questionable and not appropriate for a college-level research project.  It is highly recommended that you formally evaluate any web site before choosing to include the information you find in your research project.
 

  • Click here for more information on how to evaluate web sites.
  • NOTE: You must provide written materials from any organization you contact in your final report. This requirement is in your syllabus.

    MedlinePlus: Created by the National Library of Medicine, this site is a portal to quality medical information. Use this site to help you find community organizations that may be helpful as well.

     Inform San Diego: A county-wide directory of health and social services.

    DIRLINE Database: A directory of health organizations online.