PsycInfo Search Tips
Since the PsycInfo
database is so large, it is recommended that you strategize before you
search.
Follow the steps below to quickly find the information you need.
A.
Write out your research question:
In our class, we studied how parental pressure can affect a
student's academic performance.
We want to find out if other aspects of a parent's
emotional state can affect a child's academic performance.
B. Identify key concepts of your research question. For example:
"parents" "stress" "academic performance" "studying" "emotions"
C. In PsycInfo, Click on
Enter your key concepts where it says "Browse for."
The PsycInfo thesaurus
is database in PsycInfo of the formal terminology the database uses.
By
identifying the appropriate, formal terminology, you will get more precise
results.
For example:
|
Keywords |
Thesaurus Term |
|
Parents |
Parents Parental Anxiety Parental Expectations |
|
|
Academic Achievement--Motivation Academic Achievement--Prediction |
These formal terms may not always closely match how you describe an idea, so the more key concepts you identify in Step A, the more chances you have for identifying a formal term to use.
D.
Click on
and enter the formal terms you identified. Be sure to indicated that you
are searching by Subjects.
Your search screen should look like this:
|
E. Make your search more specific.
PsycInfo has a variety of ways to
limit your search.
Scroll down your search screen for options. Here are the most common ones:
|
Limiter |
When to use |
|
Population Group |
Limits to a male/female, human/animal studies, inpatient/outpatient |
|
Age Group |
Limits to specific age group, from neonate to centenarian. |
|
Methodology |
Limits to empirical study, literature review, case study, longitudinal study, many many others. This is what you will use when your instructor requests ONLY empirical studies. |
F. Conduct, assess, and, if necessary,
re-do your search with other key terms.
Keep track of the searches and search
terms you used.
Expect to conduct several searches.
Contact Yvonne
Nalani Meulemans, Science Librarian if you are having difficulty
constructing an efficient search.
Almost every student has a difficult time
creating an efficient search in PsycInfo because it is so large!
G.
Look for the
button to find out how to get the entire articles
Click on it
to find out if we have the article in full-text online, in print in the library,
or, if we don't have
it, how to get it through inter-library loan.