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PSYC 300: Life-Span Developmental Psychology (Yoon)

Research Guide for Dr. Yoon's sections of the PSYC 300 course

Access Library Resources Online

Trying to access library resources online? Follow the instructions on the Online Access to Library Resources page to access library databases, articles, and ebooks, both on-campus and off-campus.

PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES

PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES databases are great starting points for Psychology research. Use the Search FAQs below to help you find relevant articles in this PsycINFO & PsycARTICLES search box:

Search PsycINFO & PsycARTICLES

Search FAQs

Check out the library's self-paced tutorial How do I search library databases? to learn the basics of database searches.

1. How do I search for articles about my research topic?

  • Identify the keywords of your topic and use those as your search words. 
  • Each book and article has tags assigned to it, words or shorts phrases that make each book or article searchable
    • You want your search words to match those tags 
    • Words like impactbenefits, effects, or causes are not used as tags
  • Example topic: Does physical exercise have an impact on undergraduates with depression?
    • Search words: "physical exercise" AND depression AND undergraduate*
    • "physical exercise" searches for physical exercise as a phrase, not separate words
    • undergraduate* searches for undergraduate and undergraduates
    • AND tells the database to search for articles tagged with all of these concepts

2. I have too many irrelevant search hits. How do I focus them to my assignment requirements?

  • Use the Refine Results sidebar to the right of your search hits to focus them to sources more relevant to your assignment needs
  • You can focus your search hits to:
    • Academic Journals to focus to articles from peer-reviewed journals
    • source type, such as journal articles, books, newspapers, or magazines
    • publication date, so you get the most recent research 
  • Example: for your lab report, you are supposed to use research-based journal articles with up to date research
    • Under Refine Results:
      • check the box beside Scholarly (peer-reviewed) Journals 
      • move the Publication Date scroll bar over to 2006 to present
      • check the boxes beside Journals and Academic Journals under Source Types to find research-based articles

3. How do I know my search words match the tags assigned to articles about my research question?

  • As you scroll through the search hits, look at the assigned Subjects (tags), and see if they match your search words 
  • Example: Many of the articles are tagged with the Subject college students. Some of the articles are tagged with physical activity, while some are tagged with exercise.
    • Add physical activity and college students to your search
    • New Search:  exercise OR "physical activity" AND depression AND "college student" OR undergraduate*
    • Use OR to combine key concepts with their synonyms within the search box 
      • OR finds sources tagged with any of these search words/phrases
    • Use AND to combine search boxes
      • AND finds sources tagged with all of the key concepts
  • Subjects (tags) also help you identify the specific issues around your topic so you can give it direction and develop it into a researchable topic

4. How do I preview the abstract/summary of an article from the list of search results?

  • Click on the title link to open the full article record, which includes the article abstract and other information about the article such as author affiliation and citation information

5. How do I access the article so I can read the whole thing?

  • Look for pdf Full Text or HTML Full Text links
  • Click on the Check 360 Link for Full Text link to see if this article is available to read in other library databases

6. I can't find anything on my topic. What do I do?

  • The search words you're using to describe your topic may not match the tags that PsycINFO or PsycARTICLES has assigned to books and articles on your research question
    • As you scroll through the search hits, look at the assigned Subjects (tags), and see if they match your search words
  • There may not be research tying your main ideas together yet.
    • Try searching for your main ideas separately and linking their findings together
  • If you've found one article that's relevant for your topic, look through the sources in its References list to see if any of them are also relevant to your research
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