Databases

PsycInfo Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 1

Steps in this tutorial

• • • • • • • • 1) State goal of this tutorial 2) What is PsycInfo? 3) How is PsycInfo different from google?

4) How to I get to PsycInfo?

5) Basic search 6) Thesaurus 7) Advanced search 8) Other PsycInfo resources Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 2

Goal

• The goal of this tutorial is to introduce you to PsycInfo at UMass Lowell.

Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 3

Objectives

• By the end of this tutorial you should be able to – Navigate the web to get to PsycInfo – Use some important features in a Basic Search and an Advanced Search.

Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 4

What is PsycInfo?

• PsycInfo is a database that allows you to search for scholarly psychological publications, including: – Books – Journal articles – Dissertations – Book reviews Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 5

How is PsycInfo different from Google?

• • • A google search will search the entire web for anything and everything A google.scholar search will search the entire web for scholarly articles in any and all disciplines A PsycInfo search will search only scholarly psychological publications.

Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 6

How is PsycInfo different from Google?

• For example, which of the following would be best to search on PsycInfo?

– A. what Dr. Phil has to say about self-esteem – B. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – C. www.aa.org

(Alcoholics Anonymous) – D. an article from the Journal of Personality and

Social Psychology

Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 7

How is PsycInfo different from Google?

• D is the correct answer, since a scholarly journal article would appear in PsycInfo.

Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 8

How do I get to PsycInfo?

Here is one way to get to PsycInfo: 1. Go to www.uml.edu

2. Click on the link that says “Libraries” at the very top center of the page in light blue font underneath the address bar.

3. Then click on “Databases” on the black, left side bar. Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 9

How do I get to PsycInfo?

Here you can browse by subject area. • • Click on “Psychology.” – This page has links to the relevant databases in psychology. Click on PsycInfo Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 10

How do I get to PsycInfo?

Here is another way get to PsycInfo: 1. Go to http://libguides.uml.edu/content.php?pid=1 156&sid=53582 2. This is a research guide developed especially as a psychology resource to help UML students find journal articles in psychology. – You can also access this page by clicking on “Research Guides” from the UML library home page and then clicking “Psychology Resources” and the “Articles” tab.

Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 11

PsycInfo

• • You will see that under the section called “Major Indexes,” 3 important databases appear, and PsycINFO is one of them.

You will see that a search field appears right on the page for you to type in a simple search term, and it will bring you right to PsychINFO.

Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 12

Basic search functions

• An important difference between PsycInfo and google is the use of what we call Boolean operators.

Boolean Operators are simple words (like AND, OR, NOT or AND NOT) used to combine or exclude keywords in a search, resulting in more focused results.

Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 13

Boolean operators

• • • AND forces both conditions to be true.

– If I search for “sex AND drugs,” I want articles that contain BOTH the words sex and drugs OR expands a search that is too narrow – If I search for “romance” I don’t get many results, but if I search for “romance OR dating OR love” I include more terms in my search.

NOT excludes terms that you specify – If I search “drugs NOT antidepressants” this excludes antidepressants, and gives me articles with only the word “drugs” Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 14

For example

• • • • If I do a google search for “sex drugs alcohol,” I get about 45,600,000 results If I do a PsycInfo search for “sex drugs alcohol,” I get 10 results, but… If I do a PsycInfo search for “sex AND drugs AND alcohol,” I get 6,299 results So, when doing a search in PsycInfo, be sure to use the AND connector when you want to search all terms together.

Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 15

The wildcard asterisk

• • The wildcard asterisk (*) is another helpful search tool. It stands in for letters in a word so that you can expand your search.

For example, if you search child* PsycInfo will find articles that have any terms that include the word “child” such as children, childhood, etc. Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 16

Basic search

• • When you go to PsycInfo, it brings you first to the Basic Search view, with one text box in which to type your key words.

Below the text box, you will see many options that will allow you to refine or narrow your search Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 17

Thesaurus

• • One important tool of PsycInfo is the Thesaurus. PsycInfo organizes information according to its own classification system. Therefore, it important to know the language to use in PsycInfo.

Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 18

Thesaurus

• • When you click on “Thesaurus” at the very top, upper left of the screen (in the blue bar), be sure to use the text box below the top one. This lower search field is the Thesaurus.

Most often you will likely use the “relevancy ranked” option, which will find similar terms that are synonyms.

Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 19

Thesaurus

• • • For example, if you use the search term “women” in PsycInfo, you will likely not get as many results as you hoped.

If you go to the Thesaurus and search “women,” you will see that PsycInfo tells you what search term to use instead. The first line of the search says – Women USE

Human females

– In this case, articles about “women” are classified as “human female” so you should use that term instead. Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 20

Basic search

• Some important features to consider are: – Linked full text: searches only sources where the complete article is available to see online.

– Peer reviewed: This one is very important! This feature will search only sources from peer-reviewed publications, which might be required for your research or paper. (See tutorial on peer-review). – Journal: If you know you want to search only within one journal, you can indicate that here. • For example, I might type “social identity” in the search text box, and “Sex Roles” (the name of a journal) into the “journal” field to search only within that journal.

Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 21

Basic search

• Some important features to consider are: –

English

: Since international publications are included in the PsycInfo database, clicking this feature will limit your search to only those sources printed in English.

– Published date from: This feature is useful if you know, for example, that you can only use sources published after a certain date, say 1995. PsycInfo will limit your search by year.

Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 22

Advanced Search

• If you click on “Advanced Search” under the textbox, you will come to a screen with many more options than the Basic Search screen that will allow you to refine or narrow your search. Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 23

Advanced Search

• Some important features to consider are – Exclude Dissertations: Clicking this box will omit dissertations from your search.

–

Tests & Measures

: If you want to find articles that use a particular psychological test, you can type it here. • For example, if I type “Rosenberg self-esteem scale” I get 4,647 results, where the authors of the article use or discuss this measure.

Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 24

Advanced Search

• Some important features to consider are: –

Methodology

: This feature allows you to search for articles that contain a particular methodology, and there are several options.

• For example, you could select that you want to refine your search to: – Empirical study: Refines your search only to articles that use observable data.

– Literature review: Searches articles that look at literature related to your search topic.

Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 25

Advanced Search

• Some important features to consider are: –

Age Groups

: This feature allows you to search for articles that contains samples of particular age groups. • For example, you could to refine your search to: – Adolescence (13-17 yrs) » Here, adolescence is defined as specifically ages 13 to 17. Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 26

Other PsycInfo resources and guides

• • • http://www.apa.org/pubs/databases/training /ebsco.pdf

– A quick reference guide to basic functions https://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/Psyc hology/tutorial.html

– Power point and movie tutorials developed by the University of Washington http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltv5 ROCfa8 – A sample search on YouTube Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 27

Conclusion

• This concludes this tutorial on how to use PsycInfo.

Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD., Department of Psychology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell 28