Databases
PsycInfo
Created by Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD.,
Department of Psychology, University of
Massachusetts, Lowell Lowell
1
Steps in this tutorial
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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=Ltv5ROCfa8
– A sample searchCreated
onby YouTube
Andrea L. Dottolo, PhD.,
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