Psychology

When it comes to the task of finding psychology literature, PsycInfo is an excellent tool through its vast bibliographic indexing capabilities. APA PsycInfo is produced by the American Psychological Association, which makes it a database that is tuned into the language, history, and methods of psychology and related disciplines.

Navigate the links and sources below to help get you started or to review key search strategies.

Boolean operators translate to the linking phrases between search terms (AND, OR, & NOT). They communicate to a database the broad or specific parameters of your search. On a different note, using these operators may help researchers organize the relevant aspects of a topic into categories. See a graphic description below.

Select AND in a database to find records with all of your entered search terms. This is represented in the small, central area of a Venn diagram. The example search above would generate a narrower list of sources where both academic stress and meditation are both addressed.

Select OR in a database to find records with any one of your entered search terms. This is represented by a full Venn diagram or each of its divisions. The example search above would generate a longer, broader list of sources where either academic stress or meditation (or both) are addressed.

Finally, select NOT in a database to find records that exclude certain search words. This is represented by the highlighted (versus unhighlighted) portion of the Venn diagram. The example search above would eliminate results that may be connected to the term meditation. Be forewarned that by excluding a term you may unintentionally remove relevant source results.

Using the APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms helps users determine the "vocabulary of the database": the terminology used to define and represent key ideas, theories, and subject populations.

Navigate to the thesaurus in PsycInfo by selecting it from the top menu (next to Advanced Search).

You can also look through older editions of the thesauri in print on the fifth floor of the Milner Library.