Home - PSYC 348 - Abnormal Psychology - Research Guides at Wheaton College

Tutorial Assignment

Take this tutorial to learn some features of APA PsycINFO to make your searching more effective and efficient.

PSYC 348 APA PsycInfo tutorial

Psychology Databases

APA PsycBOOKS This link opens in a new window
Provides the full text of all books published by the American Psychological Association (APA) which includes, among other titles, the APA Handbooks in Psychology and the APA/Oxford University Press Encyclopedia of Psychology.
APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
Provides citations of journal articles and other resources in psychology, and the psychological aspects of other disciplines.
APA PsycTests This link opens in a new window
An authoritative source of structured information about tests of interest to a variety of fields. Produced by the American Psychological Association, it provides access to thousands of actual test instruments, most of which are available for immediate download and use in teaching and research.
Mental Measurements Yearbook with Tests in Print This link opens in a new window
Provides full text, searchable access to Mental Measurements Yearbook with Tests in Print.
Psychological Experiments Online This link opens in a new window
A multimedia collection that synthesizes the most important psychological experiments of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Using APA PsycInfo Thesaurus

The APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms is available in the APA PsycInfo database. Using a thesaurus allows you to create more precise searches and helps ensure that the results are on your topic not just contain key words. It also helps you search using the language of the discipline.

Citation Mining

Citation mining or searching is important because it allows you to trace research on a topic over time. It allows you to enter into the "scholarly conversation" about a topic. In the sciences and social sciences, science builds on the science of others.

Use the references in the back of an article to look at research that informs the research of an article in-hand.
Use a citation database such as the Web of Science or the "cited by" link in Google Scholar to find research that was informed by the research of an article in-hand.

In Web of Science:

use the times cited to trace research forward. Who has used this research to build their own research?
look at the cited references to trace research backwards. What research did this researcher think was important?
select related records to find related research based on shared citations. Who is doing similar research?

How to Read a Scholarly Article

Other Resources

ERIC
If your topic deals with education, ERIC could be a useful source (secondary to APA PsycINFO)
Statista
Provides access to statistics and studies gathered by market researchers, trade organizations, scientific publications, and government sources on over 600 industries.

Reference Management

Free software programs are available to help you cite your sources as well as organize your research and citations. Many of these programs provide the ability to cite while you write and generate your bibliography in any number of citation formats.

Zotero is frequently used by PsyD students for organizing their citations and research when writing their dissertation.

Zotero
by Prof. Greg Morrison Last Updated Nov 15, 2023 321 views this year