Psychology Research Guide

Using Limit Options

Limit options in PsycInfo include
• Language
• Methodology
•Age Group, etc.
  Highlight every research methodologies listed or just the specific type you want.

AND specifying the field where information must appear.

e.g. AU mumme             (mumme as an author)
       TI temperament      (temperament in the article title)
       DE violence             (violence as a subject term)
       AB achievement   (achievement in the abstract)
       TM appended          (for articles that include the measure used in the study)
       PB american psychological association  (for articles and books published by the APA)

Adding other terms to make a broad topic more specific:

       • violence and children and media
       • chronic pain and depression and drugs
       • stress and memory and college students.

When you scan the list of articles that your search has returned, some will be more relevant to your interests than others. Identify any key phrases in the title or abstract of a good article.
❖ Use the proximity operator within (W plus a number which will represent how many words come between two search terms)
     For example: violence W1 children
retrieves phrases like "violence by children," "violence against children," etc.

❖ Click on the author's name of a good article to finds more articles written by that author.
      -Author(s):  Ehrensaft, Miriam K.

❖ Look for subject terms that are used in a good article. Search them separately or add them to your existing search.
    -Subjects: Family Violence;
                    Father Child Realtions;
                    Transgenerational Patterns

❖ Check the references of a particularly good article to find more useful articles. Cited References will always be older that the original article.

❖ Check articles that have cited the one you're interested in. This can lead you to more recent related articles.