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PSYC405 Advanced Research Methods

Searching in APA PsycINFO

To find articles with "social psychology" as a subject, search for social psychology and limit your search to "Classification- CL" in the drop-down box. 

Then select the box to limit to Peer Reviewed. This removes books and dissertations from the search results. 

screen shot of advanced search with social psychology as the classification

 

From the results page, you can limit further by date, age group, population, and methodology (e.g. Empirical Study). 

screenshot of limiters in psycinfo

To narrow down your results further, explore the Subject limiter for other terms to add, or try adding in your own terms in the search box. Use the word AND to search for both the social psychology classification and your search term. 

screenshot of a search for social psychology and college

When you find an article you're interested in, look for an option to download the full text, or use the Get It! button to access the full text through another database or borrow it for free through interlibrary loan. Don't forget to also use the Cite button to get the full citation for the article. 

screen shot of the Get It button for full text options

Research Tip: How to Narrow Your Search

  • Combine concepts with AND to find more relevant sources
    • picasso AND Africa
    • internet AND privacy
    • bedrock AND Massachusetts AND hydrology
  • Use “quotation marks” to find exact phrases
    • "rock art"
    • “African diaspora”
    • “invertible matrix”

Research Tip: How to Broaden Your Search

  • Use ORs and parentheses to combine synonyms or related terms
    • (oil OR petroleum OR crude)
    • (antibiotic OR antiviral)
    • (woman OR girl OR female)