Psychology Research Guide

This page provides some ideas of places to look for topics and some suggestions for creating keywords and search terms (the words you'll use to find articles and other research materials)

To get started, it's good to know the requirements of your assignment:

1. What are the guidelines for the assignment? How many words or pages? What other criteria is provided?
2. What types of sources do you need? How many? 
3. What is the scope of the paper? How in depth does the research need to be?
4. Who is your audience (academic or non-academic)?
5. What do you already know and what do you need to find out?

 A keyword is a simple term, or word, that is used to explore what results a source can provide on a topic. 

 Different sources will provide different results using the same word. 

 If a keyword doesn't "unlock" the results you want, try another!

(image from the Noun Project)

Using "Boolean Operators" - AND, OR, NOT can create more specific search terms. 

• They can combine 2 or more ideas into a single search.
• They are used to help <broaden> or >narrow<  your search.
• Here are some examples:

OR = more        

Use OR with synonyms or similar search terms.  Each record in the results must include AT LEAST ONE of the terms

AND = less         

Use AND to combine search terms for different concepts. Each record in the results must include BOTH terms

NOT = don't include              

Use NOT to eliminate words that you DON'T want to show up in your results