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PSYC 21700 - Psychological Assessment

What are Databases?

Databases are online indexes of journal articles and abstracts. Many include full-text journal articles. Some databases also contain book chapters, newspaper/magazine articles, citations for books, and more.

In plain English, a database is what you would use to find articles!

Psychology Databases

APA Video: Peer-Reviewed Empirical Articles

What is an Empirical Study?

An empirical study is one that is based on "observation, investigation, or experiment rather than on abstract reasoning, theoretical analysis, or speculation." Empirical studies should be divided into the following parts: abstract, introduction, method, results, discussion, and references. Typically these studies also include tables, figures, and charts to display collected data.

Example: Westervelt, H. J., Bruce, J. M., & Faust, M. A. (2016). Distinguishing Alzheimer’s disease and dementia with Lewy bodies using cognitive and olfactory measures. Neuropsychology, 30(3), 304-311. doi:10.1037/neu0000230

Strategies for Using PsycINFO

In this video, you’ll learn how to use the Tests & Measures field in PsycINFO to look up information related to psychological tests and measures. The video demonstrates how to use the Tests & Measures field to identify research instruments on a particular topic.

At the 2:30 mark, you'll learn how to locate research that uses specific psychological tests or measures. 

In this video, you’ll learn how use APA PsycInfo’s methodology limiter to find journal articles that use a specific methodology or study design.

Have you ever wondered how to use the PsycINFO Classification Codes? They are assigned by indexers and categorize the document according to its primary subject matter. This video will show you how to use them to limit a broad search in PsycINFO on the EBSCOhost platform.

OneSource Search

Advanced Search

I have an article citation - now what? (APA Style)

If you already have a citation from a bibliography or other source, you have everything you need to find the article if the library owns it!

First identify the title of the journal or the title of the article.

Example:
Scruton, R. (1996). The eclipse of listening. The New Criterion, 15(3), 5–13.
In the example above:

  • The New Criterion is the title of the journal.
  • The eclipse of listening is the article title.
  • Scruton, R. is the author's name.
  • You know that the title is a journal article because the volume is typically listed in a journal citation and a book citation usually has a publisher name. 

Then find the article:

  • Use the Hiram College "Finding Journals" search to find journals by title. Then use the year, volume, and page number to narrow down your search.
  • Use OneSource to search for articles by article title. 
  • Verify that the information is correct, and view the article if it is available, or request it via Interlibrary Loan if it is not. 
  • Remember to save the link to the article by using a "Permalink."

Need a little more practice identifying the parts of a citation? The Virginia Tech University Libraries Citation Tutorial can help!

Watch this video to review the ways to locate a journal article when you have a citation!