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Psychology 301

PsychInfo Assignment

The purpose of this assignment is to provide you with experience conducting a literature review, using PsycInfo, and obtaining journal articles. You will use the information you collect to write the Introduction Section of your research paper.

The content of each individual assignment, however, (e.g., the research articles and photocopied pages from Part 4) must be different. Follow directions as listed below.

1. Identify a specific area of research in which you are interested (i.e., your topic idea). For example, you might be interested in whether aromatherapy can reduce stress. The more specific and clear you are with this topic, the easier your research will be. Take your topic and turn it into a research question (e.g., Does smelling lavender reduce stress?)

2. Identify the key variablesin the above statement and write them below. You must have at least two variables (e.g., aromatherapy and stress).

3. Identify appropriate keywords for your PsychInfo search. Sometimes relevant research is not found in databases because people do not know the appropriate keywords for a search. This next part of the assignment will help you expand the list of keywords you can use in your database searches.

1.Access the PsychInfo database.

2.At the main search page, click on the "thesaurus" icon.

3.Type your variable (e.g., stress) in the "Browse for" field.

4.Click on one or more of the topics listed.

a.This should give you a list of all the synonyms and related keywords that psychologists use. Look through the list. In the space provided below, write down all narrower, broader, or related terms.

5.Repeat this process for your second study variable.

Variable 1 / Variable 2
Broader / Narrower / Related / Broader / Narrower / Related

4. Locate general background information on your key variables. Using the terms identified in #3, consult the psychological encyclopedias or handbooks dictionaries discussed in our library presentations (e.g., Encyclopedia of Psychology, Survey of Social Sciences, the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychology, etc.) to find background information on your study variables.

Photocopy the pages that correspond with your key terms and variables and staple them to this handout.

For each variable, write a paragraph summarizing

  1. how each variable is defined and measured by psychologists.
  2. the theories associated with each variable.

Write down the complete reference of each source (using APA style) and include the reference on the photocopied pages.

APA reference style for an entry in an encyclopedia:

Bergmann, P. G., (1993). Relativity. In The new encyclopedia Britannica (Vol. 26, pp. 501-508). Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica.

5. Search and obtain current journal articles or book chapters related to your topic.

1.Using PsychInfo, first search for one variable (e.g., aromatherapy), then the other variable (e.g., stress).

2.Click on "search history" to combine the first two searches by searching "S1" and S2."

a.If you still have hundreds or even thousands of "hits", try adding another variable and recombine your results.

b.If you can not find many or any articles related to your variables, then use broader key terms.

3.Locate 5 journal articles (1994-present) or book chapters that are relevant to your topic.

a.Do not include any articles that are written in a foreign language or are dissertations.

4.Read through the abstracts for each article and, on a separate sheet of paper,type the following information for each of the articles or chapters.

a.Full reference using APA style.

b.Purpose of the article/book chapter or specific hypothesis.

c.Brief summary of results (did they support their hypothesis?)

d.Describe how this study is relevant to your study and indicate whether it supports or undermines your implicit study hypothesis

5.Staple your summary to the first page of the article/chapter and attach all of them to this handout.This means I want copies of all of your articles chapters so I can review them.

Turning in this assignment

You should have the following when turning in this assignment.

  1. A copy of this assignment with the following information:
  2. A description of your topic
  3. The names of the variables you will be investigating
  4. A list of broader/narrower/related terms for your variables
  5. Photocopies of background information about your variables from a psychological encyclopedia or handbook.
  6. For each variable a paragraph summarizing
  7. how each variable is defined and measured by psychologists.
  8. the theories associated with each variable.
  9. An APA style reference indicating the source of your information
  10. Five journal articles or book chapters that you think are relevant for your topic.
  11. For each article you should have a page stapled to the front of the article that provides the following information:
  12. Full reference using APA style.
  13. Purpose of the article/book chapter or specific hypothesis.
  14. Brief summary of results (did they support their hypothesis?)
  15. Describe how this study is relevant to your study and indicate whether it supports or undermines your implicit study hypothesis