Databases
Search these databases to find articles, books, videos, and more on psychology topics.
- Discover This link opens in a new window
Blume Library's primary search tool. This robust feature helps scholars find scholarly journals and articles, books, eBooks, music, videos, government information, and more. Input the keywords of your research to generate a results list full of articles and items covering the topic. Use boolean phrases (AND, OR, NOT) and other limiters to focus a search or modify a results list. This tool searches most of the Blume Library holdings including the Library Catalog of physical items and eResources.
Learn more about this powerful resource: DISCOVER
Reach out to a Blume Librarian for research assistance: RESEARCH ASSISTANCE - PsycINFO This link opens in a new windowThis ever-expanding collection of behavioral and social science research, dissertations, and scholarly literature abstracts offer a broad view of the field. With relevance to a host of related disciplines, including neuroscience, business, nursing, law, and education. APA PsycInfo delivers the peer-reviewed content and abstracts students and researchers need and does so with remarkable precision and a dedication to scholarly and scientific excellence.
Focused on the interdisciplinary aspects of worldwide behavioral and social science research and literature, APA PsycInfo is a resource for locating scholarly research findings in psychology and related fields across a host of academic disciplines.
Features include:
Coverage dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries, with extensive coverage from the 1800s to the present
Authored and edited books and book chapters
Dissertations selected from Dissertation Abstracts International (Sections A and B)
Publications from more than 50 countries
Journals published in 29 languages - PubMed This link opens in a new windowComprises more than 30 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher websites.
Note: only abstracts and open-access articles are available through this resource.
What is ERIC?
The ERIC (Education Resources Information Center) database is a portal to education research including journal articles, books, conference papers, dissertations, and more. The US Department of Education maintains ERIC.
The two main categories included in ERIC are:
- Journals (EJ) - some full text articles, other may need to be requested by Interlibrary Loan.
- Documents (ED) - variety of sources including author submissions
ERIC uses Descriptors to help users find materials that have the same subject but may use different terminology. You will find Descriptors with their definitions and related terms in the ERIC Thesaurus.
Tips for Finding Articles in ERIC
How to: 1) conduct a basic keyword search in ERIC and 2) interpret your search results.
Example 1 - Keyword Search
A keyword search is a great way to begin your first search.
In this search, I want to find articles that discuss self esteem issues in college students. I've decided to limit to peer reviewed journals. You would bring up the ERIC database type in "self esteem and college students" in the search box. Then, in the Search Options section, select the Peer Reviewed box and select Journal Articles (EJ) to limit to journals.
Example 2 - Results
Results of a search for the phrases "self esteem" and "college students". Click on the article title to read the abstract and to view the complete article if it is available. The "Subject" words under an article are important to note since they offer suggestions of other terms you could search to find related articles.
Use the ERIC Thesaurus
I recommend using the ERIC Thesaurus to improve your search. The Thesaurus lists all the formal "descriptors" used by the ERIC staff. These subject words bring together articles with similar ideas, but with different terminology, under one term.
This page gives you tips on how to 1) find the best search term(s) with the Thesaurus and 2) add multiple terms to your search.
Example 1 - Find the best subject search term with the ERIC Thesaurus
The ERIC Thesaurus is a useful tool to figure out which word(s) to use when searching to find all articles the same topic. For instance, people of a certain age might be called "young adults", "teenagers", "youth", etc. What's the best terms to find all articles on this group?
When you search the Thesaurus for "teenagers", you will see that the subject term is "adolescents". Use would use "adolescents" instead of teenagers, or other words, to bring together all articles on this age group.
Example 2 - Selecting and searching multiple related subjects
The ERIC Thesaurus provides the definition of a subject word and the related, broader, and narrower subject. As you can see, "adolescents" is defined as people from ages 13-17. You can add just this term or check other related boxes to add more terms. When you click add after choosing multiple words, ERIC will add these words in a OR search that find article that have at least one of these search words.
