Library

Research

SPRING 2025: PSYC 025

Christina Bush, Psychology Librarian

Agenda

• Introduction to Librarian 
• Survey Results
• Generating Search Terms
• PsycINFO 
  • Thesaurus/Controlled Vocabulary
  • Demo Search
•  Active Searching
• Keeping Track of Your Research
• How to Get Help
• Final Questions

Who I am

• Christina Bush (she/her/hers)
  • Research + Instruction Librarian, Liaison to Black Studies, Educational Studies, Psychology 
  • email me: cbush1@swarthmore.edu
  • Make an appointment with me here

SURVEY RESULTS

SURVEY RESULTS

SURVEY RESULTS

identifying search terms

WHY Do you use what you use to Search?

Generating Search terms

KEYWORDS VS. CONTROLLED VOCABULARY

keywords

A significant word or phrase in the title, subject headings (descriptors), contents note, abstract, or text of a record in an online catalog or bibliographic database that can be used as a search term in a free-text search to retrieve records containing it also referred to as natural language

Controlled Vocabulary

predefined, authorized terms that have been indexed by the designer of the vocabulary -- or a standardized set of terms used to bring consistency to the search process

APA cONTROLLED vOCABULARY TERMS FOR ptsd

• post traumatic stress disorder
  • post-traumatic 
  • posttraumatic
• traumatic neurosis
• shell shock  
• stress reaction 

Let's search iN  PsycINFO

which is the preferred approach to searching :controlled vocabulary or natural language?

Subtitle

Subtitle

tricked ya!

there is no inherently superior way to search, but knowing the difference between databases that use controlled vocabulary vs. natural language, and your own resource needs can help you search more effectively

nOW Do your own search iN  PsycINFO

A nOTE ON "eXPLODE"

Remember, the thesaurus is not just an alphabetic list of terms. Instead, the terms are organized hierarchically with major subject areas, progressively branching off into more specific terms.

When you "explode" a term in a database that uses a thesaurus, you direct the system to search on a given term PLUS all the more specific terms that are nested beneath the original term.

Search Activity

• Using your own topic (or idea for a topic)
• Diagram keywords and synonyms
• Look in the PsycINFO thesaurus for terms and note what they are
• Use your terms to search in PsycINFO

I'll ask a few of you to report what you found

Evaluate What You Found​

• Evaluate the results
  • Do the result seem relevant?
  • Take a closer look by actually clicking in them
  • Did you notice anything interesting in terms of the outlined  "major subjects"
  • Did you notice/use any of the additional features like filtering, major subjects, citation generators?
  • Were you able to access the text (i.e. full text pdf)
  • Anything else of note?

Keeping Track and Getting Help

Questions?

Christina Bush

cbush1@swarthmore.edu

30 mins On

• Feb. 21: "Using Science Databases"