2. Please open Mozilla Firefox!
• In the A-Z window on
the desktop (on
university PCs)
• Login to myUniHub
3. Today we are going to cover...
• Choosing resources
• Using a few different databases
• Searching effectively for journal articles
• Evaluating information
• Using information ethically (citing and referencing)
• Start these things now and your life will be much easier!!
4. What do I need to use?
• Tip - Find general background information before using
more specific and recent resources
– don’t confuse yourself!
• Consider how you are assessed - what is the question?
Is it general or very specific?
• Does it require latest research?
• Example this module – short essays, very general
questions, definitions of topic
5. Your essay questions PSY1011
• Essay 2: Developmental psychology
• •What is the difference between sex and gender? How
does the latter develop?
• •Many psychologists believe child development occurs
in discrete stages. Consider at least two theories which
put forward this position and outline the evidence for
and against them.
• •How does psychological development continue in
adolescence and adulthood?
6. Getting into the databases...
REMEMBER!
Always use MyUniHub
as a gateway to library
resources
7.
8.
9. Summon
• Simple database useful for your first year
• Will cross search library resources: books, journal databases, newspaper
articles
• Remember - NOT subject specific
10. Your essay questions PSY1011
• Essay 2: Developmental psychology
• •What is the difference between sex and gender? How
does the latter develop?
• •Many psychologists believe child development occurs
in discrete stages. Consider at least two theories which
put forward this position and outline the evidence for
and against them.
• •How does psychological development continue in
adolescence and adulthood?
11.
12. Exercise 1
• Do a search on Summon for one of the other questions and
play around with the search limits at the side.
• Find the 1 or 2 resource(s) you think most useful from your
search results .
Think about the activity we did last session regarding what
each resource is good for.
• Is it a book or journal?
• How did you find it – are there other words you could use?
13. Your essay questions PSY1011
• Essay 2: Developmental psychology
• •What is the difference between sex and gender? How
does the latter develop?
• •Many psychologists believe child development occurs
in discrete stages. Consider at least two theories which
put forward this position and outline the evidence for
and against them.
• •How does psychological development continue in
adolescence and adulthood?
14. PsycINFO
• Specific psychology database - subject specific
information unlike other databases like Summon
(searches all subjects) or Web of Knowledge (search
broadly across sciences or social sciences)
• Articles are tagged with psychology subject headings
when indexed – useful for searching
• Not completely full text but can limit results to full text
• Run by APA
• Worth noting US bias – if being comprehensive in
search would have to take this into account and use
other resources as well
15. Getting into the databases...
REMEMBER!
Always use MyUniHub
as a gateway to library
resources
16.
17.
18.
19. Searching PsycINFO for....
Postpartum depression and the effect on
children’s mental development and well being
What are the important concepts in the
question?
Are there other terms for the same ideas?
22. Exercise 2
• Question: Evaluate two studies looking at
teenage drug use and mental health
• Keywords and concepts
• Synonyms > narrower terms (if we get too many
results)
• Elements we could add to focus the search
23. Exercise 2
Drugs Mental health Teenagers
Synonyms: Synonyms: Synonyms:
Cognitive development Youths
Medication Well being Adolescents
substance Psychosocial Young people
development
Narrower terms: Narrower terms: Narrower terms:
Prozac Schizophrenia Specific age groups
Cannabis Depression
heroine psychosis
24. Evaluating what you’ve found
Is it what you need and is it trustworthy?
What criteria would you use to assess the
relevance and quality of the information?
25. • Currency How old is this information? When was it
last updated?
• Authority Who is the author? Site
creator, organisation, scholarly / peer reviewed
journals etc?
• Intent What is the purpose of the website /
information? e.g. financial gain, academic
• Relevance Is this what I need? Will it answer my
question? Is it at the right level?
• Objectivity Balanced view? Opposing views
represented? References?
26. Exercise 3
• Work in groups
• 4 resources and evaluation sheet
• For each resource, decide as a group if it
meets the criteria.
• No need to read the whole thing!
27. Referencing
• Is very important
• Acknowledges other people’s work (avoids
plagiarism)
• Shows you’ve read around the subject
• Supports your discussion and arguments
• Gets you better marks!
• Enables others to find your references
30. Need help?
• Librarians in the Specialist Zone (1st floor)
11-3 Monday - Friday
• Ask a Librarian http://askalibrarian.mdx.ac.uk/
• Psychology Library Subject Guide
http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/psy
Editor's Notes
Check if they remember how to do a quick journal search on the library catalogue if they are looking for specific item from a reading list – demo if they’ve forgotten
This is because most of their assignments at the moment are definition type short essays which are too general for journal articles and books will be more useful on the whole.
Questions and get them to shout out answers: What format is the assessment due in? Report/essay/log book/bibliography If an essay like these how long is the essay? (answer if they don't know yet 800 words!) What is the question asking you: Definition? Explanation? Analysis? Update of subject area? How big is the topic? Get them to answer – hopefully they will be able to feed back that it’s a definition and a big subject – explain what journals are and that databases may not always be the answer – for this In the introductory session we covered what a journal is – can anyone remember? Latest research For this project, which is an introduction to the subject, will show them summon.
Mention MDX cookie for off site access Better alternative to Google Scholar
Questions Take the first question – obvious question but what is it asking you to write? What do you need to write that? What terms should I search?
Do search ‘psychology gender development’ – explain you’ve added ‘psychology’ as this database searches resources for all subjects Scroll down and explain that many of the relevant items (some are sports psych or too specific) are actually books – which is the most suitable resource for an introduction to/definition of a topic. Show them limit by date, resource type or full text (but you wouldn't need to limit by date for this question a lot of the standard theories won’t be from the last 5 years) - this is what I mean about overcomplicating.
1/2 resource(s) because their essay is only 800 words Get feedback on what they found Questions repeated on next slide
This is something I’m going to show you quickly as you won’t be required to use it for all of your assignments this year but you should get familiar with it. If confident they can follow along if they like but they should probably watch – slides will be on Libguide so you can repeat later and refer to
maternal/postnatal
Search (All in advanced search with map to subject headings selected) postpartum depression (select subject heading when redirected and continue) maternal depression (select as keyword and explain to them about trying multiple terms) search ‘development’ get them to quickly shout which mapped subject terms they think might be relevant – I selected a few above combine 1 & 2 (types of depression with) ‘OR’ combine 3 & 4 (depression and development keywords) = roughly 600 results scroll down and show results, and then go to ‘additional limits’ scroll down and select AGE <6-12>
Show them the limited results – most on the first page are very relevantMention that not all journal articles will be named the same as your question but doesn’t mean they aren’t useful. If you have limited to age group6-12 there are results for disorders/behaviour and predicting factors and these results are there because they link those things to maternal depression – good examples below: “Maternal characteristics predicting young girls' disruptive behavior.”“Predictors of parent-reported attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children aged 6-7 years: A national longitudinal study.”
Get them to shout out the different concepts/elements of the question
Get them to shout out synonyms or narrower terms if there aren’t really many synonyms and add them to the slide on screenExamples: Drugs > substances, narrower> prescription, cannabis etc Mental health > mental well being, development, narrower > schizophrenia, depression etc Teenagers > Adolescent, youth, young people narrower > could look at specific age range
Get them to give you ideas:CurrentAuthoritativeObjective – balanced, unbiased – what’s their intent? EtcRelevant – who is it aimed at? Level, Context e.g. UK/US
5 mins and then shout out feedback
Quick run through on where to find referencing info
Mention that they can make appointments through LibGuide
