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About this guide
PsycInfo is a database focused on psychology, behavioral sciences, and social sciences. Maintained by the American Psychological Association (APA), it contains nearly 4 million records, most of which are peer-reviewed journal articles.
This guide will walk you through basic and advanced search techniques to help you navigate PsycInfo effectively.
- PsycInfo (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new window
In addition to this link, you can also access PsycInfo from the library's homepage by clicking on Databases.
Basic Searching
By default, PsycInfo searches for all your terms anywhere in article records.
To refine your search:
- Enter your keywords. Use quotation marks to search for an exact phrase.
- Use the drop-down menu to search within specific fields, such as author, article title, or journal title.
- Connect terms with AND to find results that include all terms, or use OR to find results containing any of the terms.
More Search Options
You can refine your search further using the options lower on the page. As shown in the image below, you can limit results by publication date and restrict your search to peer-reviewed journal articles for more precise results.
As you scroll down the page, you'll find one of the most popular filtering options: Methodology. This allows you to refine your search based on research methods, including the option to limit results to Empirical Studies.
Many of these additional filters are also available on the search results screen. It may be helpful to start with a broad search and then apply limiters as needed based on your results.
