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Psychology: Find Articles

A guide to resources on psychology. Choose from the tabs below to locate specific kinds of resources.

Find a Scholarly Research Journal Article for PSY241 Module 1 Discussion Board

This video was created to assist PSY241 students with Discussion Board 1. However, it can be helpful for any students looking for scholarly articles with original research INCLUDING students writing Literature Reviews.

How to Read a Scholarly Research Article

 ​Picture of Scholarly ARticle, Abstract

An abstract summarizes, usually in one paragraph of 300 words or less, the major aspects of the entire paper.

Parts usually include:

1) the overall purpose of the study and the research problem(s)

2) the basic design of the study

3) major findings or trends found as a result of the analysis

4) a brief summary of the interpretations and conclusions.

 

 

 

This article can be found at 

Carlo, G., McGinley, M., Hayes, R., Batenhorst, C., & Wilkinson, J. (2007). Parenting styles or practices? Parenting, sympathy, and prosocial behaviors among adolescents. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 168(2), 147-76. https://proxy154.nclive.org/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/docview/228539106?accountid=13601

Picture of Scholarly Article, Intro and Lit ReviewThe introduction leads the reader from a general subject area to a particular topic of inquiry. It discusses the scope, context, and significance of the research being conducted by summarizing current understanding and background information about the topic, stating the purpose of the work, explaining briefly the methodological approach used to examine the research problem, highlighting the potential outcomes your study can reveal, and outlining the remaining structure and organization of the paper.

 

The Introduction begins after the Abstract. In this case, the Introduction also refers to other studies in the research area and serves as a Review of the Literature.

 

 

 

PIcture of Scholarly Article Methods Section

The methods section will describe the research design and methodology used to complete to the study.  The general rule of thumb is that readers should be provided with enough detail to replicate the study.​

You will find information about 

  • participants
  • measures and scales, which include surveys, inventories, and questionnaires
  • conditions of tests

PIcture of Scholarly ARticle, resultsIn this section, the results of the analysis are presented.  How the results are presented will depend upon whether the research study was quantitative or qualitative in nature.  This section should focus only on results that are directly related to the research or the problem. Graphs and tables should only be used when there is too much data to efficiently include it within the text.  This section should present the results, but not discuss their significance.

Picture of Scholarly Article, Discussion SectionThis section should be a discussion of the results and the implications on the field, as well as other fields. The hypothesis should be answered and validated by the interpretation of the results.  This section should also discuss how the results relate to previous research mentioned in the literature review, any cautions about the findings, and potential for future research.

Picture of Scholarly ARticle, author notes sectionThis section establishes the credibility of the authors. 

The Author Notes can be at the end or the very beginning of the article, either before or after the Abstract.

Picture of Scholarly Article, referencesThe research paper is not complete without the list of references. This section should be an alphabetized list of all the academic sources of information utilized in the paper.  The format of the references will match the format and style used in the paper, such as APA or MLA.

Citing a Source Within a Source (Secondhand or Secondary Source)

Academic articles, books, and other sources often refer to previously published articles, books and other sources. You'll usually see the author of the previous source in the sentence or in the intext citation.

You will NOT include this source as if you read the study yourself.

For example, there is a paper written by Anderson that is referred to in an article written by Robb. You read the article by Robb; NOT the paper by Anderson. This is what you write:

According to Anderson's 2013 study (as cited in Robb, 2019), learning APA "can be difficult, especially when students are focusing on content area and not writing styles" (p. 33). In addition, some elements of APA seem subjective to students (Anderson, 2013 as cited in Robb, 2019).

In the reference list, you include the article you read; not the article you read about.

Robb, L. (2019). Librarianship in community colleges. Journal of Libraries, 110(2), 31-35. https://doil.something/something/000000. 

How the Library Helps You Identify Types of Sources

Psychology Databases

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Accessing Rowan-Cabarrus Resources

When first accessing Rowan-Cabarrus' resources you will prompted to enter your Blackboard login at a screen like this. Only enter your Blackboard login and password (NOT @student.rccc.edu). If you need further assistance, please go to our Remote Access help page. 

screen showing database access

How to find Research Studies (the easiest way)

1. Use one of the psychology databases listed in the box above. For example the Psychology Database will open like this.

Here I've searched for personality AND infants. The more search terms you string together with AND, the more specific your results will be. Also, multi-word keywords should be searched in quotes (for example "attachment theory"). 

Picture of search box, psych

2. My search results are still large but I can narrow them further by adding keywords, and clicking full-text and scholarly journals. I can also change my publication date.

Picture of the search results in Psychology Database

3. After using the narrowing criteria (filters) in step 2, I chose an article that contains the parts of a scholarly article that my teacher wants. After clicking the title of the article, I see this. Viewing an article in PDF will make the sections more obvious than in HTML. Grab your APA citation and keep this article from getting lost by emailing it to yourself by using the tools in this box.

Picture of article, tools circled

4. Be patient! Research involves SEARCH. I had to preview five articles before finding the one I really wanted.