The thesaurus is a feature that you can use in PsycARTICLES that will help you with narrowing your topic. It is also a helpful tool when browsing for a topic. Type in your keyword and the thesaurus will find the subject term for you!
♦ A few words about the Thesaurus Authority File. This file contains subject headings from the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms. Subjects are indexed for every record in the database, which describes the focus of the document. This indexing allows us to use subject headings to search for articles with a particular focus for our chosen topic.
* In other words the thesaurus helps make searching easier and more successful!
Below are instructions on how to use this database's thesaurus.
Open PsycARTICLES.
When you've opened the link, you can either browse the list of search terms or type in a keyword. For this search let's use depression.
The word "depression" is not considered a major subject term, but the thesaurus pointed us in the correct direction.
♦ Notice under the red arrow (in the image below) another subject term related to depression was also listed.
Clicking on Depression (Emotion) opened more subject terms.
Next let's click on Separation Reactions.
This is the topic I was looking for, click on Separation Anxiety Disorders.
Now it's time to add the subject term to your search.
Check the box next to Separation Anxiety Disorder, then click the Add box.
The link below takes you directly to the psychology database when you're on campus.
Off-campus access is available with your library card number found on the back of your student ID card. When prompted for this number be sure to use a capital D and your digits with no spaces in between, for example D8692xxxxx.
If you are in need of a student ID card come to the LRC/Library, (2nd floor, Centers building), and ask at the main desk.