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PSY290 - Research Methods

Resouces for research methods in Psychology

The purpose of this guide is to provide PVCC PSY290 students with the resources needed to support PSY290 assignments.

Library OneSearch

Search library resources for articles, books, movies, and more. You may find it helpful to the first search in psychology specific databases listed below or dive right into the Onesearch - the Library's version of Google - it searches most of our databases all at once.

Try phrasing your search like this example: -    "obsessive-compulsive disorder" AND "empirical study"


Search library resources for articles, books, movies, and more
 

  

Locate Empirical/Scholarly Research

  • Use quotes for specific phrases, (e.g.) "obsessive-compulsive disorder."

  • Check of full text to locate the entire text of an article.

  • Check of "peer-reviewed" to retrieve only scholarly journals with original research.

  • Brainstorm possible keywords to search on before beginning.

Specialized Reference Books & Encyclopedias

Lay a firm foundation for your paper using these authoritative reference sources:

How to Search in OneSearch Video

Identifying Empirical Research

What is Empirical Research?

Empirical means experience or data derived from observation or experiment. Empirical research articles are published in scholarly peer-reviewed (or refereed) journal articles and describe how and why an experiment was conducted.

Most empirical research articles include the following components: 

  • Abstract

  • Introduction

  • Literature Review

  • Methodology or Experiment

  • Results

  • Discussion or Conclusions

  • References

See more info:

How to Read a Scholarly Article

What is a Peer-Reviewed Article?