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Psychology Research Guide

Recommended Databases

Best Databases for Finding Empirical Research in Psychology

Start with the three databases below to find empirical research studies for Psychology courses. Of the three, APA PsycInfo should be your first choice!

  • Remember to use the Methodology limiting feature! Select EMPIRICAL STUDY in APA PsycInfo or APA PsycArticles. 
  • For other databases, you can add the word Empirical to your search as a keyword.
  • The above approaches are NOT PERFECT. You will need to read the methods section of the article to double check.

Search Strategies

Tips for Searching APA PsycInfo and Other Database

  • Combine concepts (a.k.a. keywords) using AND, OR, & NOT. See diagram for visual representation.
    • AND should narrow the search, reducing the number of results
    • OR generally expands the search, increasing the number of results
    • NOT is used to exclude a subset of results 

Diagram that visually represents AND, OR, and NOT and how they work when using them for keyword searching in databases

Diagram adapted from Diagram Explaining Boolean Operators by Cecelia Vetter is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

  • Select Peer Reviewed and/or Academic Journals if your professor specifies 
  • Adjust the publication date range depending on your professor's instructions. Maybe limit to the last five years.
  • Use the Methodology Option in the left column to specify empirical study, literature review, systematic review, etc.

Results screen from simple APA PsycInfo Search using trust AND relationships AND (teenagers or adolescents)

View a larger image

  • A closer look at the Methodology limiting options

Methodology limiter opened with empirical study checked and indicating a link to show more options

 

Empirical Articles

What is an Empirical Article?

  • Empirical means experience or data derived from observation or experiment.
  • The articles contain original research (such as scientific experiments, surveys and research studies) and are therefore considered primary sources.
  • They are published in scholarly, peer-reviewed journals.

Parts of an Empirical Article

  • Abstract- Summary of article that includes brief information about all the parts in this list
  • Introduction- Often includes a review of the existing literature on the topic studied (literature review), and explain the rationale of the author's study.  This is important because it demonstrates that the authors are aware of existing studies, and are planning to contribute to this existing body of research in a meaningful way (that is, they're not just doing what others have already done).
  • Methods - Authors describe how they collected and analyzed data.  Statistical analysis are included.  This section is quite detailed, as it's important that other researchers be able to verify and/or replicate these methods.
  • Results - Describes the outcomes of the data analysis.  Charts and graphs illustrating the results are typically included.
  • Discussion - Authors will explain their interpretation of their results and theorize on their importance to existing and future research. May also include conclusions and limitations of the study.
  • References or works cited are always included. These are the articles and books that the authors drew upon to plan their study and to support their discussion.

Strategies for Reading Empirical Research Articles

Reading empirical research can be challenging, especially because they usually include discipline-specific terms and statistical analyses. Fortunately, there are approaches you can use to get the most out of your reading (and they don't necessarily involve reading from the first paragraph to the end of the article in order right away). The listed resources offer tips and tricks!

Other Types of Psychology Literature

Characteristics of Review Articles

  • Review articles are sometimes called secondary source articles because they analyze, interpret, and evaluate existing research (primary sources) and summarize their findings or present their key ideas in another organized way. 
  • Review articles are not considered empirical.
  • Examples of review articles include literature reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses, but there are additional variations of these basic types. 
  • Review articles provide useful overviews of the existing literature published on a topic. Students can use the references lists from these articles to identify additional relevant sources to investigate further. 

What are Clinical Studies (a.k.a. Clinical Trials)?

  • Clinical studies are research studies designed to compare a new treatment (could be a drug or something else) with the existing standard of care for an illness or mental health issue. 
  • The term clinical trial is also frequently used for this type of research, and you may hear or see media advertisements that aim to recruit participants for such studies. 
  • The purpose of a clinical trial is often to find better ways to treat people who have a specific disease or disorder. 

Characteristics of Case Studies

  • Case studies are in-depth investigations of narrow and/or well-defined topics and environments. They tend to focus in on a single person, family, event, or place in time. 
  • Case study methodology is often used when researchers want to explore a topic or setting within specifically defined boundaries or constraints.
  • Case studies generally involve the collection of large amounts of varied data about the one entity at the center of the exploration. This data can include information about a person's background, relationships, behavior, etc., which help build a fuller impression of that individual. The narrowed scope of interest means that the results are unlikely to be generalizable to the broader population.

What are Characteristics of Theoretical Articles?

  • Theoretical articles draw on and cite current literature relevant to a field or topic of interest for the purpose of advancing theory development in that field or topic.
  • In a theoretical article, the author may propose an original theory of their own that they believe better explains empirical research outcomes they have identified. They will likely connect their theory to previous theories and literature to demonstrate a progression of thought. 
  • Instead of proposing a new theory, some authors will critique existing theories and point out gaps or inconsistencies. They may argue in favor of one theory over another or advocate for additional work to develop more suitable theories.
  • Other terms associated with theories and theoretical works include concepts/conceptual, frames/frameworks, models, and perspectives.

What is Meant by Grey Literature?

  • Grey literature includes papers, reports, technical notes, and other documents published by government agencies, academic institutions, professional organizations, and other groups that are not peer reviewed and are not generally distributed by commercial publishers.
  • It often represents writing and reports that have undergone internal review but not rigorous academic peer review before sharing or distribution.
  • Grey literature can go on to become academic/scholarly literature if it goes through peer review and is published by a scholarly journal. If the grey literature involves empirical research, when it succeeds through peer review and publishing, it then becomes primary literature in the discipline.