In your essay you are expected to make reference to the relevant psychological literature, and you are being assessed on your ability to select and use a broad selection of good quality literature predominantly from peer-reviewed, quality publications.
You should start your research by using the Library's databases because they:
You can find the Library's databases on the A-Z Databases page. Databases are grouped by subject area, type, vendor or title. As Informit databases contain a lot of Australian materials you might like to start with the Informit databases.
You will also need to search in the Psychology databases to make sure the resources you chose as the foundation of your essay are coming form a psychology perspective.
When you go into a journal database you will notice that many of them feature multiple search boxes that are stacked one above the other in rows.
While they may look intimidating, they can make your search process easier.
Think of each row as a train of thought. For example, if you were searching for an article about the abuse of children in foster care, you could use a new row for each element of your topic. In this case you might search for:
1st search row: "foster care"
2nd search row: child* OR youth
3rd search row: abuse
You'll notice we have used some search tips in the search above. Check out the search strategies page for a listing of these tips.
Tip: If you want to learn more about how to maximise your search using search strategies, contact the Library. We can assist you in creating an effective search strategy.
Sometimes you will read that a database is 'full text', or that an article can be found in 'full text'. 'Full text' means that the entire document is available online. When a database carries an article in full text there will be a hyperlink to view it as either a PDF or html document. Not all journal databases contain full text.
If an article is not available in full text you may be able to locate it in another database. Clicking on the button will allow you to check if the article is available elsewhere.
Check the Informit Advanced Search guide for additional search tips specific to Informit databases.
To see search demonstrations relevant to your essay topic check out the video on the home page of this guide.
Need some help with understanding how to use databases? See our Database Help Guide.
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