Hi. I'm Toby, your embedded librarian and I've created this guide to help you with your research for PSY101 and PSY102.

Each section introduces the steps you should take when researching for an assessment. You'll find links to videos and resources that will give you the tools to find great information. Use the activities on the test your knowledge tab to see what you need to revise.

Whether you are taking PSY101 and PSY102 together, or one subject at a time, the skills we are helping you build through this RSG are relevant for both subjects. As you work through this guide, look out for the subject code in bold for specific guidance for PSY101 Assessment item 2 and PSY102 Assessment item 3.

If you would like an introduction to our Library website and services check out:

The first thing is to make sure you clearly understand your task and what topic you are seeking information for.  This is called a topic analysis. Read your assessment task details closely in your Subject Outline.

With an understanding of your task you then need to plan how you will search for information. This starts with identifying and brainstorming keywords.

Let's take a look at your task for PSY101 Assessment item 2, an essay requiring you to explore the claim in popular culture that listening to Mozart enhances cognitive performance.

Does this task place any limits? These might be "in the last X years" or Australian content. 

Now let's look at your task for PSY102 Assessment item 3, a research report investigating the correlation between personality traits and subjective wellbeing

Also consider variations of key terms when conducting your searches. For example, the word wellbeing can also be spelt as well-being and well being. Similarly, Big Five can also be spelt as Big-Five, Big 5 or Big-5. Truncation is a useful search tool that accommodates different variations of spelling, and can be demonstrated below in Create a search strategy.

For guidance in topic analysis check out:

Before you start searching, think about what types of information you need and where you can search to find those types of resources.

Primo Search

Primo Search is a good place to start as it allows you to use one search box to bring back results from most of our Library collection including books, eBooks, journal articles, newspaper articles and more. You may get a large number of results and some of these will be from outside your subject/discipline area. Check the content is relevant to your assessment task before you use it.

Library databases

Databases will help you find academic resources and are often subject specific. They are extremely valuable to students of psychology.  Database searching will produce fewer results than Primo, but those results will be more relevant to your subject/discipline. 

Look for HTML and PDF links to access the full text of an article. If the full text is not available when you are searching in databases, click on the  button to check if the article is available to you in a different database.

I recommend trying the following databases:

The Psychology databases list has more databases you can search.

Learn how to search efficiently in Primo and Library databases:

When you search using Primo Search or a library database use the keywords and limits you identified above to create your search. Combine the keywords with "search operators", rather than searching with a whole sentence or question. Search operators tell Primo or the database how to search with your keywords.

For PSY101 assessment item 2 potential search strings could include:

• "mozart effect" AND cognitive (performance OR function)
• "music training" AND intelligen*
• spatial (task* OR reasoning) AND music effect*

And for PSY102 assessment item 3 potential search strings could include:

• Personality AND "subjective well*"
• (Big five OR Big 5) AND happiness
• "Positive psychology" AND "personality traits"

Remember: you will need to try a range of searches. Don't stop after just one.

To understand how search operators work check out:

Find Peer Reviewed Articles

In PSY102 you will have been given lists of required and recommended readings. You can use these readings to find additional resources on your topic by undertaking footnote chasing and citation searching.

Footnote chasing

Inspect the reference lists of articles you have already found to source related readings.  These readings will be older than the original article, so keep this in mind if your lecturer would like you to use recent material.

Citation searching

Some (but not all) databases have a feature that allows you to see who has cited the article you're looking at.  This will lead you to more recently published articles.

The Academic Skills team help you build your writing, referencing and reading skills to be successful at Uni.

Check out their support and resources under Learning Skills in the Student Portal.

Here are some pages to get you started:

Have you been asked to use Generative AI Tools (GAITs) in your assessment? Or are you thinking of using GAITs for research and study? 

Make sure you are aware of the risks associated with using GAITs:

• Academic integrity
• Plagiarism
• Inaccurate content
• Intellectual property
• Privacy concerns.

For more information see:

Microsoft Copilot

Microsoft Copilot is a chat interface that uses ChatGPT 4 to generate answers based on questions or prompts that you write.

Copilot is free, does not require a login and provides real-time information and citations. To learn more check out the Digital Skills modules.

If you're interested in finding out more, check out the following: