Developmental Psychology - Greensburg Campus

This guide will assist you in completing your assignment for Psychology 0310: Developmental Psychology or 0311: Lifespan Development.  It will also provide you with links to helpful sites and people.

According to the UPG program sheet for psychology, this discipline is "the scientific study of human behavior and deals with learning and motivation, perception, development and adjustment of human personality, social relations, and methods of research used in analyzing human behavior."

• Develop a topic that asks a question or poses a problem that interests you.
• Select appropriate search terms for your subject. For example:
  • self esteem
  • child abuse
  • adoption
  • identity (social, racial, etc)
  • media violence
• Search PsycINFO and if necessary, other subject oriented databases such as ERIC or Medline.
• Revise your search terms if needed. Determine how you will find an article to contribute to your group.
• Evaluate your resources carefully!  Make sure you have chosen a scholarly article.
• When in doubt, contact your librarian.

Tip: Keep in mind that keywords are tricky, they will evolve and you'll likely come across better ones as you begin searching. The more you search and learn about your topic, the easier it will be to develop keywords.

For more practice, watch this video from the University of Houston Libraries to learn more about this process.