PsycInfo Thesaurus Searching

Searching PsycInfo with Thesarus Terms

"Keyword" searching is the default approach to information discovery. Keywords are words used in certain fields in a citation. 

These are usually words taken from an article title, abstract, journal title, and author supplied "keywords" that describe the content of an article.

The words in the different parts of a citation are chosen by the authors(s) of the article.

These words are considered "uncontrolled vocabulary" in the sense that the author(s) had the freedom to describe their work with whatever words they wanted. 

Controlled Vocabulary

Thesaurus terms are "controlled vocabulary".

They are "controlled" in that words and phrases are thoughtfully selected by experts for inclusion in a subject specific (medicine, physics, psychology, etc.) thesaurus. 

The chosen words and phrases describe things, ideas and phenomena that constitute the subject domain.

Literature reviewers and indexers carefully select fitting thesaurus terms from a subject specific thesaurus to describe the content of journal articles.

Searching with thesaurus terms decreases the number of items retrieved and improves the relevancy of the retrieved items, independent of the terminology used by an article's author(s).

Let's Try It!

Assume you are searching for literature that addresses peoples academic ability.

Search for the words academic ability.

 A result of about 3966 citations is a lot.  (You likely retrieved a few more, as citations are constantly being added to the database.)

Scan the retrieved citations and notice how some citations have the words 'academic' and 'ability', but do not address the concept of academic ability. (rather 'cognitive abilities' near the word 'academic')

Retrieving citations that are not related to the sought topic, are drawbacks to keyword searching.

Lets try using the thesaurus.

Thesaurus Searching

Click on"

"APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms"

in the topmost blue menu bar.

(If your window is small, you will only see a "hamburger menu" in the top-left corner. Click on it and select "Thesaurus").

In the search box under

      "Browsing: APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Term",

type the phrase

      "academic ability"

and click on the "Browse" button.

Note that the red lettered response states that the terms you entered could not be found; bummer.

However, when you look at the terms that were retrieved, you will see the term "Academic Aptitude" listed part-way down the list.  Serendipity!

What's in a Thesaurus Entry?

Click on the phrase "Academic Aptitude".

 A thesaurus entry provides a definition of the term (Scope Note). In this instance your original term "ability" is part of the definition.

Additionally, related and broader (and often narrower) terms that are associated with the concept are provided.

This is another function of a thesaurus that imparts value in addition to finding an appropriate search term.

You can learn a sphere of concepts germane to a subject while searching for specific content.  The more you know.

Let's finish searching...

Doing the Search

Check the square box to the left of the term "Academic Aptitude".

Then click the "Add" button above the thesaurus entry.  This puts the thesaurus term in the top-most search box.

Click the green "Search" button next to the search box.

The search still retrieves may citations, but significantly fewer than searching for the words academic and ability.

Also, each citation has been assigned the thesaurus term "Academic Aptitude" as is seen in the Subjects: listing just below the citation and the content of the articles addresses the concept.

At this point you can combine the concept with another concept to further narrow down the scope and amount of information retrieved.

Further Narrowing the Search

For fun, add the word "intelligence" in the second search box and click on "Search". The amount and scope of the retrieved information is now more narrow and focused.

By the way, other citation databases may have searchable thesauri, look for them!

Feedback

If you have thoughts and/or comments about this tutorial, please share them with me, thank you.