Any given topic can be described using different terms. For instance, "Posttraumatic Stress Disorder" was once known as "shell shock" or "battle fatigue." Those terms have fallen out of use, but even if you use the term "Posttraumatic Stress Disorder" there is no guarantee you will find articles where the author(s) used "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder" (with a hyphen) or "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder" (without a hyphen) or simply "PTSD." PsycINFO and other APA databases have built a "thesaurus" of terms used to describe the topic of an article. You can use the thesaurus to figure out the exact language that the database uses.
The video below describes the APA Thesaurus and how it can be used to expand (or narrow) your searches.
Gordon-Conwell provides access to PsycINFO through the ProQuest database platform. Below is a demonstration of using the PsycINFO thesaurus in ProQuest.
You can search PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO and PsycBOOKS all at the same time and still have access to the powerful Thesaurus!
First open up PsycINFO or PsycARTICLES or PsycBOOKS and then click the "Change databases" menu item:
Check off the databases you would like to search (if you search the databases that start with "Psyc", you will be able to continue to use the Thesaurus. Then click the "Use selected databases" button.
