Searching PsycINFO for Cross-Cultural Psychology Information

Subject Headings

PsycINFO uses subject headings to describe all the articles in the database. You can search those subject headings by clicking on the "Thesaurus" link and search for subjects. This is a great way to find related subject headings and to find the preferred terminology for a topic. Often, the thesaurus will include a brief description of the subject heading.

Some headings to consider (there are many others that may be helpful):

• Cross Cultural Psychology: Branch of psychology that studies members of various cultural groups and their specific cultural experiences resulting in similarities and differences in human behavior.
• Cross Cultural Differences: Used for comparisons between populations with different psychological, sociological, or cultural mores. Used for comparisons both within and across countries.
• Sociocultural Factors
• Culture bound syndromes: A pathological behavior pattern that is specific to a particular geographic, ethnic, or cultural group.
• Folk psychology: Branch of psychology that deals with legends, beliefs, folklore, and customs of a race or people, especially primitive societies.
• Indigenous populations
• * cultural groups: (ex: South Asian cultural groups; Korean cultural groups. Note, not all cultural groups have a subject heading)

Finding articles by authors from a particular country

If you are looking for articles that are written by authors in a particular country, you can use the "Author affiliation" field.  In the advanced search, enter the country you are interested in and then choose "Author Affiliation (AF)" from the drop down box. Add your other search terms in the next rows.  This will find any article that has at least one author from that country.

Other places to search for articles

Some library databases give you only the citation and abstract of the article.  So if you've found a perfect article, how do you get to the full text?  The truth is, the full text can be in different locations, so follow these steps to get to find the article. (details for each step are below)

1. Make sure what you're looking for is an article.

2. Look for any direct links to the article.

3. Use the Find It! button

4. Check Google Scholar

5. Request the article from Interlibrary Loan

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1. Is the source an article?

Before you spend too much time trying to find an article, make sure it's an article, not a book, a book chapter, or some other source. Most databases will give you that information. If what you're looking for is in a book, search for the title of that book (not the book chapter) in Catalyst.

If we don't have the book, search for it on WorldCat and request the book via ILL from there.

2. Check for direct links to full text

If there is a link to the full text from the database, click it! It will say PDF Full Text, HTML Full Text, Linked Full Text, or something similar.

3. Use the Find It! button

The "Find It" button 

 searches Carleton and St. Olaf libraries to see if we have the article and if so, how to access it. 

If there is online access, click the title of the database to get to the full text.  

[visual description: screen shot of the Catalyst screen showing a link to online access of an article. Click the link after "Full text available from..."]

If it's in print, click on the Physical Copies tab and write down the call number so you can find the journal. Journals are shelved on the 3rd floor of the library.

If the journal is in print at St. Olaf, click the link for the St. Olaf Print Periodicals. You'll need to log in to Catalyst first, and then request the journal.

[visual description: screen shot showing the "Sign in for request options" link]

If we don't have access to the journal, move on to the next steps:

4. Check Google Scholar

• Scholar.google.com

Google Scholar indexes scholarly content on the Internet, including content that may be available for free. Search for the title of the article in quotes. 

If there is free access, it will be linked on the right side next to the results by clicking on Carleton Full Text as shown below.

NOTE: Google Scholar will also point you to the publisher's site, which will ask you for money to purchase the article if the library doesn't have a subscription to that journal. Order the article through ILL instead (see step 5).

5. Request from InterLibrary Loan

• ILLiad

Request articles we don't have through InterLibrary Loan. Articles will be scanned and sent to you as a pdf, and typically arrive in 2-3 days, but can take longer.  

Click "Request Document via ILLiad" from the Catalyst page (see above).  Log in with your Carleton username and password, and the form will be filled out for the article.  

You can also submit a request manually through ILLiad.