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Psychology

Use this guide to start your research in psychology courses.

Generating Topic Ideas

If you are able to choose your topic:

  • Does anything in today's news interest you?
  • Look over recent hot topics
  • Review your class readings
  • Consider your personal interests
  • Talk to someone: a friend, your instructor, a librarian
 

Using AI for Topic Ideas

While you should not use or cannot trust AI for every step in the research process, it is a great tool for helping you narrow down and refine a topic you're interested in researching. See this example using ChatGPT:

Learn About Your Topic and Its Context

It is always easier to research a topic when you know more about it. Before using library databases you should confidently be able to speak about your topic on a basic level. 

To learn more about your topic, just Google it! Look for overviews or sites that summarize the topic. Books often provide an overview, and you can find them using the search box on the library's homepage. Use Wikipedia to find definitions, timelines, key players and explanations. (You still shouldn't cite Wikipedia in your final paper, but it can and should be used as you learn about your topic.)

Understand your topic and its context:

  • to search better
  • to understand more
     

Potential starting places:

620 West Clairemont Avenue
715-833-6285 | library@cvtc.edu