Basic search - type in the name of the psychological condition you plan to research:
Clarify a specific conditions by adding words:
Some words, like "depression" can refer to a person's mental health or to the Great Depression, the economic period of the 1930s, so clarify your search by adding the term "mental health."
Add words to clarify the specific type of condition you are looking for
Try to search for terms in initials / or spelling out the words:
Try searching both terms that mean the same thing:
Try a combination of terms:
Combine multiple search terms in a single search string is a type of advanced search that saves time
For example, instead of doing two searches, one for "narcissistic personality disorder" and a second one for "borderline personality disorder" you can find information for both by setting up this advanced search string:
In this search string you are telling the database to bring back articles about either narcissistic OR borderline personality disorders. As you skim the results you can compare them to see similarities or differences and make a decision about which to pursue further or it you would like to research both.
