Subjects list: the APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms
Next to "Filters" and "Search options," there is a tab for "Subjects." The Subjects tab allows you to add any keywords or phrases from the APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms to your search parameters.
The APA Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms is the official vocabulary used by the American Psychological Association (APA) to classify subjects. Checking to see if and how a term is listed in the Thesaurus can help focus and refine a search.
In the Subjects tab, there will be an additional search box for browsing the Thesaurus. Enter your desired keyword and click the magnifying glass to search the index. Results can be ranked by relevancy or alphabetically based on your keyword.
A list of terms will populate. You can add any of these terms to your search by checking the small box to the left-hand side of the term and then clicking "Add to search."
Some terms will have a checkbox in the "Explode" column; this means that this particular term is tied to other similar terms or has associated subheadings. For example, the term "adolescent development" explodes to include "adolescent characteristics" and "adolescent health." You can choose a Boolean term (AND, OR, NOT) from the "Join terms using:" drop down menu before adding more keywords to your search parameters from the Thesaurus.
Searching for the word "adolescent" or the phrase "adolescent development" would return relevant results, but selecting "adolescent development" from the Thesaurus may return more focused results of the subject.
For more information about subject searching in EBSCOhost databases, visit our EBSCOhost Subject Searching LibGuide.
