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MFT Theory

Guide to accompany MFT summer theory courses: Bowen, Brief, Experiential, Internal Family Systems, Narrative

Search for Articles

Step 1:  Start your search for scholarly articles in an article database such as APA PsycInfo or Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection.  

 

Step 2:  Search for one or more of the terms from your topic, such as brief

The Subjects area of a database can help you identify what term is used in that particular database to describe your concept/theory. For example, a search for brief in the Subjects offers helpful terms such as Brief Interventions and Brief Psychotherapy:

Subjects search in APA PsycInfo with search term of brief and results of Brief interventions and brief psychotherapy

Tips:

  • Separate the terms using AND (to find articles with all terms) or OR (to find articles with either term).  
  • Using an asterisk (*) will truncate the ending of a word and search for all variations (i.e. divorc* would find divorce, divorced, and divorcing).
  • Limiting to Subjects will narrow your search to articles on that topic, rather than those that may mention the term. This is another way to access the same subject terms.

APA Psycinfo search using dropdown option of subjects to search for experiential psychotherapy

 

Step 3: When searching for topics related to marriage and family, it can be helpful to limit to a subset of articles on those topics.  To do that, type in 295* or 3310 or 3313 and change the drop-down menu to Classification.  Doing so searches those areas in the APA PsycInfo Classification Codes (locate them on the Advanced Search page or on the APA website).

2950 Marriage & Family 
2953 Divorce & Remarriage 
2956 Childrearing & Child Care 

3310 Psychotherapy & Psychotherapeutic Counseling 

3313 Group & Family Therapy 

APA PsycInfo search for a subject phrase of Experiential Psychotherapy and a second search phrase of 295* OR 3310 OR 3313 within the Classification drop-down menu

 

Step 4:  Narrow your results as needed using the filters. Subject, Age, and Methodology are especially helpful in APA PsycInfo.

All Filters options showing on the right side of the results page after having clicked All filters from below search box

 

Step 5:  If you find too few results, try broadening your search by using an asterisk (divorc*), listing synonyms or related words (therapy or treatment), or changing the drop-down menu to TX All Text, which will search within the full text of documents.

APA psycinfo search for communicat* within the All Text dropdown

Step 6:  When you find a helpful article, search for the article in Google Scholar, and choose the Cited By link to see what other books/articles have cited it. 

Step 7: Don't see the full text of the article? Try these options:

  • Click check for full text to link directly to the article or search the SPU library catalog and see if we have the journal full text in print or in another database.  
  • Search Google Scholar and Google or other search engine by article title to see if it is available freely online.
  • Request via Interlibrary Loan and you'll receive it within about a week.

APA Psycinfo Access Options dropdown menu, showing check for full text, Request via Interlibrary Loan, PDF, and Online Full text access

Set up your Ebsco account

Set up your Ebsco account to save articles in folders across all Ebsco databases (e.g. Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete).

  1. Open an Ebsco database, such as Academic Search Complete or APA PsycInfo (list of all SPU databases)
  2. Choose Sign In at the top of the screen. 
  3. Click on Create an Account to set up your personalized Ebsco account (not your SPU username and password).
  4. Remember to always sign in when saving/adding to project in Ebsco or they will not be retained after you close your browser! Ebsco database option to save article or other options to add to project