Welcome
Welcome! On this guide, you will find helpful resources to assist you with your research assignments in CNED 5105: Counseling Theories. This guide is not exhaustive - meaning you can branch out beyond the suggestions that you find within this guide.
A helpful hint to remember is that research is exploratory process. Good research means that you will be searching different resources (databases, online, catalog, etc.) and you will search each one multiple times with different keyword combinations.
Boolean Operators
Boolean operators are words or symbols that are used in conjunction with words to refine searches.
Here are six helpful ones to use:
- AND - narrows
- Ex: ADHD and boys (this narrows down our results to only include ADHD and boys)
- NOT - excludes
- Ex: ADHD not boys (this narrows down our results to include things about ADHD excluding those that mention boys)
- OR - expands
- Ex: boys or males or guy (this expands our our search to search for multiple possible terms)
- * - expands
- Ex: rac* (using the asterisk in replace of an ending on a word will expand your search to include results that have any ending on the base word.)
- " " - exact phrase
- Ex: "executive functioning" (this pulls up results that are stated in the item exactly as written)
- ( ) - confine
- Ex: (ADHD or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder) AND (boys or guys or males) - (this will instruct the database or search engine on what parts go together in your search phrase