Learning the Library and Discovering Your Interests

Part 1: Written Piece 
De Clercq, L. E., Dieleman, L. M., van der Kaap-Deeder, J., Soenens, B., Prinzie, P., & De
Pauw, S. S. W. (2021). Negative Controlling Parenting and Child Personality as
Modifiers of Psychosocial Development in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A 9-
Year Longitudinal Study at the Level of Within-Person Change. Journal of Autism and
Developmental Disorders, 51(8), 2891–2907. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04761-
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Database: Ebscohost
Area of Psychology: Developmental Psychology
Why this article is of interest to me: The article explains the role of the parent and personality
affect the developmental outcomes among autistic children.
Hommel, B. (2020). Pseudo‐mechanistic Explanations in Psychology and Cognitive
Neuroscience. Topics in Cognitive Science, 12(4), 1294–1305.
https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12448
Database: Academic Search Complete
Area of Psychology: Cognitive Psychology
Why this article is of interest to me: The article argues that it is time that
cognitive neuroscientists adopt a mature “Galilean” science in a move to discover the actual
mechanisms involved in a person’s cognitive processes.

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Langhout, R. D., Rodriguez Ramirez, D., Vaccarino, R. S. S., Alonso Blanco, V., Quinteros, K.,
Copulsky, D., & Lopezzi, M. A. (2021). Teaching and learning during a pandemic: How
one graduate community psychology class quickly incorporated healing justice into our
practices. American Journal of Community Psychology, 68(1–2), 249–265.
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12524
Database: Ebscohost
Area of Psychology: Community Psychology
Why this article is of interest to me: The article describes the different components of the
healing justice model, and the role played by each in responding to trauma.
Seto, M. C. (2021). That the powerful play goes on: Advances in forensic psychology, and next
steps. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 62(2), 161–166.
https://doi.org/10.1037/cap0000269
Database: PsychInfo
Area of Psychology: Forensic Psychology
Why this article is of interest to me: The article demonstrates how theories such as the social
cognitive theory are changing correctional practices across the globe.
Shaw, J., Rade, C. B., Fisher, B. W., Freund, N., & Tompsett, C. J. (2021). Criminal justice and
community psychology: Our values and our work—The introduction to the special
issue. American Journal of Community Psychology, 67(1–2), 3–6.
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12508
Database: Ebscohost

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Area of Psychology: Community Psychology
Why this article is of interest to me: The article explores the ways in which community
psychologists are developing supports and coming up with appropriate interventions to deal with
the unique needs of a diverse population; and efforts in place to enhance the systems, structures,
and relations with units of correctional systems.
Part 2: Mentorship Exchange
The process of searching for the databases was easy and difficult in equal measure. First
of all, it was difficult to sort out the relevant information that I needed from all the search results
that I was getting. I needed to get current journal articles, and I was getting a combination of
some very old articles. Sorting the articles to current ones and, specifically, those with the
relevant information was quite challenging. Navigating the databases and identifying and
deciding the sources that I had to use for this assignment took quite a lot of time. I needed
sources that are of interest to me and my area of specialization. I also wanted articles that
reinforced the information I had acquired previously. Searching through any search results was
difficult.
However, I identified strategies to use to overcome these challenges. First, to single out
relevant articles that contained information that is of interest to me, I used and combined phrases
and keywords. This helped sieve out all articles that did not contain specific information that I
was interested in, and the search results had the data that I needed. I also used wildcards and
truncation. I used search words accompanied with marks such as ‘*’ and ‘!’. This helped me get an
exact match of the words that I used to search the articles. Additionally, in some instances, I
decided to use the “subject search” option. For example, to identify an article on developmental

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psychology, I used the subject search option because previous searches were not yielding the
results that I needed.
Additionally, I used my imagination to come up with possible ways to phrase the words
to get me the desired results. I brainstormed all possible ways of searching, and eventually, I was
able to identify an article that matched my interests. I used the results of my first searches as
clues to guide and lead me to other areas that I needed. Lastly, I ensured that I did not limit my
search to only one database. I have articles from three different databases. I realized that one
search in two different databases could yield totally different results. Thus, by searching a variety
of databases, I found several options to choose from, and it became easy to identify journal
articles that matched my interests.
One of the things about the research process that I found pleasurable was being able to
interact with very many articles and read through them to identify if they matched my interests. I
discovered a lot of information related to psychology. Although most of these articles contained
information that was not relevant to me, I saved several to revisit later. I found this process
exciting as I was able to gather a small collection of psychology articles that I can refer to later
whenever I need such information. I learnt quite a lot, and this was quite fulfilling. Another thing
that I found pleasurable was discovering that I had an interest in forensic psychology. I read very
many articles on the same and found myself wanting to read and discover more. It is an
interesting area in psychology that I will read more on. Although I do not plan on practicing in
this field at a professional level, I will read for personal knowledge.
Overall, the part of the process that came easily for me was citing the articles. I seem to
have gained a lot of expertise in this area over the course of my learning. I did not struggle with
generating the citations, and that is one thing that I am proud of. Additionally, creating the

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RefWorks account was a new experience. Although I have never done this before, I was able to
follow the instructions provided in the RefWorks Guide to create my account and store all the
articles that I identified during the search. I found this account effective and convenient at the
same time. It makes it very easy to revisit an article that I have used in the past without repeating
the whole search process in the library. Overall, I learnt quite a lot through the entire process.

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References

De Clercq, L. E., Dieleman, L. M., van der Kaap-Deeder, J., Soenens, B., Prinzie, P., & De
Pauw, S. S. W. (2021). Negative Controlling Parenting and Child Personality as
Modifiers of Psychosocial Development in Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A 9-
Year Longitudinal Study at the Level of Within-Person Change. Journal of Autism and
Developmental Disorders, 51(8), 2891–2907. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04761-
4
Hommel, B. (2020). Pseudo‐mechanistic Explanations in Psychology and Cognitive
Neuroscience. Topics in Cognitive Science, 12(4), 1294–1305.
https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12448
Langhout, R. D., Rodriguez Ramirez, D., Vaccarino, R. S. S., Alonso Blanco, V., Quinteros, K.,
Copulsky, D., & Lopezzi, M. A. (2021). Teaching and learning during a pandemic: How
one graduate community psychology class quickly incorporated healing justice into our
practices. American Journal of Community Psychology, 68(1–2), 249–265.
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12524
Seto, M. C. (2021). That the powerful play goes on: Advances in forensic psychology, and next
steps. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, 62(2), 161–166.
https://doi.org/10.1037/cap0000269
Shaw, J., Rade, C. B., Fisher, B. W., Freund, N., & Tompsett, C. J. (2021). Criminal justice and
community psychology: Our values and our work—The introduction to the special
issue. American Journal of Community Psychology, 67(1–2), 3–6.
https://doi.org/10.1002/ajcp.12508