Sample research question: Why am I a shopaholic?!
A literature review is a critical summary of what the scientific literature says about a topic. The authors are reviewing research articles or studies that have been conducted on the topic. This is a great place to start your research, but note that you may not find a literature review on every topic.
An empirical research article reports the results of a study that uses data derived from actual observation or experimentation. The authors of the article conducted the research themselves. The articles usually contain the following elements:
How has the Internet fueled shopping addiction?
| Major Concepts | shopping | Internet | addiction |
| Keywords |
buying spending consumerism |
social media |
compulsions emotional states |
In PsycInfo, limit your search by Methodology to search for review or empirical articles.
Use the Thesaurus to search for the preferred terminology of the database. Sometimes your keywords won't match.