Social Ecology Undergraduate Honors Research - SE 190A - 2024-25

As we learn about your individual information needs we will post recommended sources that may be helpful in directing you to resources.  Factors such as age of subject(s), specific environment contribute to the keywords that you may use - then check the Descriptors associated with the entry for additional refinements you can make to your search strategy.  The PsycINFO Thesaurus is also online.  Use the Limits at the end of the search box to also focus your search. 

Databases A-Z lists alphabetically by title all databases at UCI with brief annotations for coverage & scope.

PsycINFO, Criminal Justice Abs, Social Services Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, Agricultural & Environmental Sciences Collection, PAIS, and other databases are part of the Proquest platform and can be searched together reducing the duplicate entries however you lose the added functionality found especially in PsycINFO when you do that.

Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete, CINAHL Complete, Communications Abstracts, Education Source Complete, Family & Society Studies Worldwide, ERIC, are among many databases on the EBSCO platform and can be searched concurrently and de-dup references.

Google Search will retrieve books, book chapters, journal articles and review works - make sure that you have VPN activated to search access to the source

Many of these databases contain fulltext links or will direct you to a FIND at UC icon so you can match content to our holdings.

1.  Improving hate crime legislation for victims of Disabilities - databases such as LegalTrack, Criminal Justice Abstracts with Full Text, NCJRS Abstracts Database, Web of Science, Academic Search Complete, Dissertations & Theses Fulltext; and websites such as The Arc CA, the Dept of Justice Hate Crime Laws & Policies; FBI data on hate crimes based on disability; Law Reviews in NexisUni or in Hein Online covers some of the legislation introduced at the federal & state level.

2.  Cognitive Implications of the Heritage Bilingual Experience - visit the Heritage Languages in America website and the LLBA, America History & Life, Academic Search Complete, PsycINFO, Education Fulltext; Web of Science databases; Census data and options to map with PolicyMap may be helpful. 

3. Impact of Anti-Immigration Laws on Birth Outcomes in Latina Women - Databases including Family & Society Studies Worldwide, Contemporary Women's Issues, Women's Studies International, Sociological Abstracts,PsycINFO, Web of Science, PubMed, Google Scholar; Chicano Database, Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI) will likely all be useful.  This particular article (2014) addresses impact of anti-immigrant sentiments on Latinas.  US Government documents will also be helpful.

4. Examining the association between maternal mental health, paternal mental health & parental disharmony in military families - Databases such as Family & Society Studies Worldwide, PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts, Academic Search Complete, PubMed,CINAHL (Nursing), Web of Science, & Scopus will cover these themes.  May search UCLS under Subject Heading: Military psychiatry

5.  Approach/Avoidance Motivations and Big 5 Personality traits as predictors of conflict resolution in romantic relationships from a gendered perspective - UCLS will provide articles, dissertations and book chapters on this topic and the databases: PsycINFO, Dissertations & Theses Fulltext, Web of Science, Scopus and Academic Search Complete will cover this topic well; may want to visit the Gottman Institute for research conducted on this top as well

6. Privilege Perception and Prosocial Behavior - PsycINFO, Web of Science & Scopus databases cover this topic in different ways; economic viewpoints may be also of interest. 

7. Patterns of racial discrimination in California youth sentencing - the criminal justice and broader social science literature will address this - searching the databases, Criminal Justice Abstracts Fulltext, Web of Science, Hein Online, Sociological Abstracts plus the CA based websites, PPIC, the Sentencing Project and  ACLU and SSRN has some preprints on this topic.

8. Association between paternal mental health symptoms and paternal authoritarian parenting style - look at databases mentioned in #4 - there may be more of an emphasis here on veterans than on deployed active duty military.

9.Analyzing Crime Concentration and Specialize at San Diego's Mass Transportation System's Bus Stops - you may have to widen search to other metropolitan experiences with MTS crime but you can look at the criminology focused databases like Criminal Justice Abstracts Fulltext; the San Diego newspapers, San Diego MTS, San Diego Police reports of crime mapping & alerts conducted by SANDAG which puts out ARJIS.  You may want to contact the GIS librarian, Danielle Kane (kaned@uci.edu) if you need assistance for running GIS.

10. Religiosity and Psychosis Risk: Evaluating religious items & clinical distress in risk assessments - check out ATLA Religion Database, Academic Search Complete, Web of Science, PsycINFO, PubMed, Google Scholar.  The book Religion and Psychiatry: Beyond Boundaries (2010) may provide a foundation across many religions and you may find other sources by using the subject headings: Psychiatry and Religion; Religion and Science; Religion and Medicine.

11.  Parents, Partners and Peers: Relationships as a bridge between youth delinquency and a positive future - the literature is concentrated in psychology and criminal justice - you may want to search PsycINFO, Scopus, Criminal Justice Abstracts Fulltext, Web of Science and UCLS for material

12. Latinx Young Adults and the Feasibility and Acceptability of the AI Chatbot Wysa - Chicano Database, HAPI, Academic Search Complete, PubMed, and the ACM Digital Library may have a lot on AI Chatbots, but maybe not just Wysa - actually I was surprised to see how much it contained.  Preprints are also a good source in SSRN.  There is a dissertation that is embargoed but you may want to see what is available here and also search Dissertations and Theses Fulltext. A recent article that has a lot on Wysa and compares to other chatbots for diversity inclusion and related issues is Abdelhalim...(2024)

13. Resource Perception and Consumption: A Study of Sensitivity to Scarcity Cues - the literature of this topic is party consumer psychology and part evolutionary psychology and the OA peer-reviewed journal Evolutionary Psychology offers empirical research applications on various areas of interest regarding your topic. Databases that explore the topic & index material include PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus, Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete; and more specialized resources that offer different potential insights include the fulltext Global Think Tanks; Simply Analytics which has a strong mapping focus for consumer behavior, and PolicyMap which also offers GIS compatibility with different policies.

14. The County Prosecutor's Role in Curbing Street Racing Crimes: Insights from Orange County - Criminal Justice Abstracts Fulltext and local newspapers such as the Orange County Register, Orange County Lawyer Magazine (from the OC Bar Association) and articles from the media such as this 2022 article. For reasons mentioned in your article, getting local information is challenging.  Perhaps some law review articles from Nexis-Uni, LegalTrac or Hein Online may cover this more broadly.

15. Changes to Abortion Communication on Social Media surrounding Dobbs v. Jackson - This literature is recent but beginning to be indexed outside of the press releases in databases such as Communications Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, Academic Search Complete, Web of Science, Scopus, Alternative Press Index and Contemporary Women's Issues. Factiva covers alternative business & media sources in fulltext including some blogs, etc.

16. Family Dynamics and Stress in Mixed Status Families During an Election Year - this topic is so fresh & ongoing the formal literature is scant but beginning to be found in Politico Pro and news outlets such as that; databases may include Communications Abstracts, Academic Search Complete, Vanderbilt Television News Archive, CNN, and other news outlets.

17. Interplay of Affect Variability and Physiological Factors, in Light of Ethnicity - Recommended that searches be conducted in PsycINFO, PubMed, BIOSIS, Web of Science & Scopus.  Ethnic NewsWatch covers new sources and JSTOR covers interdisciplinary journals. 

18. Comparing children's verbal engagement with an interactive media character and a human during video watching - many references came up from articles indexed in UCLS illustrating the power of seriation among media outlets.  Recommended that you also consult Web of Science and you can cross-search: 5 Film & Media Studies databases

19. Academic impact of small-scale social-psychological interventions: A systematic Review and Meta Analysis - the Library's Systematic Reviews & Evidence Synthesis Methods program is restricted to graduate students & researchers but you may want to view the guide on this.  Outputs are indexed in PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed and all will be useful sources on this topic.

20. From peaceful to provacative: When protest actions and response alienates its audience - very interdisciplinary themes here covered by Worldwide Political Science Abstracts, Left Index, PsycINFO, Web of Science, SSRN, Sociological Abstracts, America History & Life, plus law reviews such as Hein Online, LegalTrac, Global Think Tanks,and UCLS for materials in the UC library collections.

21. Self-reported successful savoring and schizotypy as it relates to social connection - PubMed, BIOSIS, PsycINFO, Scopus, JSTOR, and Google Scholar will be the primary databases on this topic. Finding content in UCLS on psychopathology will lead you to some useful materials.

22. The application of possible selves in law-related education - In 1978 the Final Report of the US Office of Education Study Group on Law-Related Education was released.  Since then the topic has been covered by education, and law related sources such as Education Fulltext, ERIC, Hein Online, Nexis Uni, LegalTrac, Westlaw. Career motivations are a big part of this once students have a role model to shepherd to track.  The specifics of the UCI SAL program are unique but related instances may be found by looking in unusual sources.

23. Moral beliefs and sexual victimization - recommended that you visit the Gender and Sexuality Studies Research Guide.and also the Philosophy Guide.

24. Recall Memory and Generalization in Early Childhood: Associations with Parental Involvement - PsycINFO and UCLS will be the most prolific sources of materials on this topic.  Also check out Family & Society Studies Worldwide database.

25. The digital disconnect: Examining the relationship between social media Use and Loneliness in the digital age - a new book chapter on Digital Loneliness in Social Media (2024) explores this topic as digital loneliness has turned into a "government policy agenda." Book has been ordered.  Databases covering this include Web of Science, JSTOR, Scopus, PsycINFO, ACM Digital Library, Academic Search Complete, among others.

26. The role of social support on aggression - databases to consult include PsycINFO, PubMed, Web of Science and UCLS.