Skip to Main Content

University
of Victoria

Psychology Literature Reviews

Overview of narrative literature steps and resources to assist students

Literature Review Structure

Select Articles to be Included in the Literature Review

Organize your literature review by one of the following:

Chronological
Thematic or Topical
Methodological
- research approaches
- data collection
- analysis techniques
Theoretical

Tips:

Thematic or Topical is the most popular choice
Don't cherry pick
Use examples to illustrate points
This is not a book report, don't just summarize - synthesize!

Lit Reviews Synthesize Sources

Synthesizing is not the same as summarizing

A summary restates the information in one or more sources without providing new insight or reaching new conclusions.
A synthesis draws on multiple sources to reach a broader conclusion.

Example

Last Updated: Jul 30, 2025 1:29 PM
URL: https://libguides.uvic.ca/psych_litreview
Print Page

Subjects: Psychology

Tags: literature review

Creative Commons License

This work by The University of Victoria Libraries is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License unless otherwise indicated when material has been used from other sources.