Stress and women , however, are much more straight-forward. See the example just above. Without the parentheses, the search may or may not work the way you intended. You could end up with everything that uses the word occupation together with stress and women as well as anything that mentions job or work . However, those that mention job or work may or may not have anything to do with women and stress.
Truncation is the use of a symbol as a wild card.
Details on the use of the symbol vary from database to database, but it is a common computer searching device. The PsycINFO database uses a very elaborate vocabulary to describe the subject contents of the journal articles and books it indexes. A complete list of these descriptors is contained in a dictionary-like tool called the Thesaurus. The Thesaurus exists in book form in the Reference Room of the library but also on the computer. It is a good idea to look up your main idea terms in the Thesaurus.