POL GEN 1020 - Political Problems in the United States

This is the easiest way to be sure you're getting articles from peer-reviewed journals (aka refereed journals).
Search, then check the "Peer-reviewed Journals" option on the right side of the results page.

After searching check the Peer Reviewed and Academic Journals options.

Use Advanced Search. Search results automatically default to Academic Journals, but check the box for "Peer-Reviewed" Journals to be sure the journals are refereed.

APA PsycInfo will not only allow you to limit to Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals focusing on human behavior but within the Methodology options you can limit to various forms of EMPIRICAL STUDY. (quantitative and qualitative research articles).

Google Scholar appears easy to use ... BUT ...
there's no (easy) way to limit to peer-reviewed journal articles. Below is some much-needed advice for those determined to use Google Scholar.

Since you can't limit Google Scholar to peer-reviewed journals you need to use the database UlrichsWeb to determine if the journal that published your article was refereed (peer-reviewed).

Type the name of the journal or a field of interest (e.g. special education) into UlrichsWeb.

If the journal has a "black book" icon (or referee icon) in the third column it IS refereed (or peer reviewed).