Projects
This page collects major course projects and selected assignments. The work shown here is completed and best shows my progress in psychology.
Veteran Engagement Pathway
Independent proposal
Amtgard is a nonprofit live-action recreation organization with local chapters that meet weekly for outdoor activity, crafts, and volunteer leadership roles. This proposal presents Amtgard as a supplemental community engagement option for veterans, with no-cost entry and loaner gear available at many groups. It examines how structured recreation, social connection, creative work, leadership, and service roles may help provide routine, belonging, purpose, and a developing post-service identity.
I developed the proposal for possible consideration through VA outreach channels. It identifies several ways veterans can participate, including physical activity, arts and sciences, mentoring, event support, leadership, and non-combat service roles. The proposal does not present Amtgard as treatment or as a replacement for VA services. It presents the organization as an additional community pathway that may help veterans reconnect and participate.
Theory Application to Self
PSY 328 | Course project
Psychoanalytic theory and humanistic psychology pulled this project in two directions at once. Psychoanalytic theory had me look at early experience, defense mechanisms, responsibility, repression, and rationalization. Humanistic psychology asked what comes after that: growth, self-awareness, purpose, and the decision not to let the past be the final explanation for who I become.
Comparing the two theories meant admitting that neither explains a whole person by itself. Psychoanalytic theory can trace where certain patterns came from, but it risks making the past too powerful. Humanistic psychology leaves room for growth, but it can sound too clean if it ignores trauma, health, systems, military identity, and old patterns that do not disappear just because someone wants to change.
What matters most is the point where personality theory, self-awareness, and my future mental health direction started connecting in a more serious way.
Personality at Work
PSY 328 | Course project
My Big Five results point toward work that combines people, responsibility, and independence rather than routine, and I need quiet time to recharge despite being highly extroverted in social settings. My behavior shifts with the work: alone I focus quietly on the task, in a group I step back and support wherever needed, and in moments requiring immediate safety control, whether in military police work or in retail, the situation demands direct command regardless of my usual disposition. My own stress shows up as anger or resentment about staying late, and grounding routines that start the day before other people's demands begin make that far less likely.
Memory Support Built Around You: Cognitive Strength Memory Center Brochure
PSY 375 | Brochure
This brochure presents the Cognitive Strength Memory Center, a hypothetical clinic for older adults concerned about memory changes or early mild cognitive impairment. It describes two interventions, mnemonic strategy training and electronic memory support, and grounds each one in research such as Hampstead et al. (2012), Sisco et al. (2013), and Schmitter-Edgecombe et al. (2026). The assignment required me to translate cognitive psychology into plain language for the people it serves, starting with a conversation instead of a diagnosis. Its central line, that seeking memory support is a smart decision, not a symptom, ties to my research focus on how people minimize or avoid revealing distress, because stigma around asking for help does not stop at mental health. The ACTIVE findings also showed me that gains fade without continued practice, which is why the brochure tells clients that practice continues even after they improve. Working through levels of processing changed how I see my own memory: repetition alone holds less than connecting new information to meaning.
Seeing a Face Is Not the Same as Remembering It: Lineup Design and Eyewitness Memory
PSY 375 | Course project
This project examines how lineup design and newer technology change eyewitness recognition decisions. I compared a laboratory experiment using computerized perceptual scaling, two large online experiments on lineup size, and a field study of 717 actual robbery eyewitnesses in Houston. The stakes are concrete. Eyewitness error has contributed to the conviction of innocent people, so a procedure has to be judged by mistaken identifications as well as correct ones. The CogLab signal detection lab gave me the framework that tied the studies together, separating what a witness can distinguish from how much evidence that witness needs before choosing a face. That distinction changed how I think about my own cognition: a strong sense of familiarity is not proof that I remember correctly, and my decision threshold shapes my answer as much as my memory does. The project builds on my forensic coursework on confession evidence: in both cases, the procedure that produces the evidence deserves as much scrutiny as the evidence itself.