Rakim Moore
Psy-205: Forensic Psychology
Southern New Hampshire University
Instructor Durbin
June 31, 2024
8-3 Short Paper: What My Research Taught Me
Did you learn something about the nature of research that you did not know
before? If so, what was it?
I've learned so much information within these eight weeks of forensic psychology. The
main thing that I've personally learned is that I have a lot more learning to explore to
master research within the psychology field. I enjoyed learning some new from each
module. Module one discussed the modern-day roles in forensic psychology and the
roles that forensic psychologists play in the U.S. legal system. We analyzed forensic
psychologist reports as well as understanding legal proceedings. The second module
focused on legal competency laws and how defendants with specific charges must meet
the Dusky Standard. These standards for defendants to understand their charges,
participate in their trial, provide information to their attorneys in their defense, and be
sure that the defendant's consequences of their outcomes. The third module gave us
information about the history and an in-depth look into child custody and parental self-
evaluations along with a professional forensic psychologist evaluation and assessment
of the parent's children and the court system. The fourth module was information about
interrogations and techniques that psychologists could use to receive true or false
confessions. The fifth module was about the evaluation of sentencing and what impact
forensic psychologists have on sentencing by using evaluations before trial. The sixth
module talked about criminal profiling which led us as a class to evaluate both
qualitative and quantitative perspectives of criminal profiling and the controversies that
affect aspects of forensic psychologists. The seventh module focused on ethics and the
damages that could be done by acting in an unethical manner. Lastly, our eighth
module continues to address research and why it will always be important in the field of
psychology. I previously studied criminal justice and forensic psychology was spoken
about as far as the roles that it plays in our United States criminal justice system. I have
learned so much from each module through a lot of errors, my grades prove that I
intentionally did not choose to fix but understand so I will not make the same mistakes
in my future terms.
How did the project make you a better researcher?
The project did but did not enhance my research strategies any different and that is a
problem. I plan to use my criticism from my instructor and peers to better my research
skills. This project did help me look at the role of professional forensic psychologists and
why they are important for our country.
Lastly, did the article you chose make you want to learn more? If not, why not? If
so, how will you learn more?
I wrote a book and published it on Amazon. I do plan to write more in volumes, but the
first volume was titled “ Potassium Chloride,” which is the third and last injection that
death row inmates are injected with and sentenced to the lethal injection. This particular
injection is a formula that consists of KCI. The ion potassium (K+) is attached to a
chlorine (CI-) ion. It's considered to be an ionic compound with the metal element
potassium (K+) and nonmetal elements (CI-). It is a metal halide salt its odorless and
colorless crystal-like form can dissolve quickly into a liquid. The mentality of a murderer
or a convicted felon is on death row, competence plays a huge role when inmates are
convicted and placed on death row. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that mentally ill
and incompetent inmates cannot be executed even though there are no specific
guidelines. Competency for execution is the last opportunity in the criminal process to
raise a defendant's competency for execution. It can be raised if the death-sentenced
convicted defendant becomes severely mentally ill while awaiting their execution. The
Ford v. Wainwright case is what made me learn more about a subject that I kind of
knew about but was interested more so on how a defendant gets there.
