ABOUT ME
Hello and welcome to my ePortfolio! My name is Danielle Bradley. I am currently a sophomore at the University of South Carolina Union and I am pursuing an Associates of Arts. Upon graduation, I will be furthering my education by double majoring in psychology and criminal justice at North Carolina Wesleyan College. Pursuing a double major will allow me to continue studying psychological aspects of people’s behavior, which is my current concentration and the focus of my research. I will be studying the causes of certain behavioral traits that criminals possess in order to distinguish the ways in which their thought processes and cognitive functions may have been influenced by deviating circumstances in their pasts. Following the completion of my bachelor’s degree, I plan to find a career studying criminal behavior. This will present me the opportunity to create connections between the past of offenders and their decisions, providing me with information regarding the primary reason for committing specific crimes. With that information, I would be able to better understand them as well as provide the victims with guidance and closure.
In order to achieve this goal, I will be completing my Associates of Arts in August of 2020 as well as graduating with Leadership Distinction in Research. While working towards my Associates degree, I was able to enroll in courses that encouraged my growth and enabled reflection of my own past. In addition, through creating this e-portfolio, I reflected on my previous and current course work, which has permitted me to re-evaluate past conversations and interactions with family members and friends. By combining what I had learned in class with reflection on my personal journey, I have been able to understand certain experiences and make deeper connections within the constraints of society. As I will explore in insight three, I believe society is best understood through the lens of context; and a person’s background is what influences the way one interacts with their community.
I was born in Beaufort, South Carolina, but moved various times due to my father’s military career. In 2007, my father was stationed in Jacksonville, North Carolina and I have resided there since. By moving multiple times throughout my childhood, I experienced environmental differences that were apparent from place to place, but many of the service men and women shared similar struggles. Living on and near military bases for the majority of my life and being the daughter of a veteran exposed me to the various psychological obstacles that military personnel frequently experience, especially compared to the general population. For example, my father was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, and suffered multiple traumatic brain injuries. Although my father and I had a positive relationship while I was growing up, I was not informed about his mental health until well into my high school career. The two of us were “partners in crime”; we would joke around and laugh about everything. As I got older, I noticed changes in his daily behaviors. His demeanor would shift from lighthearted to tense from one second to the next without any apparent stimuli. On those days, we argued an increased amount due to the unspoken tension. He would put headphones in or work outside to avoid any extra stress. I eventually learned to ease up on those days and to let him do his own thing, realizing that those were his ways of attempting to cope with the difficult times. My parents chose to withhold the mental struggles of my father's health because the concept of trauma would have been near impossible for a child to fully comprehend.
After processing the information, I began to research trauma. I desired to help my father and to understand his mental state as much as I possibly could. As a result, it sparked my initial interest in psychology and the effects of trauma on the brain. Trauma, as a whole, has imprinted my perspective on relationships and inspired me to better understand the various aspects of it. Because of the significance it has maintained in my education, it is the focus of my second key insight.
Shortly after learning about my father’s health, in May of 2015, I suffered a major concussion that caused me to develop Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as well as short-term memory loss. After the doctor and school staff realized the extent of my injury, they decided to withdraw me from school for the rest of the semester. I attended cognitive rehabilitation as an attempt to counteract the damage that occurred. Although the symptoms were only expected to persist for a couple of months, the ADHD remained consistent. After suffering my concussion, my interest in trauma significantly increased. I was determined to understand how the brain worked and the psychological effects of assorted types of traumatic experiences such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI), and sexual assault. I believed that a better understanding about the brain and psychological effects of trauma would give me the opportunity to overcome my ADHD as well as help others with overcoming mental obstacles that they could be attending to. This was one of the primary inspirations for insight number two.
During the time I spent doing cognitive rehabilitation, I learned and practiced techniques that were meant to improve certain brain functions, such as attention and memory, so that the symptoms would subside. The techniques specifically focused on improving short-term memory and increasing attention span. For example, the specialist would have me place a marker anywhere in the room. After doing so, they would read a short story and ask me to explain the main theme of the story. After discussing the short story, they would have me locate the marker that I placed earlier on in the meeting. Once that was repeated multiple times, they introduced methods that would benefit my academics. They suggested that I keep an agenda and write everything down so that I had something to refer to if I forgot anything. In addition, they suggested that I read over my notes because repetition is significant in terms of memory. Upon returning to school, I found those techniques to be constructive as information became easier to recall. As a result, I became more organized and did not struggle as much as I had prior to using the techniques learned during cognitive rehabilitation. The methods and techniques allowed me to overcome many obstacles that pertained to the damage of the concussion.
In November of 2017, I signed to play softball at the University of South Carolina Union and after taking an academic year off began attending in August of 2018. When I began attending USC Union, I was determined to exceed my own expectations and decided to focus primarily on my studies. The courses I took encompassed the field of psychology due to the aforementioned personal interest. I had a desire to learn more about the mind and human behaviors that are influenced by prior experiences.
After speaking with a variety of people, I realized that I had numerous opportunities to explore the different educational pathways that I found interesting, such as the USC Union's Psychological Research Club. During my second semester at USC Union, I was introduced to the PALM (Perception, Attention, Language, and Memory) Lab after participating in an experiment that incorporated those concepts. From that point on, I went from being a subject in a research study to conducting the research, during my second year alongside a former student that had graduated, Kelsey Granger.
Because of my interest in the psychological effects of trauma,I took the opportunity to collaborate with my partner in research regarding sexual assault. Our study analyzes the relationship between first-person accounts of sexual assault and the reader’s perception and memory of those scenarios. For our ongoing research, each subject is presented with 12 different trials. Each trial includes a stock photo of a woman alongside a vignette of a first-person sexual assault scenario. As the participant read the account and viewed the picture, we used the eye tracker to determine the amount of time the participant fixated on certain words or areas of the photo that was provided. Afterwards, we had the participants recall information from the scenarios while showing them the stock photo that was included in the first part of the experiment. Being involved in this research study allowed me to gain experience in the field of psychological research.
Because USC Union is a smaller campus, I was able to expand my knowledge and interest in psychology through various opportunities. I am involved in the research club which is composed of people conducting various psychological experiments. In addition, I also play softball and now work in the Student Academic Success Center as a tutor. I was also given the opportunity to participate in a study abroad trip to Ireland. In Spring of 2020, my and Kelsey Granger’s project, “Understanding the Relationship between Personal Accounts of Sexual Violence and Readers' Perceptions and Memories of those Accounts”, was chosen to be presented at the Southeastern Psychological Association (SEPA) conference. However, due to the outbreak of Covid-19, the conference was canceled.