The End

As I reach the end of my AP Research journey, I would like to spend a moment reflecting on the past year and all that I have been able to achieve through my research on PTSD in Iron Man and The Dark Knight. 

Throughout this process of watching and analyzing each of these six movies, I was able to greatly expand my knowledge relating to both PTSD and many other psychological disorders. Much of the preliminary research on this topic consisted of gaining a better understanding of PTSD, but, through searching for knowledge on this topic, I found myself constantly getting sucked down various rabbit holes about countless other psychological disorders. As someone looking to pursue a career in psychology, the ability to learn more about these topics was something I thoroughly enjoyed throughout the time I spent in this class. Directly relating to my own topic of research, I was able to learn a lot about how various psychological disorders are portrayed in the media, and the potentially harmful or positive effects this can have on society.  With PTSD specifically, being able to read about the first-hand effects of the ever-so-common spread of stigmatized misinformation about the disorder in film and television has truly opened my eyes to the importance of this topic in the present day. More people now than ever rely heavily on fast media such as television shows and movies to get information about topics, resulting in these types of things having a significant impact on the way certain things are perceived and understood within society. Knowing this, I would love to be able to spend more time investigating this in the future. As my scope of research was very small, it would be incredibly interesting to expand this style of research to encapsulate other genres and types of media to be able to see first hand how this trend plays out in modern media. 

Going through this process of conducting research, presenting it, and then finalizing it in a paper, I learned a number of invaluable skills. Going into AP Research, my biggest concern was the presentation. Like many others, I heard that we had to give a 30 minute long individual presentation and I was struck with fear. As a person who doesn’t typically excel in public speaking, I was dreading this portion of the class until I actually began conducting my research. I found that the more time I spent perfecting my project, the more excited I became to have the ability to share all my hard work with my teachers and peers. When the day finally rolled around where I was to give my presentation, as I walked into the classroom, I found myself feeling much more confident and proud of my work than nervous. I feel as though this opportunity to go through the motions of conducting my own research over the course of a year and presenting it greatly improved my presentation skills, as it taught me how thrilling it can be to present a project that I put so much time and effort into. These feelings were amplified as I finished my paper and submitted it to the College Board, as I was finally able to see all my work organized into one place. These skills are ones that I will undoubtedly use throughout the course of my years in college, as one of my main goals at the moment is to be able to conduct research as an undergrad. This class truly gave me a sense of how exhilarating it can be to conduct research, and it has provided me with the skills I will require to do it again in the future. 

Along with learning these skills, I also learned a lot about myself as a researcher and a student. As someone taking a very heavy course load, I went into this class concerned about how I was going to manage my time. I have a bad habit of procrastinating, so this was one of my main concerns when beginning a project that was essentially entirely self-paced. I figured that I would need to find a way to work around this issue, which I was luckily able to do with the help of obnoxiously strict schedules that I was sure to hold myself to. While it was somewhat exhausting trying to keep up with these schedules, they are what enabled me to stay on task and be able to complete my research properly and efficiently. I had never really tried to use schedules in the past, so learning that this was something that works for me will be immensely helpful in my future, especially as a college student. 

Overall, this process taught me lessons and skills that I otherwise would not have learned. From gaining a better understanding of the influences on the society around me to learning how to make myself the best student I can be, the Capstone program has left me with knowledge that I am eternally grateful to hold. To all my AP Capstone teachers, Mr. Sassali, Mrs. Burnham, Mrs. Dobos, and Mr. McBride, thank you all so much for providing me with an environment in which I was able to spend the past two years growing and evolving these skills. You all have played a key role in my high school career, and I deeply appreciate all the time and effort you all put into both AP Seminar and AP Research. In the future, I will be studying psychology and sociology with a specific focus on criminology at Montana State University. I hope to continue along the path of research throughout college, and I am so excited to be able to learn more about psychology and its impacts on the world we live in. 

Below, you will find my final paper and presentation. All of the more in-depth information about my project is within these two sources, so feel free to look at them to learn more about my project!