Researching the possibilities

Growing up, Molly Sickels (’26 psychology) was curious about how people processed their thoughts and arrived at certain decisions. As she got older, that curiosity evolved into a fascination with why someone might choose to commit a crime. Today, as a psychology major and criminal justice minor at Iowa State, Sickels is using her undergraduate research experiences to answer these questions and discover new ways to help people – especially incarcerated youth – make better choices.

A whole new world

As a freshman, Sickels joined Iowa State’s First-Year Honors Program. Prior to joining the program, she had never considered pursuing undergraduate research. But to fulfill the program’s requirement for more advanced coursework, she contracted Associate Professor of Psychology Tess Neal’s forensics psychology course, which allowed Sickels to take a more research-focused approach to the class.

“It was Honors that really pushed me to get involved in research, and I don’t know if I would have pushed so hard if I hadn’t been in the program to begin with,” Sickels said. “I credit a lot of my research success to being in the Honors Program.”

Neal involved Sickels in two major studies during the class. For the first study, Sickels wrote a summary of the expert mental health evidence in the high-profile 2022 court case involving actor Johnny Depp and his ex-wife, Amber Heard. Sickels’ work was so integral to the study, Neal named her co-author on the paper titled, “Trial by expert: How mental health evidence shaped the Depp v. Heard (2022) verdict,” which was published in 2025 by American Psychology-Law Society.

Sickels also collaborated with a group of graduate students on a second study for Neal related to forensic psychology assessment practices used by Australian psychologists. This study is currently under consideration for publication with Sickels listed as a contributor along with the graduate students she worked with.

New research experiences

Once Sickels was exposed to the world of undergraduate research, she was compelled to seek new opportunities within the psychology department. In addition to working with Neal, Sickels contracted Associate Professor Miko Wilford’s psychology and law course, where she wrote two additional papers to satisfy her Honors requirement. The first paper, “The rise of false guilty pleas and the fall of constitutional rights,” discusses the rising rate of false guilty pleas. The second paper, “Assessing and protecting children as eyewitnesses,” addresses best practices for questioning children who have witnessed crimes. She also has worked in the Memory and Judgment Lab with Associate Professor Andrew Smith.

“I think that’s what drew me in the most [to psychology], just learning about the different specialties that our psychology department has and learning how I can get connected,” Sickels said. “There were so many possibilities I didn’t know were available before coming here. As I’ve interacted with more faculty, just knowing what all I can do with this degree has been really rewarding.”

Feeling accomplished

Sickels has an extensive undergraduate research resume, and while she’s proud of her work, she’s also proud of herself for getting out of her comfort zone to make these opportunities a reality.

“I’m proud of pushing myself to reach out to these faculty members and for pushing myself to build a relationship with them and to build up my own self-confidence to be like, ‘I can do these projects,’” Sickels said.

Seeing her name in print on published posters and papers also brings her joy.

“Seeing my name on posters and papers – that is just so surreal,” she said. “I have a poster hanging in Dr. Smith’s lab right now that I did with my lab partner last semester, and walking in and seeing that, it’s just so cool. Like, that is me! I think that’s the most rewarding thing is seeing my name on paper and being like, ‘I worked to get to this point.’”

Next steps

As she enters her final semester at Iowa State this fall, Sickels will wrap up her prolific undergraduate research experience and turn an eye toward the future.

“I want to work with kids, incarcerated youth. I’m really passionate about what can we do early on – how can we give these kids the resources that they need? That’s something I’m passionate about is trying to find out why are they doing the things that they’re doing,” she said.

Following graduation, Sickels will take a semester off to regroup and finalize her path forward. She intends to enroll in graduate school, though she’s unclear at the moment about which field of study to pursue.

“I’m looking at social work programs but I’m going back and forth on maybe a master’s in forensic psychology,” she said. “I’m still deciding what I want to do. But ultimately, I do want to work with incarcerated youth in some way. That’s my ultimate goal. I’m still trying to decide how I want to get there.”