1. Natasha Bair
Psychology B303
Due Date: January 28, 2015
About Me
About Me
My name is Natasha Tamar Bair, and I am a senior at Indiana University Purdue
University Indianapolis. I am currently majoring in Psychology. I am majoring in Psychology
because I want to help people be happier. I feel that leading a person to his or her own happiness
and improving quality of life is the nicest thing a person can do for another person. I find the
fields of psychoimmunology, health psychology, biopsychology, neuropsychology, and music
therapy. Psychoimmunology and health psychology fascinate me because it proves it is not only
important to have a healthy body, but a healthy mind as well. Biopsychology and
neuropsychology intrigue me. Both of these disciplines of psychology give a cellular basis for
why certain behaviors happen and the process the body goes through to create these behaviors.
These fields of psychology also explain chemical imbalances found in depression and other types
of mental illness.
By finding these chemical imbalances, one can create a remedy and help that person feel
happier. Finally, music therapy interests me for three reasons. One, music therapy
research has showed results in all age groups including babies in the womb. Secondly,
music therapy can be inexpensive for the provider and the patient. Lastly, music therapy

2. covers a wide variety of techniques from listening to music to playing music that can
improve a person’s quality of life.
Experience Summary
I have worked for the past six years in health care as a certified medical assistant and a
certified nursing assistant, where I have had a role of helping people with various types of illness
feel better, educating people on preventative measures like immunizations, and being a patient
advocate that protects the well-being of all patients. In my experience, I have worked with
patients from the age of zero to one hundred and four. I have worked in long-term care where I
have learned to assist people with Alzheimer’s disease and Schizophrenia. I have also learned
that people are a heart beat not a chart number, and when they are treated as such, they get more
out of their care.
I learned this with a particular schizophrenic patient I took care of. Most of the medical
assistants that helped with this patient would just hurry up and give him his medications, and
move on to the next person. This patient was very upset with the way he was being hurried
along, and would yell and kick the chair. The medical assistant would just write up the incident
and tell the patient he was unreasonable and sent him to his room. I was the only medical
assistant who asked him why he would yell and kick after med pass. He said he did not want to
be treated like a farm animal. That he was a human being who deserved to know what he was
taking and why. I apologized for the way the others had treated him, and started doing the med
passes. Each person that came in, I would ask them how they were and explain the medication to
them. I would then ask if the patient had any questions. The behaviors were less and the patients
were more informed as a result.

3. After learning this, I decided what I wanted to accomplish with my degree. I want to
research problems with current treatment methods, and humanize common treatment methods. I
want to make patients and care takers to be on the same page, but most of all seen as people. I
believe by making practitioners and other health care providers see patients as heart beats, better
continuity of care can be expected, and people will be happier.
Self-Assessment Summary
After taking the VIA ME and Strength Test Assessments, I learned more about my
strengths. The VIA ME listed twenty-four qualities that was very strong in. The top five
included; kindness, love of learning, humor, creativity, and fairness. The Strength Test
assessment listed achiever, learner, developer, includer, and positivity. I feel these explain my
strengths because of an incident that happened with a patient.
I was in my nursing assistant clinical, and I was told to observe the certified nurse aid I
was with for the day. We came up to a resident’s room, and the aide asked the resident if she
would like to get ready for breakfast. The resident was not very happy, and started cursing at the
aide. The aide said she did not know what to do other than just get her ready. She also stated,
“The resident did this daily”. The resident started screaming and hitting the aide. I stopped the
aide and asked the resident calmly, “What was wrong?” The resident said she had not had her
morning coffee and she liked to drink coffee before she got ready. She said she loved coffee. I
went to the dietary kitchen, and made a cup of coffee for the resident. The resident said thank
you, and I also gave her the paper to read with her coffee. When the aide and I came back to get
her ready, the residents reaction was very different. She was very cooperative, and was excited
about going down to the dining room. Since then, this resident received coffee every morning
before getting ready.

4. When I am practicing psychology, I aspire to be the best patient advocate I can
possibly be. I want to show kindness, fairness, creativity, and positivity. I want to learn new
techniques and develop new treatment plans with people who need my assistance. The hardest
one will becoming assertive. Being assertive is a weakness I have been working on since High
School. I am afraid that I will be too harsh, and hurt someone’s feelings. I need to become
assertive so I can maintain fairness, and speak up for injustice. To be the best psychologist I can
be, I need to be kind and assertive.