PSYC 1010

Lots of reading and Bonvillian, albeit a nice, friendly man, is a disorganized lecturer. If you get a question wrong on an exam and can provide a valid explanation as to why you chose that answer, you can get points given back. This class made me become a Psyc major - lots of interesting material.

Professor Bonvillian lectures by telling stories which can sometimes make class more interesting, but other times it can be really boring and off-topic. He goes more in-depth for topics that he is personally interested in such as deafness and ASL, autism, and children (so if you are interested in these particular things you might enjoy the class more). The tests are relatively easy as long as you study the old exams. The worst part about this class is the great amount of textbook reading.

Though Bonvillian is a rather nice man with very good intentions, his lectures are grossly unorganized. Instead of the class being about psychology, I feel as if it was more about Bonvillian's relationships with all of the pioneers of psychology. A better name for this class might be, " The History of People that Jon-Bon Might Know 1010." I found the layout of the lecture to be similar to a high school history class. I simply did not learn anything in this class. You can certainly get by without reading for this class and as you prepare for exams, you'll find that viewing the old exams will get you about 75% of the way there. The other 25% will come from some random reading that he's assigned or new lecture questions. Overall, if you don't have to take this class with him, don't.

Although his lectures can be pretty unorganized, Jon Bon was a pretty good professor. He knows almost every single psychologist out there, which makes for some pretty good anecdotes. He genuinely cares about his students and work with them personally (assuming they take initiative) to help them understand the concepts. Tests are fairly easy as he gives you past examinations to study from. I'd recommend him, as long as you don't mind the rambling lectures.

Bonvillian is a really nice guy, which as always a major plus when it comes to professors. Your grade in his class is comprised of three tests, each holding practically the same weight (the final is the last of the three). If you screw up on one test, you could have very well just compromised your grade right there and then. The class is a good shallow covering of psychology. Though the lectures were very hard to follow for me because of his tangents and just in general not knowing whether it was even worth it to pay attention, I came out of the class with a pretty good knowledge of psyc and I thought it was worthwhile. Also, it could be an easy A if you put your head in the class.

Bonvillian is a jolly old man, and the tests aren't too difficult, although if you mess one up, you've sort of shot yourself in the foot for the semester because there's only three. My real complaint with the class was the focus it gave to each area of psychology; as others have said, Bonvillian spends a disproportionate amount of time on issues relating to children and deafness, his research interests, and comparatively little time on other areas of psychology. Absolutely study the past exams and the slides from the review sessions, which are actually basically an overview of what's important from the book, so if you study those the book isn't really necessary.

I love John Bon! As long as you do the reading and pay attention in lectures, you'll come out of this class knowing a little about a lot of things related to psychology. For an intro class, I found this interesting and engaging. Bonvillian does tend to ramble, but he's a really great guy and he will work with you if you don't understand a concept. I would recommend taking the time to talk to him; he's doing incredible research plus he has some incredible stories to tell.

Pretty interesting class especially if you're interested in Psychology. Bonvillian is a fairly good lecturer however he gets off topic a lot and starts telling personal stories, although some of these can be quite entertaining. Only grades are based on exams, and this can make the class difficult because I don't believe it's curved.

It was a decent class. If you are interested in developmental psychology or linguistics, this will be an interesting class for you. Since he is an expert in these fields, Professor Bonvillian mainly focuses his lectures on these topics. I recommend sitting somewhere close to the front of the lecture hall because he mixes facts about specific experiments with stories about his own life. It is very easy to miss important information that will be on the exams if you are not paying attention. The entirety of the final grade is based on three exams (assuming you complete the mandatory research hours). Your marginal for error on his exams is very small because there are no easy questions. In his mid-terms out of 50 points, if you miss more than five questions, you are already at a B. There is no curve. In his exams, he asks questions mainly about the information he covered in class, but you must also know the information from the book. Overall, Professor Bonvillian is a very affable man. If you study hard and pay close attention in class, you should be alright.

This man talks about Mary Ainsworth like the Republicans talk about Barack Obama's birth certificate....

Other than that, his class antics were definitely a good laugh. One time I had to evacuate the lecture hall to prevent an eventual disturbance from deep gut guffaw.