PSYCH 150
Introduction to Health Psychology
Description: Lecture, three hours. Requisite: course 10. Areas of health, illness, treatment, and delivery of treatment that can be elucidated by understanding of psychological concepts and research, psychological perspective on these problems, and how psychological perspective might be enlarged and extended in medical area. P/NP or letter grading.
Units: 4.0
Units: 4.0
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Most Helpful Review
Spring 2021 - My review for this class is based on a completely revised version of the class for Spring 2021; the grading system is completely different for this quarter than previous quarters. Let me preface this by saying that I believe Professor Robles is a great person and genuinely wants students to learn and improve. I'm sure if he retained the same grading system in the past or if this class was in-person, it would be ten times better the experience than most people had. This quarter, Robles moved away from using exams as a gauge of performance and instead based the entire class on a set of requirements to meet a grade. I can't even begin to explain how details and convoluted the class setup was. The syllabus alone was damn near 20 pages long and 25% of the students who originally enrolled in this 200 person class dropped after the first two weeks. That's 50 students who dropped solely after seeing the syllabus. And that was literally just the syllabus. There's also a textbook that (thankfully) was made completely optional, and no sections. The most basic way to pass this class and earn at least a C was to watch all the asynchronous lessons and answer at least 75% of the polls and answer at least 75% of them correctly. That's a really easy way to pass in itself, but it meant that 1) lectures were mandatory and 2) there were a LOT of asynchronous lessons. As in, in addition to attending 2 lessons live per week, you had to watch 2 asynchronous lessons per week and sometimes these asynchronous, recorded ones lasted anywhere from 10 minutes to over half an hour to complete. The synchronous lessons themselves included a lot of filler activities and though the material was sometimes interesting, unless you're passionate about health there's little "psychology" in this class and moreso just statistics and mind-numbingly dull content. Halfway through each class I'd be asleep bro. Asynchronous lessons were also not easy to sit through and you also had to write answers to essay questions embedded in those lessons on CCLE to complete them. The biggest issue with the class, though, were the papers. In order to get an A, you must complete 3 reflection papers and 2 Disparities-Inequities papers. Now, the Reflection Papers were not hard at all, you can literally finish them within a day and get decent scores with minimal effort. But all the Papers were scheduled way too close in deadlines, as in they were pushed in the second half of the course so that there was damn near one paper due per week and by the end of the quarter we didn't even have feedback on most of the papers we did. Although Robles tries to take time out of lectures for "paper consultations" it rarely happened and most people in this class said that they came away even more confused sometimes when talking to the professor and TA. Why? Well, the instructions and requirements for each paper, like the syllabus, also happened to be like 10+ pages long. There weren't even any previous examples since this was the first quarter using such a system, so although grading criteria was provided students didn't have any solid insight as to what constituted good grades on papers. I can't even begin to explain how complicated the grading system was, not to mention the "token" system used to redeem late papers or send papers for revision. If I did, I would literally be writing a 5000 word essay on Bruinwalk because that's how damn complicated it was. So I'm just going to say this: the papers were HORRIBLE to write. Very little guidance, very tiresome research, and I converted from a grading scale to P/NP in week 9 because I couldn't stand writing another Disparities-Inequities Paper. It was absolutely, unforgivingly overwhelming. It was quite possibly some of the worst writing assignments I've ever had and rivals that of 100B. Most students this quarter ended up frustrated, confused, and changing to P/NP if not struggling in week 10 to complete the final disparities paper. Very few people could probably attest to having a positive experience in this class this quarter. Overall, I regret signing up for this class and ending up P/NPing it. The other Column B classes are SO much better, and no offense to Robles as a person but as a professor there are DEFINITELY better profs for this class and material. Robles, if you're reading this, I'm sorry but the system you used this quarter was not it. At all. So please don't repeat it for the sake of future students, going back to exams would benefit them soooo much more.
Spring 2021 - My review for this class is based on a completely revised version of the class for Spring 2021; the grading system is completely different for this quarter than previous quarters. Let me preface this by saying that I believe Professor Robles is a great person and genuinely wants students to learn and improve. I'm sure if he retained the same grading system in the past or if this class was in-person, it would be ten times better the experience than most people had. This quarter, Robles moved away from using exams as a gauge of performance and instead based the entire class on a set of requirements to meet a grade. I can't even begin to explain how details and convoluted the class setup was. The syllabus alone was damn near 20 pages long and 25% of the students who originally enrolled in this 200 person class dropped after the first two weeks. That's 50 students who dropped solely after seeing the syllabus. And that was literally just the syllabus. There's also a textbook that (thankfully) was made completely optional, and no sections. The most basic way to pass this class and earn at least a C was to watch all the asynchronous lessons and answer at least 75% of the polls and answer at least 75% of them correctly. That's a really easy way to pass in itself, but it meant that 1) lectures were mandatory and 2) there were a LOT of asynchronous lessons. As in, in addition to attending 2 lessons live per week, you had to watch 2 asynchronous lessons per week and sometimes these asynchronous, recorded ones lasted anywhere from 10 minutes to over half an hour to complete. The synchronous lessons themselves included a lot of filler activities and though the material was sometimes interesting, unless you're passionate about health there's little "psychology" in this class and moreso just statistics and mind-numbingly dull content. Halfway through each class I'd be asleep bro. Asynchronous lessons were also not easy to sit through and you also had to write answers to essay questions embedded in those lessons on CCLE to complete them. The biggest issue with the class, though, were the papers. In order to get an A, you must complete 3 reflection papers and 2 Disparities-Inequities papers. Now, the Reflection Papers were not hard at all, you can literally finish them within a day and get decent scores with minimal effort. But all the Papers were scheduled way too close in deadlines, as in they were pushed in the second half of the course so that there was damn near one paper due per week and by the end of the quarter we didn't even have feedback on most of the papers we did. Although Robles tries to take time out of lectures for "paper consultations" it rarely happened and most people in this class said that they came away even more confused sometimes when talking to the professor and TA. Why? Well, the instructions and requirements for each paper, like the syllabus, also happened to be like 10+ pages long. There weren't even any previous examples since this was the first quarter using such a system, so although grading criteria was provided students didn't have any solid insight as to what constituted good grades on papers. I can't even begin to explain how complicated the grading system was, not to mention the "token" system used to redeem late papers or send papers for revision. If I did, I would literally be writing a 5000 word essay on Bruinwalk because that's how damn complicated it was. So I'm just going to say this: the papers were HORRIBLE to write. Very little guidance, very tiresome research, and I converted from a grading scale to P/NP in week 9 because I couldn't stand writing another Disparities-Inequities Paper. It was absolutely, unforgivingly overwhelming. It was quite possibly some of the worst writing assignments I've ever had and rivals that of 100B. Most students this quarter ended up frustrated, confused, and changing to P/NP if not struggling in week 10 to complete the final disparities paper. Very few people could probably attest to having a positive experience in this class this quarter. Overall, I regret signing up for this class and ending up P/NPing it. The other Column B classes are SO much better, and no offense to Robles as a person but as a professor there are DEFINITELY better profs for this class and material. Robles, if you're reading this, I'm sorry but the system you used this quarter was not it. At all. So please don't repeat it for the sake of future students, going back to exams would benefit them soooo much more.
Most Helpful Review
Dr. Stanton is an AMAZING professor and an incredible person. Also, she's president of APA Division 38, Health Psychology, which means she definitely knows what she is talking about. Her lectures were informative yet entertaining, and always effectively delivered (if a little rushed at points - but that was only because she always stopped to answer questions). To get an A, you need to attend every lecture as well as read the book (knowing the main concepts of each subsection should suffice). She definitely includes some minutiae on the exams, but in general they are very fair. I would also suggest being very thorough in your paper; for instance, if you do the health behavior change, be sure to mention specific steps you took at the start and continue with detail all the way through your relapse prevention techniques. Basically, if you put in the work, you will be rewarded in this class - and it is a privilege to take it with her!
Dr. Stanton is an AMAZING professor and an incredible person. Also, she's president of APA Division 38, Health Psychology, which means she definitely knows what she is talking about. Her lectures were informative yet entertaining, and always effectively delivered (if a little rushed at points - but that was only because she always stopped to answer questions). To get an A, you need to attend every lecture as well as read the book (knowing the main concepts of each subsection should suffice). She definitely includes some minutiae on the exams, but in general they are very fair. I would also suggest being very thorough in your paper; for instance, if you do the health behavior change, be sure to mention specific steps you took at the start and continue with detail all the way through your relapse prevention techniques. Basically, if you put in the work, you will be rewarded in this class - and it is a privilege to take it with her!
Most Helpful Review
Winter 2021 - I loved Professor Sumner! She was very accommodating given the circumstances and I really learned some interesting and valuable information. If you watch the lectures and take notes, you are almost guaranteed a good grade. She has almost weekly assignments due as well, but they are not hard to complete and usually about an interesting topic. Take this class if you can!
Winter 2021 - I loved Professor Sumner! She was very accommodating given the circumstances and I really learned some interesting and valuable information. If you watch the lectures and take notes, you are almost guaranteed a good grade. She has almost weekly assignments due as well, but they are not hard to complete and usually about an interesting topic. Take this class if you can!
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Fall 2018 - TAKE THIS CLASS!!! Prof. Tomiyama is adorable, smart, and super generous when it comes to grades. She basically does everything to ensure you get an A. The tests were super easy and there was no homework (besides some really interesting readings). Also, she doesn't make you buy a textbook and the lecture slides are very informational. Not only will you most likely get an A, the material is really cool! Every lecture was engaging. We learned about pain, the placebo effect, stress, mindfulness, etc. I would absolutely recommend this class to anyone.
Fall 2018 - TAKE THIS CLASS!!! Prof. Tomiyama is adorable, smart, and super generous when it comes to grades. She basically does everything to ensure you get an A. The tests were super easy and there was no homework (besides some really interesting readings). Also, she doesn't make you buy a textbook and the lecture slides are very informational. Not only will you most likely get an A, the material is really cool! Every lecture was engaging. We learned about pain, the placebo effect, stress, mindfulness, etc. I would absolutely recommend this class to anyone.
Most Helpful Review
When I took his class, there were only 10 students in the class. I really liked such a cozy classroom. Plus, we used his book as a textbook so that his lecture was perfectly easy to follow. His exam was not hard at all, either. He passed out sample exams before every exam, and we only need to study that. Yet, that doesn't mean that I didn't learn from him. I think that I learned a lot from him. He was available and very helpful both in class and outside of the classroom. I could tell that how much he enjoyed the material he was teaching. He was very charm, and I liked him not only as a person but also as a professor.
When I took his class, there were only 10 students in the class. I really liked such a cozy classroom. Plus, we used his book as a textbook so that his lecture was perfectly easy to follow. His exam was not hard at all, either. He passed out sample exams before every exam, and we only need to study that. Yet, that doesn't mean that I didn't learn from him. I think that I learned a lot from him. He was available and very helpful both in class and outside of the classroom. I could tell that how much he enjoyed the material he was teaching. He was very charm, and I liked him not only as a person but also as a professor.
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