Professor Frederick is truly awesome as a professor and is super engaging!! You know the type of class that has “fake” engagement, like where the instructor was probably told in their evaluations to incorporate discussions, but it just comes across really fake?? Well Professor Frederick completely is the opposite. He is 100% engaged in class and 100% wants the best possible class discussions with you. That being said I think we were a pretty fun class, but he is the one who truly makes it fun and interesting.

With that being said in this class you have to WORK. It is not easy by any means, and do not be fooled by the grading distribution. I was taking one another class other than this one, so it did make things harder for me during the summer. Regardless, I still think it’s a lot of work. I studied for about a week for the midterm and got an A. The midterm is much easier than the final so make sure you do well on it. The exams are essentially the study guides so just memorize every single word of that. I ended up not memorizing every little word for the final and I think that’s what gave me a low score. He offers a crazy amount of extra credit if you finish the study guides by a certain date and turn them in. Make sure you know what confounding variables are because the way that he describes it is kind of confusing (different than 100B) and on the exam you are going to be asked to list out confounding variables given a specific experimental design.

I would recommend to do the study guides as you go along and make flashcards from it. What would help even more (after you have studied) is to print out the blank copy of the study guides and just take it like a test. The tests are not multiple choice, they are all fill in and so you are going to have to know your stuff.

Don’t slack off, make sure you have at least a week to study for both the midterm and the final (memorize everything word by word) and you should be fine!!

I really enjoyed this class! It covers important topics and was educational. It is a sex-positive course like previous reviews mentioned, but that's what makes it great! These topics should be talked about in academics and everything he teaches is supported by evolutionary, biological, and psychological research, so there's no "liberal agenda," just literal facts. I really liked how he brought in guest speakers to share their knowledge and experiences! Frederick is really funny and makes the lectures engaging (which is great because we know how boring online classes can be). My only issue with the course would probably be the grading scale, which has its pros and cons. You're pretty much guaranteed to get a B if you do everything you're supposed to do, but if you want a B+ or A-/A, you're gonna have to put a lot of effort into the assignments and complete all of the extra credit available (which is a lot, so don't worry!). Overall, Frederick is a great prof and the class is super educational with a manageable workload, I definitely recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about human sexuality :~)

Professor Frederick is a wonderful professor. Even though the class was very big, 70+ students live each class, he made it very personable and every lecture felt like a group discussion which I appreciated a lot. He was very personable and friendly and loved to bring humor into class which made lectures all the more interesting. Personally, I think when professors take this approach instead of being extra formal, I tend to learn and engage more in class as I become more comfortable and pay more attention to the material. I think the study guides were very fair and vital to understanding course concepts. This class was quite honestly the best class I have taken at UCLA and I am grateful to have been able to take it the last quarter I graduate!

This was probably one of the most engaging and interesting classes I have taken in my UCLA career. Professor Frederick always keeps class interesting, inviting guest speakers and having fun and relatable class discussions. I highly recommend taking this class!

The topics in this class are so important! It covers everything from evolutionary psych perspectives about sexuality/orgasm, to the "gender" performance, purpose of jealousy, infidelity, STDs, and more. It has a good mix of straight psych studies to know/memorize, but also general/big picture concepts to apply to real life.

Two exams worth 80% and a group project worth 20%. Professor takes attendance and takes 5% off after the 1st absence. Exams are fill-in-the-blank, but not particularly difficult if you listen and pay attention in class and do the readings. Project is a poster that was fairly easy. Proff gives study guides that can add 3% to your exam grade if you fill it out. Also offered 1% EC for evaluations/class survey. Overall a really excellent experience. I learned a lot and didn't feel like it was a stressful experience. The TA was amazing and had a 2 day turn-around for exams!

READ THIS REVIEW! I was excited to learn about human sexuality. I thought we would learn about all of the interesting biological and cultural factors of why humans do what they do when it comes to sex and sexuality. Unfortunately, this class turned into a liberal sexuality views class. Some of the material was interesting, like the evolution and sexual selection portions of the class. However, the readings about toxic masculinity and feminism were absolutely dreadful, and this seemed to be the trend throughout the whole class. In addition, the transgender speaker, Jessica Lynn, was terrible. She was just pushing her agenda on why society should accept trans people and literally said people who didn't were ruining society. We learned nothing about why humans actually want to be trans. What is their cognitive processes look like? Is this seen in nature? I really wanted to learn more about human sexuality, but just ended up forcing myself to memorize concepts for the exam (different types of feminism and sexual objectification) that didn't seem to have much relevance to the intended theme of the class. The exams are completely written (40 questions), and take about two hours to complete. In addition, there is a group project with a tri-fold style poster that is due at the end of the quarter. Once again this is another class that is full of leftist views and liberal agendas. I wish Dave the best, but this class was disappointing and a waste of money for someone who pays for their own college education.

This class was a sham. 3 reasons why:

#1 - “LEC” appears next to Psych 129E in the catalog, but this class was not a lecture. That’s because the prof spent little time actually lecturing. Most of the class was discussion, chat with your neighbor, and opinion polls. There was a guest speaker that used the full duration of class to tell their personal story. How was that a good use of time? The prof had a sense of humor and was engaging, but overall I would not call the class a lecture. In other words, I signed up for a lecture but got a discussion section.

#2 - The class was not a STEM or psychology class. Rather than peer-reviewed, scientific journal articles, the prof assigned readings from popular media and journalism. It was the type of reading that you see in liberal arts and sociology; the author gives their opinion and tries to back up their opinion by citing another author’s opinion or the author tells a story and invents a ‘narrative’. The class was liberal arts, humanities, sociology, gender studies, LGBTQ studies or perhaps something else that ends in the word “studies”. It was absolutely not a STEM class and has no business being offered in psychology.

#3 - It was not a college-level class. That’s because the amount of homework assigned was ridiculous! Hundreds of pages of reading homework, 30+ pages of homework questions to answer, homework disguised as ‘study guides’ which you turn in, and even more homework with a group project! In every psych class I’ve taken the homework is to study for the exam. Sure, some profs assign a term paper here and there or a journal critique, but the amount of homework in this class was just unreasonable. It reminded me of being in high school, not in a college class.

UCLA psych major (3.96 GPA). After completing 15 upper division psych classes, this was by far the most aversive class I’ve taken. I dropped after 3 weeks of learning nearly nothing. I learned a total of 2 things: sex and gender are not the same, and the tendency for male rats to be aroused in the presence of novel female rats is called the Coolidge effect (to be fair, I learned about this in another class but didn’t know the name of the effect). That’s it... that’s literally all I learned in 3 weeks! In sum, the class was a waste of time and energy. Do not take this class if you’re serious about science and psychology.

He is one of my favorite psych professors at UCLA along with Tomiyama and Goff, so I totally recommend this class! He is very engaging and funny, so manages to make learning fun. However, just because the class is fun and engaging, it does not mean it was a breeze. There is a lot of work involved, so try to take it in the summer in case you are taking fewer classes. You are guaranteed to get a B if you do the minimum, but you have to go above and beyond to get an A or A+.

The professor had the students create study guides in the place of exams based on the questions that he provided. In order to do well on the study guides, I recommend reading all the readings instead of skimming it because then your responses can have more substance, which will hopefully land you an A in the assignment. On top of that, to get the full 5 points (excellent), I ended up doing about 25 pages for each of the study guides. He let his students respond verbatim, but it was a good idea to clarify the verbatim in your own words. Along with clarifying the verbatim, it is good to add examples from the text or real world so that it can supplement what you are learning. I also added extra material that I learned in other classes as well as connections within the readings. The study guides consist of 3 portions so three 5's ( 555 would be your only feedback): the factual portion, thought question #1, and thought question#2. He does provide an example of an exceptional study guide in case I am not clear enough. There are 4 study guides that are mandatory for all and 1 final project (you can do your own ppt based on a science book or something else more creative (I did a website on love). You are probably more likely to get a 5 in a final if it is something creative, probably took a lot of time, and shows how much you learned. To succeed: Do all the study guides early and do all the extra credit!

This is what he said in regards to the class...

"One of the main benefits of this class is that in addition to learning about human sexuality, you also get an opportunity to enhance your writing. There are no exams or quizzes. Your grade is based on:
1) STUDY GUIDES WITH THOUGHT QUESTIONS (80% of grade): How thoroughly and thoughtfully you complete study guides about the readings. The study guides are designed to help you master the materials and are meant to be less stressful than studying for exams. The key to succeeding on these is to be thorough. The guides are broken into to parts: (A) The Factual Component, and (B) the Thought Questions where you apply the reading/lecture materials to answer brief discussion essays (200-400 words each).

2) ATTENDANCE: Attendance and participating in at least 10 of 12 class periods is required (unless you are doing independent study version). If at all possible, please participate with video and audio. - 5% from overall grade for each absence after the second one (which can be made up with extra study guide completion).

3) INDEPENDENT PROJECT (20% of grade): Creating engaging lecture slides based on a popular science human sexuality book that interests you, or doing a creative independent project of your choice.

A LOT EXTRA CREDIT (up to +4.0% from the options below). I’ve built in a lot of extra for a couple of reasons: online classes are new to many of you, and a lot of you have new and unexpected responsibilities that have emerged because of the pandemic. For the people who are doing the Class version, the extra credit includes: Participating in all 12 classes (+3% or +1.5% if 11 classes) and/or completing extra study guides (+1.5% each). For the Independent Study students, you csn complete a 2-page single spaced essay for extra credit (up to +3%). Additionally, everyone earns +1% extra credit if more than 80% of class completes evals (+1%).

Please take this class because it is sooo worth it! Dr. Frederick is super flexible with the online format so if you don't even want to go to the lectures, you don't have to. That being said, you won't regret coming to class live! He knows his stuff, encourages meaningful discussions, and makes a good witty comment here and there.
Ah, but keep in mind if you want to do well, you really gotta put in the effort. I worked my butt off for the grade I got, but know that Dr. Frederick and his TAs do grade fairly. This class is pretty unique, and full of interesting content; you won't get bored in class or doing the study guides. It helps when you put in the effort to be engaged and find something that's interesting for your independent project. If you do that, Dr. Frederick will definitely meet you halfway and help you out. If you're able, I 100% recommend this course!!

I want to start off by saying this class is not what I thought it was going to be. Not being a psych major, I took this class purely out of interest for human sexuality. I expected to learn the influences of society and biology on sexual orientation, orgasm, and other topics indicated in the syllabus. However, I was ultimately let down and felt as if I wasted my time taking this class. Instead of any of the aforementioned, we learned about evolutionary psychology (think natural selection), gender social norms/expectations, and how to design experiments. I felt like the topics of true sexuality were entirely ignored. Regardless, the class is a super easy A to receive. Like previous people posted, just memorize the study guides word for word, know the experiments we discussed in class, and remember the answers to the reading questions. Easy 100s. Overall, class was fine but not what I expected.