A review is due for this course and professor.

Personal take on the professor: Professor Brannon is a kind professor, who is happy to answer a lot of questions. In the my experience writing research papers at UCLA, I had encountered professors with power-tripping issues, and often refused to answer basic questions to help out students write their papers. Brannon, thankfully, is not one of those professors. If you want to do well on an assignment, you could literally ask her for advice on an idea, and she'll tell you her thoughts. The only bummer can be her lecturing style; she can put you to sleep with that voice, and the lectures are long. One other thing, this quarter was supposed to be in person, but Omnicron had other plans for us; this whole review is based on a virtual experience.

Best part of the class: Teacher/TA WANT you to do well; Brannon isn't a tough grader.

Worst part of the class: The giant weekly articles

Participation assignments: 10% -- Easy A, subjective answers, completed in class. Sometimes you just fill out a few question survey. The most I ever did was type a paragraph. Questions are simple, and relevant to the course topics. (ex: we were talking about socio-political topics in lecture, and a participation assignment asked, if you were researching a topic, what would be a set-back for you).

In-class Exam: 20%-- open note. This was very difficult for me (I got a B). The exam was based on all the articles we had read up until the halfway point of the quarter, & knowing the basics of a 2x2 design. I read all of the articles and attended every lecture. I asked what to focus on for the exam, and I got one of those, "as long as you have been keeping up w the readings and lectures you should be fine" answers. WRONG. Take notes on every article (just the who/what/why/conclusion points). I didn't take notes, I just paid attention, and it wasnt enough. I was not ready for the comprehension test despite keeping up with the class, it was way harder than they said it would be. The class averaged an 81% for the exam, thats all you need to know.

Group Project: 20% -- you design a 2-part (1 qualitative/1 experimental) study on a social psych topic that is preassigned to you. Your group will be 4-5 people and you create a powerpoint show that you present at the end of the quarter. I hated this personally, bc I was paired w a group of pseudo intellectual preppy brats that enjoy the idea of the college experience but complain about the actual work tied to it. My advice? Take charge, especially when you sense laziness in your group. I did that, and it saved my grade.

Introduction Paper: 10% -- Easy A. Follow the exact guideline they provide you, and you will be good. its 3 pages long, double-spaced. And its the first half of your research report mentioned below. I put time into it, but I got a 98%. A lot of people got 100%!

Critique Exercise: 5% -- Easy A; A simple 1 page paper. you read the introduction of another student any anonymously critique it and submit it. Introductions will have already been graded by the professor, so if anything, its just a student exercise,

Research Report: 25% -- Regarding your project. Half of this is your introduction. The other half, you write a methods, anticipated results, and discussion section. I felt very comfortable writing this bc they provide guidelines so you have a framework to refer to. I greatly appreciated that help. Biggest challenge? the 7-page limit. Restraint is everything when you write a research paper.

Class Participation: 10% -- Attendance is taken. Be there or be square. Plus, if you wanna do well on the exam, you wanna hear what key points re the articles you've read about to focus on. I showed up but I let boredom get the best of me. Pay attention when she's talking about articles, for real, no matter how bored you get.

Professor Brannon really cares about the students' learning and does whatever she can to help. The lectures and readings are both very helpful and engaging. She expands knowledge beyond the classroom and how we can use it in real life. The discussions were not great, but that is because break out rooms were on zoom. If i would change anything, it would be to have readings that were easier to comprehend.

Dr. Brannon is incredibly knowledgeable and compassionate. She is very accommodating and assignments for 137F are very minimal. She has weekly assigned readings but she goes over them in her slides anyway. Easy A and everything is based on new research so it's never boring. Take this class!

I loved everything about the class! The format for the online class changed slightly. We had two essays (midterm and final that were quite doable), one exam, and discussion questions due every week (for participation and understanding of material).

The only thing I would advise is to not miss class and be on time. She does not record lectures although if it is in person, it doesn't count. She also does talk a bit fast.

The workload was not too much, and the topics were amazing!