i Loved this guy! he was so approachable and not afraid to tell stories from his youth and about his personal life, family. some ppl were annoyed with that bc they considered them tangents, but i found them funny and charming. it's not like the stories were random bc he just uses them to illustrate different social psych theories. i never fell asleep in this class (which is uncommon for me) and looked forward to coming to class every wk.
sure, his tests are tricky, but i think ppl whine too much about them. gimme a break. who says college tests have to be mind-numbingly easy? the questions are tricky, you have to read them Really carefully. i felt like i mastered the material in this class, thoroughly enjoyed the bk, actually did ALL my reading (which never happens in other classes) but i got all C's on his 2 midterms and final. and even so, i got a B+ in his class for going to easy/fun discussions (20% of class grade just for showing up) where we did little experiments. also got a b on the short paper.
the scores are very low on exams, but his policy is fair. he will drop a Q if less than 2/3 of the class misses it. the thing is, ppl miss a lot of questions, but they miss different ones. idea is the majority of the class gets each question right, meaning he did his job in teaching us the material. once you read the exam q's again after you have the answers, you will know why you got them wrong. the questions are actually fun to read--they actually make you chuckle. he is very humorous and uses current and funny examples in his questions to ask about theories.
in all, love the guy, loved his class. learned so much. sure, i didn't get an A, but i feel that college should be more about learning than just a GPA. if you care more about learning than having your GPA drop by .005, take his class. this is coming from a 3.7 GPA student, so it's not like i don't take my grades seriously. good luck! :)

Good: Professor Hardin's lectures are really good. He's funny and makes the material interesting. Also he really values questions and comments from students and always uses them to expand on the material.
Bad: Professor Hardin's exams are needlessly ambiguous and therefore extremely aggravating.
Bottom Line: Unfortunately, the crazy exams really distracted me and kept me from getting as much out of the course as I would have liked to. If you take him, try not to worry too much about your grade, especially the fact that he doesn't curve. It is possible to get a high grade in this class.

Professor Hardin makes Psych 135 very difficult. The class itself is manageable but requires lots of work. Just giving background information on myself for students reading this I am an engineer taking this course P/NP as a GE. I would definitely recommend taking this class P/NP if possible. I received a "P" if that matters. The most difficult part of this class are the two midterms and to some extent, the final. The first midterm is designed to completely confuse and destroy you. Hardin claims that people will typically do 20 "points" better on the second midterm. He never specified whether that was percentage points or actual midterm points x/40. Either way that seems to be an overestimate because it seemed like everyone got the same grade as their first midterm. From what I remember the second midterm was regraded several times due to faulty questions and other grading errors. This may be due to the sheer number of ambiguous/confusing questions that were thrown out. His final in my opinion seemed to be slightly more "do-able" than the midterms but was still difficult. Hardin uses multiple choice questions with answers that seem like they could all be correct. That was the most frustrating part of the class for me. The majority of the questions he asks come from and/or are related to in-class lecture material and the rest come from the book. He constantly enjoys talking about himself, his wife, and his son in every lecture and many midterm/final questions. If you do not know his son's name by the end of the quarter you've skipped too many lectures. Oh yeah and for some reason he also brings his son to the final. Besides that the class material is very interesting. You will read the textbook from front to back, including all the pages in between. It is alot of reading. The terminology/concepts appear somewhat confusing and foreign at first to engineers but you catch on after a couple chapters. I would guess Psych majors or students who are used to taking this type of class have an easier time understanding the material. You really have to learn the material well to get a good grade in his class. The practice midterms/finals he provides are only helpful in that they show the general testing format and his super-confusing questions. Don't expect questions from previous quarters to show up on your tests because they probably won't. The term paper isn't that bad. It is an ambiguous and open prompt in which you can pretty much write anything. I didn't understand the Freud book the first time I read it. The online study aids and discussion session really help to clear up what Freud is talking about. The discussion sessions are mandatory but they are usually entertaining and you'll learn from them. You'll learn alot from this class but to do well in this Psych 135 class you'll have to be a:
A) social psychology genius
B) an average person who will read alot, pay attention in lecture and be able to integrate concepts from lecture and textbook
C) a person who knows the material and is taking the test with others around them
D) a VERY lucky question guesser
E) Professor Hardin himself.
Goodluck to all.

I took psych 135 by Hardin this Spring 2003. From the getgo I knew the class was going to be a drag. However, my perception of the class soon changed. Hardin is a great professor, he devoted a lot of time into his lectures and adds a unique perspective to the material covered in class. If you are one of those people who seem to miss most lectures than I recommend you don't take Hardin because his tests are difficult. However, that is why there is something called office hours. Most students don't take advantage of the TAs nor the professor as a resource for clarification. If you go to their office hours, do the reading and pay attention in class (yes it's a lot to ask for, don't you think?), you will do extremely well.

I took psych 135 by Hardin this Spring 2003. From the getgo I knew the class was going to be a drag. However, my perception of the class soon changed. Hardin is a great professor, he devoted a lot of time into his lectures and adds a unique perspective to the material covered in class. If you are one of those people who seem to miss most lectures than I recommend you don't take Hardin because his tests are difficult. However, that is why there is something called office hours. Most students don't take advantage of the TAs nor the professor as a resource for clarification. If you go to their office hours, do the reading and pay attention in class (yes it's a lot to ask for, don't you think?), you will do extremely well.

Psych 135 was my favorite class after 4 years here. I don't know why everyone says his tests were so hard. I thought they were easy - I barely studied and got As. You just have to read them carefully. He is also very fair. He gave everyone credit for the questions that were missed by the majority of students, and he only counts your highest midterm score toward your grade - I didn't even take the second one. He was really funny, entertaining, and organized. I loved his personality. If you sit up in front you can catch some of the stuff he says under his breath. Discussion is worth 20% - way too much, I think, but if you're not a good test taker, at least going to section will boost your grade.

Professor Hardin isn't the best lecturer, but the course itself was easy. everyone always complains about how difficult the wording on his exams were, but if you study from the lecture notes than it's VERY possible to do well on his exams. i learned a lot from this class. i highly recommend it.

Do not take Prof. Hardin. He is such a bad professor. First of all some of his views are contradictory to the book, so it gets confusing when you are studying for exams. Second, his pacing is so annoying. Throughout class he paces back and forth within 3 feet of space, it is so irritating. He lectures in monotone and that is so boring. He uses powerpoint, but he puts so much information on one slide you dont get a chance to listen to what he is saying cause you are so busy writing down the information on the slide. His tests are awful. They are multiple choice, but they are so tricky and he is not clear in his wording. He needs to take an english writing class. He does listen to student concerns and responds, sometimes he will throw out a few questions from the exams if there are enough complaints and he sees the question as ambiguous.

Dr. Hardin test are hard as hell. You study and still end up with a "C". Overall Dr. Hardin is a nice person and the class is very interesting. If you do not want a challenging class...do not take this class; otherwise, I do recommend the class.

Hardin has an amusing personality which makes the class fun. I feel that I really learned something interesting, but that's because I loved the book. He isn't the best lecturer because he paces and sometimes rambles, but he is a good guy. His class isn't curved so it's on you to get the grade you want. Only 6-7% of the class aced the midterms, but 20% of the grade is attendence in discussions so you can help yourself in that way. Also you have opportunities to participate in 2 experiments to earn an extra 3%. So I think the class is fair in some ways but not in others. I'm a fan of the curve. Oh, his wording of test questions can make you want to scream so be careful. Take social psych. but maybe with another professor.