DO NOT TAKE THIS CLASS. Sears is a very accomplished researcher in his field, but this class is extremely difficult. His slides are unorganized and difficult to follow, he is neither engaging nor clear when he lectures (and they aren't podcasted so if you miss something you miss it), and the exams are ridiculous. 26/50 got you an A on the midterm. I studied for 5 days for the final exam and when it was handed to me it felt as if i hadn't studied at all. There are over 1000 pages of readings for he assigns for each exam, and expects you to know the minute details of the study results in each article. The theories that are emphasized in lecture and on the syllabus for each week are mentioned in passing on the exam, and the readings are not covered in lecture AT ALL so you have no idea what to take away from each reading. There were interesting concepts presented in lecture, but they became so convoluted as he goes on and on about all the different perspectives and counters to the concepts that they become new concepts, in an endless cycle that will burn out your brain and make you tear your hair out. I have no idea how I got a B+, but in a thousand lifetimes I would not take this class again. Take a different class.

This course was challenging in many respects, the majority of which were unrelated to the difficulty of the material itself. The professor was difficult to follow in lecture due to the quiet, mumbled, and monotone voice he consistently used to describe the material. The powerpoints were poorly organized, such that one could not follow the order of topics from main idea into detail; the main ideas were unclear and lost among hundreds of slides containing extremely detailed points about the examples, theories, readings and authors. Although the class was broken down into topic subsections that were outlined at the beginning of the quarter, the professor did an extremely poor job with relating new information to those main topics such that they were lost among the sea of information presented. This class seemed extremely interesting prior to stepping foot in the lecture hall and regrettably has fallen short of every expectation I had for it. The only saving grace was that the final was not cumulative and the exams are curved, but I don't feel like I learned anything in this class.

I can honestly say that I loved this class and I have absolutely no regrets about taking it. Truly fascinating stuff. I had some initial worries about the psych material since I have never had any exposure to psychology whatsoever (poli sci major here), but the psychological side of political psychology was very easy to pick up and in most cases, not much more than common sense stated academically.

I did not find him to be too monotone, unlike some truly sleep-inducing professors I have taken (ahem, Binder). Sears' style, in my opinion was more akin to that of Zaller (whose research was actually mentioned quite a bit in this class). His voice could be a bit livelier but he throws in jokes all the time and has a very funny, albeit somewhat bizarre sense of humor.

So, the grading. He curves at a B. That's all you really need to know. Do better than half the class, get above a B. Do worse than half the class, get below a B. He barely fails anyone so at the very worst you'll end up with a solid C. Some of the test questions are a little out of left field, but that's what the curve is for. Tip: pay attention to his opinions on various topics and theories. He likes to write test questions asking about his personal opinions, which is admittedly kind of annoying.

Class is based on a midterm, a final, and a final paper. The final is not cumulative. For the final paper you choose 2 essay questions from a selection of 8 questions, and each essay is only 3 pages max. I started the quarter with a 3.9 GPA, barely studied, and earned an A-.

Professor Sears is an expert in his field. He is also very eager to teach and help students with the material. Here are the facts: he uses 2 textbooks that you will have to be read during the 10 weeks of the course in addition to weekly online ‘articles’ which add up to 50-100 pages per week. On top of that, there are the PowerPoint slides and all the additional information that he goes over during lectures. Average midterm grade was a ‘D’ for the whole class and he flunked the whole class for the final paper. Midterm and final are short answer which is the most challenging thing to do when you are expected to memorize the smallest details from hundreds and hundreds of pages read before the exam. He has a curve that will make your F turn into a C, but how good is that when you really want to learn and the professor is unrealistic with his expectations – not to mention your GPA? If this course was taught by any other professor with hard work you could get an A, but that’s not the case with Sears. He is in his mid 70s and his class style reflects that. As many other reviews say, he is a nice guy and a Poli Sci expert but your GPA WILL suffer. Don’t believe me? Take the class then.

I think the course, Political Psychology, is not as bad as some of the other reviews make it out to be. Sears was nice enough to put the lectures online - I barely went to class and listened to his lectures via BruinCast (3x faster because he talks really slowly), read some of the articles, and ended up getting an A. There is a very generous curve (especially for the midterm). The course's grade comes from 3 sources, all weighed equally: a midterm, a final, and a set of take-home essays. The midterm and final are short answer and can be somewhat specific, but the overwhelming majority of the questions are general ideas from the literature and lectures. Overall, a very interesting topic and a very nice professor.