I want to start off by saying, I genuinely LOVE Dr. Smurda as a professor. Her lectures were thoughtful, engaging, and I truly feel like I learned a lot in her class. However, her tests were NOT fair. The class grade is weighted 80% exam scores and 20% everything else. She gave us practice exams and in NO WAY did they reflect the material that was on the tests. There were too many questions placed in the test that were designed to trick you as well... if you like selecting from "A, B, C, A&C, or All of the Above" type questions, you may do well on the tests. All closed note tests as well. I'm an honors student, and I worked HARD in this class this quarter to still only come out of it with a C- (AFTER the 3% extra credit she thankfully offered to us) was factored in to my final grade. I don't feel that my final grade reflects the knowledge I did take away from this course, and it's so unfortunate. I know a ton of other honors students could also agree with me on this. To reiterate - AMAZING professor, AWFUL / UNFAIR EXAMS. I probably would not take this class with her again due to the testing situation alone, but I would if that were to change in a heartbeat. TAKE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

Professor Smurda was by far one of the nicest professors I've had in my four years here at UCLA. She is very helpful and makes research seem fun in a way you'd probably think was impossible (especially after taking 100B). She is very clear when presenting and always willing to answer questions and simply go the extra mile with her students. If you need to do your psych lab, I would recommend having Smurda as your professor 10/10. She was great and there is no way you can't like her.

Not sure if her class changed? Because I took her class based on good reviews and ended up barely passing her class...smurda was great but the material was way too much 60+ slides for every lecture...way too much material. Hated this class and don’t recommend it to anyone. Class is based on only 2 exams so beware

10/10 would recommend this lab to a friend

I was super nervous to take my Psych lab ngl but I'd taken Psych 135 with Dr. Smurda so I knew she was awesome and she really did not disappoint in this class. We spent the first few classes reviewing research methods (bc tbh who remembers anything from 100b lol) and then we got right into doing our own group studies. I feel like I walked away from this class so much brighter and with a ton of savvy new skills like knowing how to use Qualtrics and analyze and present data.

Prof showed up every class with an empathetic attitude and a willingness to help. Every time she came into our break out room she would help us figure out another aspect of our study.

Dr. Smurda is easily the most approachable and kind professor I have had at UCLA. Her class is incredibly engaging, informative, and honestly a lot of fun. Participation matters, but the lectures are split up so that she goes over the material for half of the time and then she lets you split off into groups to discuss your group project (an experiment you get to create but with guidance). The first experiment you do together as a class and all the funds go toward a charity (collectively decided by the class), it's a great way to learn and give back and speaks to Smurda's character as an educator!

There is only one midterm and if you review the slides and pay attention in class, you will do well. The instructions for the final paper are clear and she is really helpful with helping you compute results. Overall, I had an AMAZING experience in this class and you should 10000%%%%%% try to take it during your time here!!

I'm a little surprised by the reviews because I actually found this class to be a little challenging but I thought it was a pretty good class overall. I thought it definitely wasn't horribly difficult at all but I also thought the exams weren't very straightforward. I got an A- in it and also got an A- in 100B so I don't know if that says anything... Professor Smurda was a great professor but I also found her lectures/content to be not so straightforward and a little dry at times. But overall a good class!

I adore Professor Smurda and highly recommend taking a class with her. I took Social Psych with her before taking Influence, which helped my understanding in this class but it is absolutely not necessary to take 135 beforehand. Highly recommend reading the material before class because it helps with understanding the lecture. I also recommend talking with her during office hours and after class, she is very willing to elaborate on concepts. The information from this class is useful in the real world as well; if you have an interest in understanding how people think and ways to use that information, I highly recommend taking that class.

By far this has been the worse class I’ve taken at UCLA. The readings are redundant, so you better not have anything else to do because they will consume your time. The writing assignment is a complete joke with unclear guidelines, but points will be deducted based on subjective measures such as and I quote “to me it feels to long.” The lectures are a pain to sit through. I’m a senior with a record of As and Bs in all my classes, but I got a C in this class not because I didn’t do well on the exams and not because the material was hard, but because the professor and her TA had to much power and control over my written assignment, so because they both personally didn’t like me they were able to make sure that I did poorly in this class. Dr. Smurda should be sued for unfair practices along with her TA Macrina Cooper-Smith.

I personally loved Dr. Smurda. She's a very approachable professor, she is very helpful during office hours, and the workload is so light and manageable. However, there are only 2 exams for the whole quarter (plus mandatory section attendance and small summaries on required readings that are super easy). The one you score higher is weighted at 50% and the lower score is weighted at 30% with section counting for 20%. The challenging part for me was the readings because she assigned 4 different books. We didn't have to read the entire thing, only sections of it but for a couple of the books, we may as well have read the whole thing because the chapters were long. The readings are actually interesting though. You definitely need to study on the exams. The content is not difficult, but you really need to know it to do well on the exam. She gives a scenario and you have to pick what concept the scenario falls in line with. I will say that I really hated "all of the above" and "A and C" options on the tests. I would feel like I knew the answer, but then seeing those options often made me second guess myself and threw me off. I managed a B+ in this class while taking 4 other classes. If I had taken less classes, I'm positive I could have pulled off an A. So I recommend this class if you have a lighter load for the quarter and really want an A. Oh and she offered 3 opportunities for extra credit (70% poll everywhere responses, 3 SONA credits, and hand-written notes for the final exam). Each of these was worth 1% of extra credit which was extremely helpful.

Dr. Smurda is the best Psych Lab professor! Her lectures are super clear and interesting. If you put in effort, you will see good results. She is also very receptive to feedback in regards to group projects, making sure to spread the workload out as evenly as possible across all group members. Overall, her social psych lab is a great option for meeting the lab requirements!