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.

What are these reviews?! Professor Brannon was an amazing professor! This class is very easy and engaging. Make sure you do the readings (for the midterm), and you're golden.

Not the easiest class but manageable if you pay attention. Professor Brannon is a very kind professor but she is strict on her syllabus. Missing class is not a good idea. She does offer plenty of extra credit though. Grades are made up of one midterm, a couple of participation activities, a group project, and a final paper based on the research project. The people you get assigned with for your group project can really make or break the class. Sometimes the lectures felt irrelevant but overall a good class.

tl;dr if you have no other choice this class is not hard to get an A in, just be prepared for the longest quarter of your life

can confirm that this prof's lecturing style is super annoying ... she basically talks at you in a monotone voice for hours each week about irrelevant topics and random LONG studies. I honestly learned NOTHING from this class and the group project was a joke; you're better off reading papers on your own to learn abt research methods. she is also kind of rude and was v disparaging and borderline passive-aggressive to a classmate when they tried to talk to her abt a grade. the upside is that this is a pretty easy class; she gave a lot of extra credit opportunities & if you put in the work you can probably get an A. here's the breakdown:
- participation grade assignments: 10% (these are super easy completion-based assignments that she'll sometimes give in class to take attendance)
- in-class exam: 20% (this took place in wk 6 and was 25 qs: 10 mc and 5 short answer. this exam was annoying & the class avg was 79%, so bad that she bumped everyone's grade up by 2%. it also took almost everyone the full class time to finish (2hrs). but it was also open note/open material and after cramming the night before I got an A on it, so definitely possible)
- group project: 20% (she assigns you to groups and you come up with a RQ which you use to design one experimental and one non-experimental study. you have to give a final presentation which is 20-25mins with your group. everything is hypothetical so it wasn't the most fun project to work on)
- writing exercise: 10% (3pg introduction paper on your study. I got an 86 and honestly the prof/TA did not grade this fairly but its not a huge part of your grade)
- critique assignment: 5% (1pg single-spaced anonymous critique of someone else's intro paper. super easy 100)
- research report: 25% (full 7pg paper on study; can't comment too much on this yet)
- class attendance/participation: 10%

tl;dr if you have no other choice this class is not hard to get an A in, just be prepared for the longest quarter of your life