Bonvillian has the best intentions and is very knowledgeable, but his lectures were somewhat confusing and a bit dry.

I have mixed feelings about this class. On one hand, the readings were very interesting. Take it if you're interested in pursuing psychology. However, the work-load is very heavy and the tests are tricky. I got a total of like 10 questions wrong on all the combined tests, and I ended up getting an A-. Bonvillian gets off-topic a lot and his lectures are kind of boring. But he's very knowledgeable and intelligent. I would check out other professors first, but if there's no one better, i would take the class with Bonvillian. He's not that bad, just not that good either. If you're only taking this class as an elective, I'd stay away from it if you care a lot about the grade. If, however, you're just interested in the material, I would definitely take the calss

Where do I even begin to describe Bonvillian? He likes to brag about how awesome he is cause he knows all these famous psych people and his "good friend Margaret Ainsworth." He constantly gets off topic and jumps all over the outline (if you write your notes by hand beware) which are on an overhead projector by the way. Most of the test material is from the readings and the actual tests are very similar to the practice tests he puts on collab. There is a review session with the TA every week to go over the assigned readings which is honestly more helpful than lecture. DO NOT FALL BEHIND ON READINGS. He didn't order anymore books to the bookstore in the beginning until 2 weeks before the first test. I ended up staying up until 4 reading about depression and anxiety... There are two tests, a final, and 6 hours of participation in psych students. Bonvillian knows what he is talking about and is very qualified and experienced in his field but he spends so much time talking about himself and then will scan through 5 overhead outlines the class before the next test. He also starts almost every class by talking in French and will probably start yelling or laughing at his own memories/stories that have nothing to do with lecture. He also will continue talking even when 3:15 comes around. I mean the class itself is not that hard, it is just very dull and mindnumbing. Last week, the kid next to me was watching ESPN on his phone and the girl in front of me was watching the Silver Lining's Playbook.

Professor Bonvillian is a bit of a rambler so reading the textbook is essential for exams. However, he has a bubbly personality and has a lot of stories to tell. Lectures were not the most interesting but the class overall is not that hard.

This man talks about Mary Ainsworth like the Republicans talk about Barack Obama's birth certificate....


Other than that, his class antics were definitely a good laugh. One time I had to evacuate the lecture hall to prevent an eventual disturbance from deep gut guffaw.

It was a decent class. If you are interested in developmental psychology or linguistics, this will be an interesting class for you. Since he is an expert in these fields, Professor Bonvillian mainly focuses his lectures on these topics. I recommend sitting somewhere close to the front of the lecture hall because he mixes facts about specific experiments with stories about his own life. It is very easy to miss important information that will be on the exams if you are not paying attention. The entirety of the final grade is based on three exams (assuming you complete the mandatory research hours). Your marginal for error on his exams is very small because there are no easy questions. In his mid-terms out of 50 points, if you miss more than five questions, you are already at a B. There is no curve. In his exams, he asks questions mainly about the information he covered in class, but you must also know the information from the book. Overall, Professor Bonvillian is a very affable man. If you study hard and pay close attention in class, you should be alright.

Pretty interesting class especially if you're interested in Psychology. Bonvillian is a fairly good lecturer however he gets off topic a lot and starts telling personal stories, although some of these can be quite entertaining. Only grades are based on exams, and this can make the class difficult because I don't believe it's curved.

I love John Bon! As long as you do the reading and pay attention in lectures, you'll come out of this class knowing a little about a lot of things related to psychology. For an intro class, I found this interesting and engaging. Bonvillian does tend to ramble, but he's a really great guy and he will work with you if you don't understand a concept. I would recommend taking the time to talk to him; he's doing incredible research plus he has some incredible stories to tell.

Bonvillian is a jolly old man, and the tests aren't too difficult, although if you mess one up, you've sort of shot yourself in the foot for the semester because there's only three. My real complaint with the class was the focus it gave to each area of psychology; as others have said, Bonvillian spends a disproportionate amount of time on issues relating to children and deafness, his research interests, and comparatively little time on other areas of psychology. Absolutely study the past exams and the slides from the review sessions, which are actually basically an overview of what's important from the book, so if you study those the book isn't really necessary.

Bonvillian is a really nice guy, which as always a major plus when it comes to professors. Your grade in his class is comprised of three tests, each holding practically the same weight (the final is the last of the three). If you screw up on one test, you could have very well just compromised your grade right there and then. The class is a good shallow covering of psychology. Though the lectures were very hard to follow for me because of his tangents and just in general not knowing whether it was even worth it to pay attention, I came out of the class with a pretty good knowledge of psyc and I thought it was worthwhile. Also, it could be an easy A if you put your head in the class.