Really boring class...all of the tests were based on his lecture until the final. Its a real curveball and pissed me off.

Professor Bonvillian is very willing to help his students, and he is willing to look at certain questions on exams if students think they missed question that was ambiguous. However,the readings are sometimes boring and long.

As long as you read the book, you will get a good grade. Bonvillian is the man, he is a nice older professor who loves psychology, not so much psych101, but his other classes and he is fun to talk to after class

John Bon was...an interesting experience, to say the least. As mentioned below, he'd frequently ramble on about sign language, Mary Ainsworth, or anything related to child development instead of actually covering what we were supposed to that day. The videos are ripped straight from a time when he had more hair. His mannerisms are distracting. He'll wave his arms about while he's talking, and emphasis the most random words in the loudest voice you could imagine. He apparently had a deaf student once, so he's maintained a habit of finger-spelling people's names and badly signing while he talks. He's familiar with the subject, at least. Exams are kinda hard, since they're not curved at all. Go to the optional review sessions. They're extremely helpful if you don't read the textbook, as that's what covered there, and the TA was an actually competent lecturer.

Jon Bon spends most of this class talking about his projects on childhood and sign language and putting up slides of his friends' obituaries. Then he puts most of the material in the textbook in the last 5 weeks so you have to cram. Take this class with another professor.

John Bonvillian is the worst lecturer I've had at UVA. He rambles, often without any point, and spends more time talking about his "dear old friends" in psych departments around the country than he does teaching anything remotely interesting, informative, or useful. Take it with anyone else (Haidt is good).

A bunch of people are saying tests are based on the lectures. I never paid attention in lecture and just did the readings. The readings cover almost everything on the tests. The tests are pretty straightforward multiple choice questions. If you look at the past tests you can figure out almost exactly what will be on the tests.

Very interesting subject matter, and Bonvillian has been in the thick of it all as far as psych research goes. Shows some intriguing films. Can be a bit dry at times, but the tests are essentially lecture based. Reading isn't really necessary but I'm sure it helps (I never read and got a B).

Jon Bon is very enthusiastic about this class. Tests were based mostly on the lectures, but they can be boring at times.

This class isn't too difficult, it's just a huge pain because Bonvillian doesn't post lecture notes online and his lectures are extremely boring. I got so sick of his name-dropping and boring stories. The videos are good though.