Social Psychology
Student Comments – Spring Semester 2000
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Course Evaluation Website Evaluation Course Suggestions Anything Else?

The class was good overall.  I enjoyed the examples provided on video tape and the discussions that followed.  Also, it was my first experience with what I would consider a "real" seminar type course.  Other instructors have attempted this, but not with as much success I believe you have had. I found the feedback you gave us regarding our presentations to be extremely valuable and appreciated the manner and timeliness in which it was received. The website proved useful for identifying your expectations by providing a sample paper that you deemed as acceptable.  I enjoyed the format of the course.  You were able to make it interesting to endure.  Unfortunately, I don't believe that I learned much that could be applied to I/O Psychology.  I understand that your area of expertise is Social Psych and not I/O, but I would find a way to make it more applicable to I/O.  Maybe that was what the reaction papers were for.  I attempted to relay the readings to my field, however, sometimes it was quite a stretch and other times impossible. Also, you might want to relay the amount of information available on your website other than just saying that it is out there.  I didn't realize how much useful information was accessible until the course was over.  And quite frankly didn't have the time to just go purusing through it in the beginning of the course.  However, if you had mentioned some of the items that were available, I may have used it more. While I appreciated not having to take a formalized exam, the weight of the paper was rather frightening.  I suppose that is the trade off.
The course provided a good in depth understanding of Social Psychology.  The use of different media types (video, handouts, demonstrations, and discussion) was both enjoyable and useful in achieving a greater understanding of social psychology. I also felt that it was unfair that this course contain the same level and amount of work as the doctoral students (PSCY 9710) yet this course was only a master’s level program.  I feel as though you approached us from a doctoral training guise and not from a master’s candidate.  Overall however, I enjoyed this class and learned quite a bit.
I enjoyed the course.  I would take another course with Dr. Whatley if I had the chance.  I benefited from the open atmosphere of the course.  It made asking questions and making points very easy and free from embarrassment.  I also liked the high expectations Dr. Whatley had of us.  These expectations helped to raise my level of performance.On the negative side, I would have liked more I/O relevance.  The entire class was I/O and it is a required course for the program.  I feel we would have benefited more if the material was tailored to the work place.  For example, could dissonance theory be used to increase employee performance or attendance?I don't want to say the readings were overwhelming, but I did find myself skimming the articles instead of reading them to write my reaction papers.  I don't know what you want to do about that.  The website was very useful.  I don't think every student went to the website before the presentations.  Doing so helped me have my experiment in order for the presentation.  It also helped in writing the proposal.  The checklist and sample proposal were especially helpful. I would have liked more instruction on some of the statistical requirements for the proposal.  I have taken several statistic classes, however, I have never been exposed to a power analysis, contrast codes, manipulation checks, etc.  I feel that if these are supposed to be part of the experiment and considering we have not been exposed to certain aspects of the paper, then the class could have benefited by going over these aspects in class.I believe the website could be improved by having the sample proposal match up with the proposal checklist more.  These are some things on the checklist that the sample paper does not have.  For example, the results section of the proposal is not headed by the word "Planned Analysis" as stated in the checklist.  Another example is that there is no Discussion section in the sample paper. I found the video clips very useful.  Using Seinfeld clips makes you aware of social psych topics in everyday life. 
Excellent course The website was of great help, specially when writting the paper That class is great, I can't think of anything that can be done to improve it. I enjoyed the class and I learned.
I really liked the use of video to assist in the teaching process I really appreciated the sample reaction papers and the guideline check off for writting the papers Change the grading for the oral presentations. The option of 1-10 should maybe be used for our evaluations.
The course was very interesting - I liked the seminar format. I also enjoyed the extensive use of videos and other materials that helped clarify the topics discussed. The website was very good resource, however, I was largely unaware of all the information it contained. While you had mentioned your website at the beginning of the class, I did not really take the time to explore it, as I was unaware of the extensiveness of the information. Perhaps if you mention any related website sources that correspond to the current topic in class, the students will get more out of it.  As for the class, since this class is a requirement for I/O students, perhaps there could be more topics that directly related to business and organizations. While a good deal of the material could be applied to training, team building or employee motivation, a good deal of it did not seem like it could be easily related to I/O.