Dr. Yu's class didn't really stand out to me as really great or really bad. I liked how he taught us about different studies and philosophers from China, it gave a personal touch. 2 midterms, one cumulative final, all have cheat sheets. Tests are easy + fair. Homework quizzes every two weeks. Just a mid experience overall.

One of the easiest psych courses + interesting content. Cheat sheets allowed into exams. Easy 20 question (~15 min) exams. Quizzes only slightly harder than exams. Posts slides AND recordings of lecture. Cares about students and takes questions seriously even if they're obvious/irrelevant. You don't need to read textbook, just pay attention.

Dr. Yu is a good professor but the content of this class is super dry. It should be called Social Psychology Research not Social Psychology, all you learn about is studies. He grades fairly and you get a cheat sheet on the exams. Meh class

He is such a nice dude. His lectures were very interesting, and were recorded. Four quizzes and four group assignments. Very fair and not hard to succeed, he is honestly one of the nicest professors I've had.

Made the material very interesting and easy to understand. Posted lectures online which was very helpful. I had to retake this class and I wish I took it with professor Yu in the first place. Very passionate and caring.

1) Read the articles before class 2) Take notes with slides, do not hand write 3) Be proactive and you will get an easy A, just do the work, it is FAIR

Class started off rocky but he really took our feedback to heart and adjusted things to be easier/more accessible. Was not expecting to read that many research articles but was easy once you get the hang of it. Quizzes got a lot easier in the 2nd half of the class but they're only 50% of the grade + lowest one dropped. Definitely a very caring prof

Professor Yu is so kind and knowledgeable and truly wants his students to learn. His lectures (recorded option) were very interesting and he picked engaging studies and research papers to read. If you do the readings before or after class even briefly it's super helpful for the quizzes which are a main part of your grade. No final or midterm.

Very neuroscience based. The wording of quizzes can be confusing sometimes. Do not recommend...

Professor Yu is very knowledgeable and caring, honestly a great guy. However I found the structure of this class to be difficult. All readings, lecture content, quizzes and homework are focused solely on research articles. This would have been fine but there was not enough foundation laid for the concepts before diving into the deep end of research

A professor that helps you understand the concepts. I didn't find reading the textbook necessary as the lectures usually covered the important topics well enough to my understanding. Tests all came with a cheat sheet, and the tests are not cumulative.

I thought that Professor Yu was very helpful and clear in his explanations. He definitely helped me understand the material more and he clearly knows what he is talking about. This class was a few longer quizzes, one small final project, and most of the grades were based on frequent group discussions. I actually really liked this class.

Dr. Yu was a phenomenal and understanding professor. Not only was he insightful and answered all the questions you had, he was very accommodating to students regarding the quizzes and deadlines. He always showed that he cared for his students and was overall a great professor. Would take again!

Pay attention to the first authors of the assigned material. I have only just taken the first midterm and was only lucky to have remembered grazing over it. I'd recommend having a research article notetaking strategy for this kind of class.

Good class, I like it. The professor tried to make everyone happy. Although the material is a little bit hard and his communication skills can be improved a little bit, but overall, it is a wonderful class, and he is very knowledgeable.

Okay look, was Dr. Yu a bad professor? absolutely not and in fact he is SUPER knowledgable. Was is his class super hard? yes. With that being said if you just actually take the time to digest the information you will be totally fine. People want easy As during the pandemic instead of actually trying to learn. If this is you, then DO NOT take it.

Long and boring lecture videos, weekly short answer quizzes (1-2), and a research proposal. Quizzes are on research results from lectures & articles but he's a tough grader so make sure you answer everything thoroughly. Not sure how I did on the proposal yet, which is majority of the grade. Prof is not engaging at all.

I actually really like Professor Yu, he's obviously knowledgeable in his field and I liked the teaching style (quizzes, reading articles, research proposal) which is different than the usual textbook + 2 exams. That being said, this is the hardest PBS class I've taken and I have a 4.0. If you have struggled academically before, don't take it.

The reviews talking about long research papers are exaggerating (2 research papers/week usually 10 pages long each, but psych papers so 1/2 was statistical results, references, etc.) you don't have to read carefully and could read both in under 2 hours. My problem was the class was too neuroscience-heavy. Not sure if this was UCSB or prof's fault.

This might be the worst class I have taken in UCSB. This is the kind of class that gives you anxiety and stress every week. In general, 2 quizzes per week based on non-helpful lectures and super long research papers. Also, nothing much to do with emotions, mostly neuroscience stuff. Good luck if you are thinking about taking the course.

If the prereq is social psych why is this taught with neuroscience emphasis? The format is basically one or two quizzes a week and a research proposal. I actually like the research paper readings every week, but with no curve and no quizzes dropped it's way too much work for a 4 credit course. Lectures are mainly pictures so good luck taking notes.

If you're looking for a heavily based research and neuroscience course then MAYBE, just maybe, you will like this class but it is not at all what I expected from an emotions course. Weekly non-engaging lectures, multiple 30+ page research paper readings, and short answer quizzes. To be completely honest I haven't learned a thing from this course.

I would not recommend this professor to anyone who actually wants to learn anything relevant to the class they sign up for. This prof hasn't taught me anything relevant to the class, and honestly just hasn't taught me anything at all. Lectures are very long and are just him messily explaining studies that aren't relevant to the class/assignments