Stephen Mayer - Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH

Professor: Stephen Mayer

Department: Psychology

College: Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH

Rating # 1

Overview:

• Course: PYSC204
• Grade Received: A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: Yes
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Wonderful professor who really cares about the subject. Tests are hard unless studies for; reading is extremely important and essays are exclusively lecture based. Extremely willing to help and engage with the material. Great class!!!

Rating # 2

Overview:

• Course: PSYCH204
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

I honestly thought this class was terrible, he's not the best professor, and the discipline of cultural psych is terrible. It rests on the frankly orientalist notion of how "cool" exotic cultures are, especially in East Asia. He's a nice enough man, but not very clear, and he won't look at things like gender, SES, race, or colonialism.

Rating # 3

Overview:

• Course: PSYCH204
• Grade Received: B
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: Yes
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Mandatory

Comment:

Dr. Mayer expects a lot so be prepared to put in a lot of effort.

Rating # 4

Overview:

• Course: PSYC204
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 1.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: Not Mandatory

Comment:

Friendly and funny. Never answers emails. Easy class with interesting material. Best for psych majors more interested in social/applied psychology, since I've heard less favorable reviews from the research and stats enthusiasts. I am thus far enjoying cultural psychology.

Rating # 5

Overview:

• Course: PSYC204
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Warmest and friendliest professor I've met at Oberlin. Always has a lot to say and is super easy to talk to 1 on 1. Not the most thrilling lecturer, but very comprehensible and an easy grader...he even provides the possible test questions on the study guide, making it easy to review relevant material and prepare well for tests.

Rating # 6

Overview:

• Course: PSYC204
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Can't see why this course is required for the psych major. lectures rambled on & didn't make much sense. Most of the course is spent on comparing Asian (collectivist) with Western societies so if you're not interested in that, dont' take the course.

Rating # 7

Overview:

• Course: PSYC204
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

I took Cultural Psychology with him and absolutely loved the class. The subject was very interesting and the fact that he loved what he was talking about so much made it more enjoyable. At times his lectures were a bit boring, but overall I thought the slides were easy to follow and his enthusiasm and fatherly demeanor made him even cuter overall.

Rating # 8

Overview:

• Course: PSYCCULT
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

loved his class, he is such a nice guy, and will really work with you and loves independent projects. i learned so much and it was all fascinating.

Rating # 9

Overview:

• Course: PSYCULT
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 5.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

I loved him! His lectures were interesting and he was so enthusiastic about the material...always more than willing to talk after class and during office hours. Cute sweet guy.

Rating # 10

Overview:

• Course: PSYCHCULT
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Pretty unintelligible powerpoints of 5000 bullets of nonsense. Just read the book and be halfway conscious during class. He's an extremely fair grader. He's very intelligent and is probably aware of the outlandishness of even pretending to make you remember everything he rambles about.

Rating # 11

Overview:

• Course: FYSP102
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 2.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

I took the Peace, Conflict, and Violence first-year seminar with him in Fall 2007. I felt that he was really good at leading discussions and adding enough comments to make us learn something, but he didn't dominate. A moderate amount of work; a big paper at the end, but it doesn't coincide with other finals. Most people got A's.

Rating # 12

Overview:

• Course: PSYC100
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Even though I liked the subject, I found his lectures to be pretty dry and hard to sit through. His tests were also quite difficult. However, he seemed like a really great, friendly and helpful guy although I never saw him outside of class.

Rating # 13

Overview:

• Course: PSYC216
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

i took social psych with mayer-- big mistake. take it with frantz. mayer is a nice guy, and knows a lot, but his lectures are dead boring, the powerpoints are completely nonsensical, and why take a class with anyone else if cindy frantz is teaching it? that being said, mayer is much better in small groups, like the lab in social/personality psych

Rating # 14

Overview:

• Course: PSYC100
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.5
• Course Difficulty: 5.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: Yes
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Does not lecture clearly. Slides are a list of about 10 bullet points each, and he doesn't seem to have a clear plan for which points he'll actually discuss.

Rating # 15

Overview:

• Course: PSYC100
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 1.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: No
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

ha, haha, hahaha

Rating # 16

Overview:

• Course: PSYC100
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 2.5
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: N/A
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

a dick. doesn't respond to emails, won't talk to you unless you want to discuss his utter genius.

Rating # 17

Overview:

• Course: PSYC100
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 4.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: N/A
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

bad Powerpoint slides, strange way of lecturing/explaining stuff... but a nice guy, nonetheless.

Rating # 18

Overview:

• Course: PSYC100
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: N/A
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Very willing to talk, and very excited about the material, but his conveyance of it is really awful. He is always availiable to talk after class, but really need to organize his thoughts better because it is really hard to understand his points.

Rating # 19

Overview:

• Course: PSYC204
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 4.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: N/A
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

He is a really nice guy and provides guidance towards what to study for on tests. His lectures however are boring and hard to follow. The material is very interesting but his conveying of it isn't particuarly. Very helpful though.

Rating # 20

Overview:

• Course: PSYC204
• Grade Received: N/A
• Overall Rating: 3.0
• Course Difficulty: 3.0

• For Credit: N/A
• Textbook Used: N/A
• Would Take Again: N/A
• Attendance: N/A

Comment:

Prof Mayer is a very nice person, however his lectures are rather dull. Sometimes he just reads his slides, which can be boring and not very clear. I wish he would just talk about the topics instead of reading off slides.