Kevin Ochsner

Required course for Columbia psych majors. I honestly really enjoyed the course and really enjoyed Ochsner's lecture style. He's a very entertaining, engaging lecturer. You do have to pay attention during lecture because reviewing slides after the fact won't cut it and there's no textbook. He's also pretty prolific in the field, so his viewpoint on things is worth listening to. Content is typical, classic social psych studies. Lecture one day a week, lab another. Lab basically reviews lecture content and allows for engagement with material.

The class was interesting and engaging. Professor Ochsner knows how to keep his student’s attention. The topics covered in class (at least to me) are relevant and thoroughly explained. There is not a ton of work that needs to be done for the class other than the group project and studying for the exams. The group project is generally pretty easy, you design and experiment and run it on the class. You are then graded on an individual 7-10 page paper written about it and a group oral presentation. Warning though: you will have to study a lot for his tests to do well. He tests you on aspects of individual experiments (although he does go through them very thoroughly in lecture), as well as giving you an unknown experiment and asking you to fix its issues, has you design your own experiment with some parameters. The test is hard, but the experiment design question is extra credit and should boost your grade. The tests and papers are graded by TA’s so expect to see some very nit-picky critiques but just do what they say and you’ll be fine in the end. ALSO LISTEN TO THIS!!! If you take his class you have to go to lecture to understand what is happening. His slides are basically gibberish if you don’t hear what he has to say about them. It is worth it though because it’s only one day a week and a good class!

Ok lets get one thing clear, Ochsner is amazing at what he does and has accomplished many things. So, there are two people. One is the type of person that success does not affect them in any way shape or form. The other type is the one that inflates their ego. Unfortunately he tends to side with the second type of person. HOWEVER, this is Columbia University and the man knows his things! You're in an Ivy not in high school where "everyone is important and must feel warm embraces every time they open their mouths." Yes he is a bit egotistical but he never made any students in the class I was in feel badly about themselves. With that said, if you are the typical young student who thinks they're the best thing since sliced bread and you raise your hand to not ask a question but to simply try to impress him like many young CC students do (I'm GS), then he will very quickly make sure his class isn’t interrupted by someone who is a showoff. This is amazing! It keeps the class going smoothly. He loves it when the class participates and will ask many questions throughout class. He expects students to participate. You will learn a lot. Please take into consideration the workload. He assigns many published articles of which he wrote many. You don’t have to read them all as they are impossible and even the TA's will tell you that but those that he or the TA's say to read, you must read.…

My issue with his class: He doesn't believe in textbooks, so instead, all you get are his lectures. But unfortunately, his slides really aren't as concise as he thinks they are. Because of this, you have no reference other than his and his TA's slides. There is no definitive source for you to refer to. So the best you get is his loosy goosy explanations of terms that should have concise definitions. You aren't getting "Research Methods" you're getting "Kevin's thoughts on science (and how silly it can sometimes be)". My issues with the man: Have you ever met someone who's personality and mannerisms were clearly so artificial and forced that you knew you were looking at a facade? He'll do weird things like say "f***" and then pause, smile, look up and put his hand on his waist and say "oh geeze I must have had too much coffee this morning". LIke dude, no one is like that. This is some weird affectation. He thinks its cute, but to any adult who's met enough people in their life it's pretty clear that dude is a hateful, mean spirited person who's trying to come off as Mr. Rogers **but with cuss words, woah** .

Dude is a dick. I went to his office hours and he totally belittled me. People were coming in and out of his office and he commented, "This is where the magic happens. I'm pretty much CEO here." Ugh. The problem with research profs is they think they own their topic and all the people who work under it and supposedly want to learn about it. It's not so much the corporation model. It's more like indentured servitude. Ochsner's attitude is totally on part.

It is pretty heavy. You have to read a lot and work in a group to create and implement research. Not an easy grader and not an easy A class.

I agree -- his lectures were, at first, interesting and engaging. But soon enough you start realizing that you're not really learning anything other than how to write a ridiculous document that isn't even used in the scientific world (the ever-present QuALMRI Dr. Ochsner and his students are so fond of). The TAs were the least helpful TAs I've ever had (my TA was Jamil, but I've heard similar feedback about other TAs as well). All around, a really disappointing experience. I would recommend taking this course with another instructor.

I completely agree with the May 18th person. Professor O seems like a really cool guy (and his wife had just had a baby, so that could explain his mood swings to transference...) but the class was pretty redundant and not very helpful. I was really looking forward to my project, but you end up being limited by your group and the post bacs have a tendency to try to take over everything with the group experiment, which you have to curb because you are also graded on team work. Jamil is a great TA, and he really wants you to succeed and improve, but the class seems as though it is structured to screw you. The first midterm was literally the day we got back from Spring Break, which is lousy because that means you either blow it off and enjoy what is a very important, well deserved week to take a breather from Columbia, or you blow off your break to study for the midterm. The final exam schedule was even worse. They did not even give us reading week to study; our final exam was the last day of classes, which is really a detriment to everyone. We all have other classes that are wrapping up, as well as final papers and exams to study for, so having that final before the requisite week to study for it is a very rude slap in the face. Even more so because your final paper is due two days after that, and extensions are essentially out of the question. I agree, Oschner is a cool dude, bu…

This course was AWFUL! Don't take it if you can help it. The lectures were random and unnecessary. Though Ochsner seems like a very cool guy, who is good at what he does...his lectures left me wondering "why the hell do I like social psychology?" The lab section was even worse. Perhaps, this was just the TA I had but in general I didn't hear any of my friends in other lab sections calling out the praises of the class. There is little to no communication of everything that is going on. Assignments are sent out VERY late and close to deadlines so unless you are pro-active you end up scrambling at the last second to get the work done. Basically this course was terrible, I hated every minute of it and am just glad its over. Some people breezed through this class and others struggled. The biggest predictor of how well you did was how well you could speak the professor and TAs language not how well you understood the material.

Prof. Ochsner is an interesting and entertaining lecturer, but overall I wouldn't recommend this class if you have a better choice. the problem is with the class structure, the labs are boring and dull and tedious, the grading of the QUALMRIs (lab writeups) by the TA's was harsh, you have to learn psyscope and do some computer programming, not fun, and there is just a lot of stuff that could be on the midterm or final...much of it that was never discussed in class. In all fairness it is an ok class, but I wouldn't sign up for it again knowing what I know now.