Holifield, Joseph  

Professor Holifield is a super boring lecturer. Sitting through 2 hours with him is honestly pretty rough. The good thing is that he has three midterms and an optional final, and the exams make up about 80% of your grade (the rest is small in class assignments/exit slips). To get a B in the class you don't even really need to show up to class so long as you do the study guides and know them well. If you want an A you'll have to work a bit harder but all that really means is that you actually have to read the textbook readings. Basically, the class is boring so don't sign up for it if you're looking for an interesting class, but it doesn't take much time out of your schedule and it's an easy A or B.

LOVE HIM! Great class, great teacher. No homework assignments, doable exams. Take this class!!

Overall pretty easy as long as you read the book!!!! There is two midterms a couple in class assignments easy and a final that is cumulative but is optional. Some people had difficulties but I think honestly that they didnt even bother to read because I got a's on both exams no problem. And no homework as well.

Holifield was a good lecturer. The classroom we were in had several technical issues, which got annoying but he rolled with the punches. I found his tests a bit oddly worded and confusing, which is unfortunate because the 3 exams are basically 95% of the grade, with the remaining 5% being participation/in class work. Overall pretty average

Dr. Holifield is a really nice guy and has lots of experience in the field. However, I felt that I didn't necessarily learn a lot in this class. While a lot of it is kind of intuitive, especially if you've taken other psych classes, it seemed like he mostly read off of PowerPoints. Lecture can be very boring. The class itself is really easy if you read the textbook and do the study guides.

i am a psychology major, but i believe this class also counts as a GE. there are 2 major exams and one quiz. the lectures were straight out of the textbooks but if you just pay attention to the lecture, you will barely pass. the things he talks about during the lecture are different than what's in the slides and in the textbook. if you want to learn more efficiently, i advise you read each chapter before the lecture. it will be more helpful. for the final, it is best to study and memorized the answers from the last midterms and quiz!! if the lecture for a chapter is over, do not expect to be let out from class early, he'll go into the next chapter afterwards, so always be prepared. in my opinion, i think dr. hollifield is really kind. if you need something to be clarified or explained again, he really looks out for you. he also sets a curve for the test. i think that he is a really good person, but his teaching can be disorganized. overall the class is interesting, could be boring at some point, but the information is straightforward.

I am honestly so disappointed with Holifield's lack of awareness and ability to teach in an effective manner. He is probably the worst teacher I think I've had at Cal Poly, not because he is so difficult without purpose, but because he was not able to engage with the students to generate a real understanding of concepts he presented. To call him a teacher is a misnomer because all he'll do is take the captions/headings from the text and put it onto the slides along with the exact diagrams and examples given in the text. Granted he is a nice enough guy who doesn't really expect too much (depending on how you define too much, in this case I meaning assignments and participation), but I genuinely expected to learn more in this course through a professor who has real enthusiasm for this subject. He does talk about his practice quite a bit, but he does so in a way that is close to bragging (& complains about the difficulty of grad school too often). Though the subject matter of the course was super fascinating, he didn't do much to stimulate intellectual thinking. Course is not that hard if you read the text well!

Just like the person before me, I was extremely disappointed with Holifield's teaching abilities. Before signing up for his class, I read that he was boring, but after the first lecture I knew it was a worse situation than this. I'm a biology major switching to psychology, so while I heard that Biopsych is a tough class to take while on contract, I figured I had a strong enough background and would try it. But if it weren't for my previous knowledge on the subject and the textbook, I would've failed based on his lectures. The entire two hours is him sitting at his desk, reading off of his powerpoints (which are just key points from the text word for word). He doesn't put in any effort to elaborate, thus leaving you with a jumbled idea of the topic and no clear understanding of concepts or connections between them. The textbook was great and did an awesome job explaining all that we needed to know. Read it and take detailed notes, show up to lecture and write down what he says will be on the test, and you'll pass. Just don't expect to learn much directly from him.

First lets start with the positives. Prof. Holifield is a genuinely caring person with a lot of experience in the field of psychology and cognitive development. He is concerned with his students and listened to our input. He shares personal stories that are generally relevant to the topic. The workload is manageable, consisting of reading the book, several articles and handouts and a mini project/ presentation at the end of the course. He gives out study questions before each quiz that are extremely helpful. If you can answer the questions on the review, you will do fine on the quizzes. Things that frustrated me I found his style of lecture to be unhelpful. He put a rather long and detailed outline on the projector and then spoke very quickly about the points. The problem was that there was so much information on the projector and he spoke so quickly that I was never able to both write down the information and pay attention to what he said. He also seemed to have difficult staying focused and organized which I found very frustrating. His quizzes never seemed to pertain much to the lecture which made me question why I was bothering to stress over the notes anyways. Overall I would put him at above average because of the interest he shows in the subject and his students even if his lecturing abilities could use some improvement.

I had this class from 6-8 pm, and it dragged on. His lectures are pretty boring, but we watched a lot of videos which spiced things up a little bit. We had to go to a preschool, do an observation, and write a paper on it. It was a pretty cool assignment, but he graded kind of harshly. The book is pretty challenging, but manageable. ....He wasn't terrible, but if I could do it over again, I would take a different professor.

Subject matter was somewhat interesting, but presented in a very haphazard, disorganized manner. Individual points in lecture did not seem to tie in well with one another, and an overall, comprehensive picture/theme of any particular lecture was tenuous. Exams were based on readings, and to a much, much lesser extent, lectures. Dr. Holifield is a wonderful person, and genuinely cares about the well-being of his students. He is also quite well versed in his domain of study. Unfortunately, that does not necessarily translate to being a good lecturer or (especially) test-writer. Attempts at clarification were terribly vague and abstruse, and quizzes were rife with ambiguous and even plainly incorrect answers upon later comparison with the book or lecture slides. I can\'t overexpress how difficult these quizzes were, mostly due to lack of specificity of how to prepare for them. Field study of infants was fun and interesting. The good news--Dr. Holifield is a very fair grader considering the lack of approachability present in his exams. If the class bombed a particular quiz, a massive curve was applied. Overall, exceptional person, well-learned in the field, but not a great lecturer.

This class is literally the easiest class I've taken at Cal Poly. I sat in the back of the room on Facebook for an entire quarter and had a very high A in the class. Honestly, its not worth going to class. He doesn't bother to learn his student's names, so he can't count you for attendance. Plus, half of the lecture is taken up by him trying to figure out how to work his computer or him giving us "breaks" for 20-25 minutes. This class was easy, but not worth my tuition money. He is a terrible lecturer and engages no interest in a topic that originally excites many students. I am in shock that our department would hire this type of professor and I feel that I have wasted tuition money to sit in class for a quarter and walk out with absolutely nothing. You have to take this class as a CD major, but try not to take it with him if you can.

The material covered in this class is interesting and useful (especially if you are plan on working with or having kids). The material is similar to that covered in abnormal psychology except that it focuses on children. The text for this class is extremely informative. Grades are based on 4 tests - 4 midterms worth 25 points each and a cumulative final worth 50 points. There are also in-class activities occassionally. This class was at times boring (especially when no one in the class asked questions). It probably didn't help that I took the class from 6-8 at night. Overall, I would rate this professor as about average, or a little better.

He's adorable. The lectures are right out of the textbooks. He varies up his lectures with case studies and videos. Class assignments are easy points and the exams aren't bad.

Good choice if you're looking to go into teaching, counseling, or social work. A lot of information is presented in class, but your grade is made up of lots of small projects/tests/papers so that it's pretty easy to stay afloat. Has great stories from his past experiences. Worth taking.

Missed the first day, went to the second day. Went to the midterm. Went to the Final. Three days of class total. I got a B, easy. This kind of shit gives our school a bad name.