Spring 2027

Social Psychology

Social Psychology introduces classic and contemporary theories and research with an emphasis on experimental methodology, examining individual behavior in social contexts.

offering recorded3–4 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Tatum Jolink

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Emily Dix, Judith Harackiewicz

Success required reading the entire textbook, as exams covered detailed content that lectures did not fully supplement. Students noted that not reading every word made the tests not doable.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Understand the kinds of questions that social psychologists ask and why these questions matter.

  • Become an effective consumer of science – i.e., understand the methods that social psychologists use to test their research questions and be able to draw appropriate conclusions from study findings.

  • Evaluate whether research evidence provides a good test of theory.

  • View everyday social behavior through a social psychological lens.

  • Think about how research findings can be used to create interventions to address real-world problems.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

PSYCH 202

PSYCH 456 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Spring 2027
Historical instructors & teaching patterns

ABIGAIL LETAK is recorded teaching in Fall 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

EMILY DIX is recorded teaching in Fall 2017, Fall 2018. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

JUDITH HARACKIEWICZ is recorded teaching in Fall 2019, Fall 2020. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MEGAN BRUUN is recorded teaching in Fall 2022. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

TINA WINSTON is recorded teaching in Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 1850
LEC 002Classroom Instruction0 / 150
DIS 301Classroom Instruction0 / 150

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
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Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Judith Harackiewicz, Megan Bruun

Students found the social psychology content engaging and interesting, with instructors like Bruun making lectures conversational and Harackiewicz showing passion for the material.

Recent recorded grades — Fall 2024: 3.19 GPA, 43.8% A/AB (n=267 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.32 GPA, 58.7% A/AB (n=184 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.50 GPA, 71.0% A/AB (n=193 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Emily Dix, Judith Harackiewicz

Success required reading the entire textbook, as exams covered detailed content that lectures did not fully supplement. Students noted that not reading every word made the tests not doable.

Past student reviews · Emily Dix, Judith Harackiewicz

Students found lectures dry and noted that grading relied heavily on a small number of exams, making it difficult to recover from a poor performance on the first test.

Topics

  • Social interaction, motivation, attitudes, conformity, communication, leadership, personal relationships, and small group behavior
  • Experimental methodology

Skills

  • Consume scientific research and evaluate study findings
  • Evaluate research evidence against theoretical frameworks
  • Design interventions based on social psychological research

Grades

Historical instructor

Spring 2027 · Projected

Before grades are released

– average GPA

Approximate 80% prediction interval

About this estimate

The course’s semester-average GPA, not an individual student’s grade. The center uses 6 recent terms, weighted toward recent results.

The range uses the finite-sample 80th-percentile rank of absolute errors from earlier same-season forecasts. Each forecast uses only records from earlier terms. At least four forecasts are required; bounds are rounded outward and limited to 0–4. This is an empirical estimate: changing instructors or grading policies can reduce its coverage.

4 earlier forecasts · 0.32 GPA average error.

Grades over time

Through Spring 2027

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
PSYCH 456 · Spring 2027

Social Psychology

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
[
  {
    "run_id": "20261014T203208-0851c9a1",
    "semester": "1274",
    "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00",
    "offering_id": "1274:820:016431",
    "course_id": "PSYCH 456",
    "course_uid": "course_ac8b1c27fdbde1a0c941dbaf",
    "term_id": "1274",
    "source_course_id": "016431",
    "source_subject_id": "820",
    "title": "Social Psychology",
    "credits_min": 3,
    "credits_max": 4,
    "typically_offered": "Fall, Spring, Summer"
  }
]
Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "413ee72d76f02d3e5a90249e982c13aa19b22776b169feb27e8412d21f980908",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
  "observed_at": "2026-10-14 17:50:09.728220+00:00"
}