4.2
Quality2.9
Difficulty75%
Would Retake111
Reviews75%
Would Retake
111
Reviews
Rating DistributionOfficial
111 total ratings5
71
4
16
3
11
2
9
1
4
What Students Say
“Amazing prof that is really interested in the material she presents”
PSYC3140 - 5.0 rating“Dr Rutherford is a solid Professor for Abnormal Psychology”
PSYC3140 - 4.0 ratingClass Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
39%
Textbook Required
0%
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A-
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HIST
5.0
(1)HISTPSYC
5.0
(2)PSYC2130
5.0
(1)PERS
5.0
(1)ABPSYC
5.0
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PERSONALIT
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HISTORYOFPSYC
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Reviews (110)
EXCELLENT, smart, approachable, take this class!
She makes boring stuff fun.
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If you are a PSYC student make sure you take a class with her. Cares about her students, very nice!
She's an amazing lecturer. She answers all questions effectively and she's very knowledgable in her field. This prof. is quite young so there's no bitterness towards her students - ever! Exams were very fair - no trick questions. Highly recommended :)
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she is great. Lectures right out of the text. exams are easy, very easy to follow!
great prof, i would totally recommend this course. the lectures are clear and interesting and she throroughly explains all the theories, concepts and research. the exams are totally fine, no suprises on them.
i love her lectures... she explains things very clearly.. she is one of the best lecturer i ever have... also she is young and hot haha~
Great prof!!!! The best that I've ever had at York. She explains everything clearly, she's helpful and interesting!!! Take this class!!! Exams are fair!!!
Clear lectures, exams are fair.
ditto everyone else, fair and clear.
Best Prof at York University! Enough said. Very nice and fair exams.
She doesn't seem to be the most knowledgable prof I've ever had but she teaches very well. Exams are fair. Take this class!
She's so sweet and really nice. **MOST AWESOME** prof
Nice, smiley, helpful, intelligent, concerned, excellent professor, I felt the material given in class was not too connected to the text and books were complicated, very fair exams and she's a hot, cute sweet blonde.
Excellent prof, my favourite ever. Optional paper is easy marks. She is very clear and explains any questions you have. Everyone will love this class. Exams are fair and straightforward.
She's the best prof at York University. York is blessed to have her teach her!!
Great teacher, who is very clear. She goes fast, but is willing to help you catch up. The tests are very fair and if you know your stuff you'll do well.
Super excellent prof
I've enjoyed her class more than any other prof's. Probably the best prof I've had at York so far. She's cool
She is an excellent prof! She is very knowledgeable in what she is talking about and is always willing to help.
She is one of the best profs at York. Extremely helpful and clear, and her tests are actually fair!!
My favorite prof of all time! She's awesome! Really fascinating lectures, excellent teaching style.
simply the best!!
worst and most unsympathetic prof i have ever had
I find her very cold and alienating. She presents only diagnostic criteria for mental disorders but no theory or depth. Consequently, lectures are basic and boring, and I get nothing out of them. Her exams are mediocre in difficulty, but her lectures put one to sleep. Better take Eastwood.
I don't like her lecturing style, she tends to look down at her notes too much. Her lectures are boring, she basically regurgitates the textbook. She's not that bad, but if you have her be prepared to take notes. Her tests are fair, but gives too little time...70 mins ONLY!!
Her lectures are great, but her test sare really inconsistent. She often asks the dumbest mc questions that are so irrevelant just to bring down the class average. Testing style is inconsistent. She seems to really know her stuff, great class
I think she's overrated. She's young, blond and hot, which is why her ratings are so high. But I thought her lectures were boring and unremarkable, the textbook was all about details but no theory, and exams were quite writing-heavy, with 6 short answers and three essay-style questions. Not fun.
brilliant and erudite-forever raising the bar while graciously reaching out to ensure all make the grade. Merci
Tough
Great Prof... If you study you will do well. Her exams are pretty easy.
One of the best profs I've had at York. Tests easy if you study, but there's a lot to write, so you really have to know your stuff. She knows tons about abnormal psych, is approachable, & her lectures are always interesting.
Awesome
Best ever!!! enjoy the classes.the exams are fair,the mcs are a bit tricky but nothing that hasnt been mentioned in lectures.just read the notes and study guide and got an A+ in the course.
really great professor- her tests are not easy- but if you come to lectures and read the text you can do really well. the lectures are really important- but you'll want to come to them because she's awesome and so interesting!
Very kind, understanding and accomodating. Take really good lecture notes and study the concepts not mentioned in the text. Makes frequent reference to lectures. Beware short answers are easy as long as you give an exact reproduction of what the textbook says. But the TA was a ****!
Good looking prof
Really disliked this prof. she wasn't helpful when in need. Her exams were very hard and lectures were very boring. I dreaded going to her classes. My whole expereince was really awful!!!
AVOID!!!!
A very boring person
BEWARE of the T.A. Leeat, rude, not helpful at all, not interested in helping anyone, only wants to scarf down her lunch. Prof gives FAB lectures!
Very biased towards certain students.
Very good prof. If you study you can get an A. Good , clear lectures, exams not hard. Makes the class interestind.
i agree that Leeat is rude and completely unhelpful. As for Alex, she's a very nice prof, but beware...her exams are quite brutal...but not as brutal as her course textbook...not recommended
A lot of people here said she's hard but she's not. Exams were easy, lectures were awesome! Easy A. Take this class.
Great lectures but isn't very helpful and she marks rather hard. The exam questions are not specific and she gives many options that are all correct. This is a fabulous course, you will learn a lot but the testing is based on memorization not understanding. You are not given any opportunity to express your true understanding.
Excellent prof! Keeps lectures really interesting, was my favorite class this year. However her tests are a bit difficult :(
Shes simple & easy-going. The course is VERY textbook based but she adds 1 additional article to each chapter as a side issue related to the chapter. DONT DISREGARD the articles. a significant portion of the exam is dedicated to this. she LOVES NUMBERS. so MEMORIZE % & prevalence rates for both txtbk+articles. Assignments are too demanding in 2pgs.
Abnormal Psychology is a little bit tougher because there are many disorders to learn about. Dr. Rutherford gives great lectures and her tests are a bit difficult. You really need to work to get an A. There are very specific questions from the articles, such as quotes from the article with a blank. Some textbook questions are also specific ex.stats
Im glad that I had the abnormal psyc with this professor. She is nice, knowledgable, helpful. The tests & assignment are esay, as long as you spend time on the reading. Love this coures!
I was dreading this class coming into it but she made History of Psych exciting. great lectures and she gives you a list of the definitions she will take from. However, there is a ridiculous amount - roughly equal to 2.5 courses worth of material so be prepared to read alot! Gave 4 easily obtainable bonus marks to your final grade which is amazing!
I took Abnormal Psych and History of Psych with Rutherford. No doubt, she is one of the most educated professors. However, you must work VERY hard to earn an A in her courses. Textbook material, slides and articles are where all the test questions come from. Beware. I am an A student and worked my ass off, but ended up with a B+ and B :(
Took this class winter 2009. 3 assignments 20% each, and 2 tests 20% each. Know those articles, they are just as important as the text on the tests.
Thought I would be bored out of my mind in this class but she made it pretty interesting. There's a LOT of material to cover for each test tho so it is a bit hard. Do the all the bonus questions - they're worth the effort. She is pretty clear & helpful. Used her text for the class so lectures & the text overlap a bit but it helps you remember.
Alexandra is a great prof and a great person she always helped me and listened to my concerns.. But shes a killer her tests are insane like 120 multiple choice questions, like mercy please and these questions are not general questions they are sooo specific like whats the percentage of people in the U.S with bipolar disorder? i'm canadian man
Great professor! so helpful and thoughtful. She knows her stuff and make history interesting! Exams are a bit picky, so study the textbook well. I loved her and got an A+
Prof. Rutherford is Incredibly kind, helpful, clear, concise & engaging. Course Material is fascinating (even for those of us who are not history buffs), easy to understand & the tests are VERY fair. If you do the readings & the bonus questions, an A+ is quite possible. Highly Recommended!
She is a very articulate and clear speaker. Very knowledgeable and always has the time to answer questions. Approachable and engaging, an overall great prof!
She's an amazing professor. Very clear and engaging. Only thing is the tests are extremely hard, and there is a colossal amount of reading, on a topic that is only sometimes interesting.
awesome prof in that she's accommodating, kind, smart, organized, clear, helpful & friendly. exceedingly boring subject matter (including lectures & text) but she makes it a bit better by her passion for the subject. there isn't that much reading as the person below me said. i found the MC part of the tests difficult. overall, i really liked her.
Not a history fan, but she explains the concepts so wonderfully and clearly. Take ANY course with her and you wont regret it.
As long as you study hard, do all the readings and attend class you will do very well. I got an A+ doing all those things. There is a lot of reading but if you are willing to put in some effort you can get an A+ or A. She makes the course super interesting. Highly recommended!
Great passion for History of Psychology. She is very clear in her lectures which are a pleasure to attend. Her multiple choice tests are reasonably hard, with studying from the text book it is not hard to get good mark. Most of the studying comes from the text book. Good secondary sources such as videos, feminist websites, etc
Love this woman, she's an excellent lecturer in a school starved for them. She's probably your best bet for 3140, her assignments are easy and her tests are just 60 questions MC. If you get less than a B, drop psychology.
Amazing prof that is really interested in the material she presents. Brings in guest speakers and other visual aids often. In order to get a good grade you need to read the text as well as attending lectures but the text is a simple and easy read for the most part. Fair tests as long as you put in some work. Easy A if you try.
Truly one of the best. After taking abnormal PSYCH with her, my motto became "if she's teaching it, I'm taking it" You just cant go wrong with her take the course and see, and if you do and things don't go your way - as one of the previous posts points out, re-think where you stand in Psychology!
Fantastic lecturer, very clear in presenting the material. Her enthusiasm for psychology shows in her teaching. Her body of work in the field is very impressive; she definitely carved out a niche career for herself and will inspire you to do the same.
A very precise and concise lecturer! The textbook is very bland and hard to get through. Look out for the first exam!!!
She is a highly intelligent, passionate, articulate, and helpful professor/lecturer. She made me think about psych in a whole new way and she was always more than willing to answer questions. Read the textbook and go to class and you will do well! She co-wrote the text so it overlaps lecture a bit, which is helpful. I got an A+. Highly recommended!
This is the first time I'm rating a prof. She is actually helpful if you ask her questions, and a really good speaker. But her exams are honestly ridiculous. It's like her intentions are to trick you into answering the wrong answer. Strangely, the harder I studied, the worst I did in the multiple choice. I have never worked so hard for a +B!
Ive taken Abnormal Psych with this Prof. before and she was great. But staying true to my other motto "integrity at all cost" think twice before taking History with her. Its true her tests are ridicules and she goes out of her way to make them so. I pulled off a B+ but I wont be making that mistake twice!
She is a very friendly prof. If you study the material, you will do well on tests. I got A in her course. She is ok in general, nothing fancy.
Took abnormal with Dr. Rutherford and she was amazing. She teaches a holistic approach to mental illness. Learned so much from her class. Textbook not needed, only two novels and the rest of the readings were online articles. Tests were so easy as long as you go to class! Dr. Rutherford truly cares about her students and wants them to succeed.
Awesome prof! She is really nice, helpful and really cares about students succeeding. Good lecturer and very clear and concise when speaking. Her test are fair although multiple choice can be tricky.
Lectures are imperative since some things she mentions aren't in the text. My suggestion is to cross ref lecture notes with textbook notes for a full picture. Assignments are fair. One is based on an article to do with IQ tests, and the other is a creative conversation between two feminist voices in psych. Had her for 3140 in W16, both easy As.
She's a great lecturer, kind, & smart, probably the best psych prof I've had at York. Textbook is written by her & offered free online. It's dense so may be a struggle to read at first. Tests are all M/C, focused on details. Lectures mostly overlap w/ textbook, but not always. Assignments are marked a bit harshly & criteria could be clearer.
She's a fantastic lecturer but if you care for your grades, don't take her courses; she's critical in her tests and I feel she may forget that we are undergraduates - the TAs are incredibly insightful and willing to help too
Excellent prof! Very clear during lecture although it can become dry and boring at times. However, she is a very caring prof and wants her students to do well.
What a fantastic course... academically, it's structured well. Tests can be tricky at times but TA's are there for you. In lieu of the strike, the course has been difficult to complete but Alexandra offered a few different ways to complete your grade - to your advantage. Thanks Dr. Rutherford & our TAs!
Dr Rutherford is a solid Professor for Abnormal Psychology. I originally thought that she would teach the course from a biological perspective but she taught it from a historical perspective which was kind of interesting and made you look at mental health differently. She is very clear in the expectations and her tests are very fair. Solid Choice
wasn't sure at first but her lecture style is really good. a lot of reading in the course but she explains the main points from readings in her lectures. attend class and take notes; she says a lot more than what's on the powerpoint. assignments are pretty okay and her tests are not surprising. shes really great
Dr. Rutherford is intelligent, competent, and caring. Her lectures were interesting, and she really wants students to think critically about abnormal psychology. Aside from tests, there are also two reflection assignments and one major paper in the course, which make good exercises to challenge your beliefs/assumptions and to think critically.
Hands down one of the best profs at York. Her abnormal psych class was so interesting and I always looked forward to her lectures. She tells you exactly what will be expected of you in the essay and exams and makes time to explain engage with the class. I would highly recommend!
Best prof I've had at York. This is the only Psychology class I've taken during Undergrad where we had to really think critically about Psychology, over-medicalization, critique the DSM, etc. Clear grading criteria and a fair marker. If you do the readings, ask questions, and are engaged - you will do very well. Lots to take away and learn!
Rutherford is very passionate about the subject. There's 3 tests and 2 assignments. Assignments are easy and very clearly outlined, the MC on her tests are tricky, but the SA will save you. I found both the textbook and lectures extremely dry and hard to pay attention to.
Honestly, I don't know why this prof is so highly rated. Lectures were painfully boring. Neither of the assignments required proper citations or anything scientific, just write 1000 words of bs and you'll do fine. Upside it's an easy A. Quite possibly the things I hate most about psychology wrapped into one course.
The History of Psychology course as presented by Dr. Rutherford is truly awesome, if you're interested in learning the origins of the major theories of psychology. She covers everything from Leibniz, Descartes, Locke, to Darwin, Watson, Skinner, etc. Basically it's a course everyone should take in psychology because everyone should know its history
Lectures are soooo boring! I had 3 tests and 2 assignments in this course - tests were ok if you study - need to read textbook and memorize slides! The assignments - her TA's are the hardest graders ever! I had a meeting with mine to look over the paper and they gave me marks off for no reason - when i complained they made up stupid reasons!
Prof Rutherford made the lecture quite interesting & I enjoyed this course. The tests were quite hard and you know to know the textbook materials well. The assignments were quite fun to do. I'd recommend the course to anyone interested in knowing the origins of psychology and the perceptive it is written in.
This course is not what I expected - she teaches abnormal psyc in an anti-DSM, sociocultural, historical perspective, but it was one of the most interesting and eye-opening courses I've taken. Lots of critique and critical thinking. Readings may be long and difficult, but she goes over them in lecture. Her lectures are AMAZING and very interesting.
Dr. Rutherford is such a gem! Shes honestly the most caring and compassionate professor, especially when we have a pandemic. This course was very interesting and it was not test based since its a pandemic. It was amazing because her lectures gave an overview of the textbook since she wrote it. Super interesting course with only 3 assignments.
this class was a waste of time. didn't learn a thing. you don't need to watch 80% of lectures or do most of the readings, only do the ones that are related to the assignments. the course is graded on 3 essays and the TAs are super subjective when grading and don't give proper feedback. i wouldn't have taken this course if it wasn't mandatory
First of all, it takes forever for her to get back to emails. She literally waited out answering students emails regarding their grades by Tal Davidson (her TA) until the deadline for dropping the course which is unethical and ridiculous. Although I enjoyed her lectures, the issue with this course is her TA's specifically Tal! Avoid him :)
she made everyone buy a textbook then we only read three chapters and we were told to basically throw it out, I love wasting money on a textbook, then not even use it past the first 3 weeks. also she treats this class like its sociology, even though its a abnormal psychology class.
Professor Rutherford was a great professor! She did her job very well, knew her material and made the class pretty interesting, however, her tests were so long and I found quite difficult to predict WHAT exactly she required to study. I also emailed her asking a question about an assignment, and her response was very passive/vague...Overall not bad
really really amazing prof. her lectures were awesome, she's so engaging and her passion AND criticism of psychology really rubs off on you and makes you think in ways you otherwise wouldn't. there are only 3 essays which is great in terms of workload, but it also means each grade matters.
I learned a lot of different perspectives on mental health from her. Definitely a much more interesting course since it is not too focused on the diagnosis criteria but on historical and social aspects of overall mental health issues.
Professor Rutherford was really kind and caring! I found her lectures to be somewhat "empty", restating ideas without providing depth or new insights, but all in all, pretty good instructor and interesting course.
Her lectures were very very boring. We didn't learn about disorders when all my friends with other profs learned about a new disorder each week! The only good aspect was that the assignments were extremely easy.
The course only had 5 assignments which was great! The assignments were very easy and the TA's were very generous in grading! She was kind enough to drop the last assignment because of the strike! She gave amazing lectures with interesting content and useful lecture slides! Overall, she was a great professor and it was an easy A course!
Unfortunately you won't learn about mental disorders, only the social conditions affecting them. Boring lectures that feel somewhat polticized IMO. Lots of readings, you don't need them to do well I didn't read any. Hope that you get a good TA because one marks easy and the other is tough, you won't get more than a 75. All assignment (paper) based.
Professor Rutherford's lectures are engaging, but can be a bit surface-level. The course has a reasonable workload with 3 essays. Unstuck ai was a great study tool alongside the textbook. Overall, a solid psychology course.
Great course! Lectures are engaging, and she provides relevant readings rather than regurgitating a textbook. You're left with a nuanced perspective on the history and current state of the mental health industry- a must take with this prof for anyone thinking of going into this field. Wish more courses were taught like this.
I loved the content, and I learned so much. I love her class, but the TA's grading was a joke. There is a word max on assignments, and the point deductions wanted me to elaborate on what I was writing... Whoever wrote that one of the TAs doesn't mark above 75 was right.
Prof is amazing. THE TAs ARE THE WORST! They are TOUGH graders. Their feedbacks did not make sense at all. It was clear they do not thoroughly read submissions, at least the one I got.
The prof seems great but the TA IS THE WORST. She nitpicks everything. Her feedbacks don't make sense.
Professor Rutherford is outstanding and highly knowledgeable. The course is well-designed for both learning and enjoyment. However, the TAs can make things a bit tricky, so it's a good idea to contact them for feedback before submitting assignments. Stay connected with the teaching team for a smoother experience.
She is a female in psychology and I respect that she works very hard as a professor.
Class Info
Online Classes
100%
Attendance Mandatory
39%
Textbook Required
0%
Grade Predictor
Your expected effort level
Predicted Grade
A-
Grade Distribution
Common Tags
Rating Trend
Declining
-0.41 avg changeRatings by Course
HIST
5.0
(1)HISTPSYC
5.0
(2)PSYC2130
5.0
(1)PERS
5.0
(1)ABPSYC
5.0
(2)Difficulty by Course
PERSONALIT
5.0
HISTORYOFPSYC
5.0
PSYCH
5.0
HIST3470
5.0
HISTOFPSYC
4.0