Use patch.object as a decorator or context manager, as in the following code:
>>> class EmailChecker():
... def is_email_correct(self, email):
... pass
...
>>> def my_side_effect(*args):
... if args[0] == '1':
... return True
... else:
... return False
...
>>> with mock.patch.object(EmailChecker, 'is_email_correct', side_effect=my_side_effect):
... checker = EmailChecker()
... print(checker.is_email_correct('1'))
... print(checker.is_email_correct('2'))
...
True
False
NOTE: Replaced **args with *args. Added missing self argument to is_email_correct method.
my_side_effect could be simplified as follows:
def my_side_effect(email):
return email == '1'