GSND 6320 — Psychology of Play
4 semester hoursGraduateLectureusually offered: springBostonOakland, CATraditional
Explores theories of perception, motivation, needs, learning, goals, and belief systems as they pertain to games and play. Examines psychological principles, including visual and audio perception, emotions, behavior, personality, and the more recent scientific discoveries around psychological models explaining play behavior or motivation theories behind play. Introduces how players learn in and from games based on the relationship of play to learning theories. Forms a solid theoretical basis for a new segmentation tool—psychographics. Explores visual and cultural archetypes, digging into comics, movie sets, and cartoons to distillate what makes people tick in certain ways relating to universal theories of perception and gestalt theories. Applies the theories through critical analysis of play behavior and games.
Prerequisites
Offering history
| Term | Sections | Enrolled | Capacity | Full | Open seats/section |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spring 2024 | 2 | 33 | 68 | 49% | 17.5 |
| Spring 2025 | 1 | 4 | 17 | 24% | 13.0 |
| Spring 2026 | 2 | 29 | 36 | 81% | 3.5 |
Snapshots from scheduled scrapes — not live seat availability. "Full" can exceed 100% when sections over-enroll.
Meeting times
Share of recent sections by weekday: M 42% · T 14% · W 8% · Th 36% · F 8%
Common patterns: M (42% of sections), R (36% of sections), T (14% of sections), WF (8% of sections) — in patterns, R means Thursday
Professors
Spring
- Elina Tochilnikova (42% of students) · reviews
- Erica Kleinman (36% of students) · reviews
- Parul Wadhwa (14% of students) · reviews
- Nathalie Mathe (8% of students) · reviews
Percentages are each professor's average share of the season's enrolled students in recent terms.
Links
Official catalog (GSND course descriptions) · Student reviews on RateMyHusky · All GSND courses · Plan it at numap.app