I want to go to grad school

January 14, 2006 3:38 PM

Where is there a good graduate program based around the psychology of games with a major focus on electronic gaming?

I'm looking to apply to grad schools very soon but I'm really passionate about this subject and there's almost nothing that I can find. Does anyone know how I can start looking for grad school programs in the country that focus on or have classes in this subject? I found a couple in California and that's about it.

posted by Holygrail2 to education (10 answers total)

Here's someone doing something similar . Not sure if you are willing to go overseas. Would be worth contacting the professors mentioned on that page.
posted by cushie at 4:00 PM on January 14, 2006

Are you looking for a Ph.D. program, or a masters?

If you're looking to get a Ph.D., you should be looking for researchers who are doing the kind of thing you're interested in, rather than for entire programs or specific classes. In my experience, you learn about what you're interested in outside of the classroom; classes help you acquire the tools you need to do good research.

Also, "psychology of games" is a bit broad. You should be fairly specific about what you want to study. That will help you with your search and your chances of being accepted into the program.

If you're looking for a masters program, I don't think I can help you.
posted by logicpunk at 4:09 PM on January 14, 2006

While there are a lot of people doing this kind of work my feeling is they are generally pretty junior so established programs of study are not all that likely. You might simply consider a good psychology or social-psychology programme that has some people working on media in ways you find compelling - and then build your own project up from the ground floor. Consider that having a common approach to your advisors is more important than a common object of study. There will undoubtedly be buckets of lit coming out in the near future that you will be able to draw on.
posted by anglophiliated at 4:18 PM on January 14, 2006

Constance Steinkuehler from University of Wisconsin, and Walt Scacchi from UC Irvine, were both speakers (as was I) at the recent Gaming in Libraries Symposium. They, and their graduate students, are doing the kind of work you're looking for, and if nothing else, starting with their robust sites should lead to other people working on the topic.
posted by ulotrichous at 4:29 PM on January 14, 2006

NYU
posted by raaka at 4:58 PM on January 14, 2006

As others have mentioned, for a PhD program you should look for faculty advisors rather than programs, and yes, most faculty who do work on electronic games are junior researchers. Another issue is that there are different subdisciplines within psychology, each would approach games in a different way (e.g., a cognitive psychologists might focus on issues that might impact game AI design or work to understand how we navigate in virtual environments, a developmental psychologist might look at game violence or cooperation and its impacts on development, a clinical psychologist might be interested in using games to treat PTSD, a social psychologist might explore group dynamics in MMORPGs, an educational psychologist might be interested in games for learning, etc.)

The most senior researcher in doing game work that I know of is Jim Gee at Wisconsin. Other researchers at Wisconsin include include Kurt Squire. Dmitri Williams at UIUC is in the communications department, and although he has a communications degree he considers himself a social psychologist.

In fact, you may want to consider communications departments as well. Also, some of the newer Information schools may be a good fit as well. They tend to be very interdisciplinary, offering a bit of psychology along with some CS, Organizational Science, Econ, etc. Michigan's School of Information, Penn State's School of Information Science and Technology, Indiana's School of Library and Information Science, and Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction Institute are the ones that come to mind right now. You may also find some leads by looking at the presenter list at the Serious Games Summit site.

I would want to know a bit more about your specific interests, whether you are looking for a masters or doctorate, and what you want to do with your degree.

I'm somewhat plugged into this world, feel free to email me (address in profile).
posted by i love cheese at 7:36 PM on January 14, 2006

Check out MIT's Comparative Media Studies.
posted by shortfuse at 7:38 PM on January 14, 2006

Maybe check out Simon Fraser University's School of Interactive Arts & Technology. SFU is well regarded in Canada and helped pioneer the concept of interdisciplinary degrees. Vancouver is also a gaming centre, with EA, Radical, Black Box, Mainframe, Rockstar, and lots of other gaming companies in town.
posted by acoutu at 8:03 PM on January 14, 2006

The Carnegie Mellon University Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) has a terrific graduate program that sounds like exactly what you're talking about. Their Building Virtual Worlds presentation each Spring is truly phenomenal.
posted by Jeff Howard at 10:20 PM on January 14, 2006

Though I never majored or grad-studented in MIT's Comparative Media Studies program or Media Arts and Sciences, I worked for or took classes in both and got to know some of the professors really well.

The people and research in the programs are really diverse, but there is a lot going on in cutting edge research on games and character development, inter-personal interaction, perception, you name it. Depending on your interests, these programs may be a good match whether or not you're looking to program the game or study how people play it. In both of them, I know people on the far-technical and on the far-social ends of the research, so don't be put off by, say, lacking a computer science degree...
posted by whatzit at 2:53 PM on February 13, 2006