Professor Gray joined the faculty in the Fall of 1972 and taught regularly until the Spring of2002. He is now retired from regular teaching but continues to conduct and publish research and give guest lectures. He is author of Psychology, an introductory textbook now in its eighth edition; Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life (which has been translated into 18 languages); and other books as well as numerous research articles and chapters. His early research had to do with hormonal and brain mechanisms of basic mammalian drives, and his more recent and more extensive research has to do with children's play and its educative value. Many of his academic articles are available to download at his personal website. He is author of numerous essays on his Psychology Today blog, Freedom to Learn, and more recently on his substack series, Play Makes Us Human. You can also follow him on Facebook.
