The Classic Wanderer

In What Way Are The Diverse Subfields Of Psychology Related?

• Sabrina Sarro
• 05.05.2023
• 0
• 17

With So Many Subfields of Psychology, Where Do I Fit? – There are many subfields of psychology and, for prospective students; it can be difficult to determine which subfield is “the best fit.” While researching the various available subfields and graduate programs in psychology, students are often confronted with contradictory information between pop-culture definitions and specific graduate student program definitions of the same subfield(s) of psychology.

This often leaves students wondering if they really understand the differences between the subfields of psychology; and, more importantly, the various available definitions and descriptions of subfields often leaves prospective students wondering which type of psychology best fits their interests and future career plans.

Within the field of psychology, there is a division between “professional” (or practice-oriented) psychology and non-practice-oriented psychology. The term “professional psychology” is somewhat misleading. While there are professionals who practice in all subfields of psychology, the term “professional psychology” is often used to refer specifically to those psychologists who practice psychology by providing psychotherapy and psychological testing services.

• The three subfields of professional psychology are: Clinical Psychology, Counseling Psychology, and School Psychology.
• In general, there is significant overlap among the training received by students in all three professional psychology subfields.
• For example, regardless of whether a student enters a Clinical, Counseling, or School Psychology program, he or she will be required to learn basic research methods, intelligence and personality assessment, and therapy interventions.

How these skills are applied, however, may vary considerably. Broad descriptions can be helpful in understanding the differences among the practice-oriented subfields of psychology. The American Psychological Association (APA), the largest professional association of psychologists in the U.S., offers brief descriptions of 14 various subfields of psychology here,

Clinical Psychologists are “interested in the diagnosis, causes, and treatment of mental disorders (such as depression, personality disorders, or schizophrenia).” Counseling Psychologists are “interested in the treatment of mental disorders. The main difference between is that Counseling Psychologists are concerned primarily with ‘normal’ problems of adjustment or challenge, such as choosing a career, experiencing academic stress, or coping with marital problems.” School Psychologists are “interested in the emotional or learning problems of students.” School Psychologists often engage in psychoeducational testing to diagnose learning disorders and develop educational interventions to assist schools and teachers to help students learn.

While these descriptions are helpful in understanding the differences among the various subfields in psychology, these descriptions are really generalizations. Prospective students are encouraged to learn more about specific programs in deciding which program best fits their needs and interests.

For example, while multicultural and diversity issues are often most salient in Counseling Psychology programs and personality assessment is generally associated with Clinical Psychology training (Price, 2009), not all Counseling Psychology programs provide in depth training in multicultural and diversity issues and not all Clinical Psychology programs emphasize personality assessment.

While broad descriptions are helpful, they are not absolute. What may be more important than the actual program is the quality of the training students receive and how well the training aligns with a student’s career plans and interests. So, those interested in pursuing advanced training in psychology are best advised to learn about the philosophy and culture of the training programs in which he or she is interested. By: Dustin K. Shepler, PhD, Core Faculty at MSP References Price, M. (2009). Counseling vs. clinical programs: Similarities abound. gradPSYCH. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2009/03/similarities.aspx

How does diversity relate to psychology?

Why Does Representation Matter in Psychology? – At its core, psychology aims to understand human behavior. Without addressing the impact and importance of race and diversity, it can be argued that psychology is incomplete. According to psychologist Robert M.

• Sellers, “Psychological science must capture the full breadth of human experiences before it can truly say that it understands a particular psychological construct or phenomenon.
• If we are really trying to develop laws of human behavior, it’s extremely important that those laws be based on data that captures that variability.” For this reason, it’s crucial to include issues of diversity in psychological research and practice.

Different identities in race and culture shape individuals’ worldviews, and in turn, their psychology. It’s also beneficial for individuals within the field of psychology to be representative of the population as a whole. A diverse set of psychologists, counselors, and psychiatrists opens the door for a diverse set of clients who had otherwise not seen counseling as an option.

Request info For example, the APA reported that half of Asian Americans do not get treatment for mental health issues due to a language barrier. As it stands, a little over 2% of doctorate psychologists are Asian. The same barriers exist for Black people in U.S. struggling with mental illness. According to the APA, only 2% of the total number of psychologists in America are Black.

This disparity is happening alongside immense stigma within the Black community to seek mental health treatment. In addition, minority patients often seek clinicians of a similar racial background. In these cases, patients see more effective outcomes in their treatments.

As it stands, there is not a truly representative set of psychologists in the workforce. Therefore, it’s essential for existing psychologists to be trained in cultural competence and minority mental health issues. When psychologists understand the unique issues and history faced by people of color, they can provide better treatment and overall health outcomes.

“It is not considered essential that the clinician and client share the same ethnic background. Nor is it essential that a clinician has experienced a history of racial trauma to provide support for a client with symptoms of post-traumatic stress,” Clive Kennedy, Ph.D., department faculty at the Los Angeles Campus, recently told INSIGHT magazine,

In what subfield of psychology psychologists study how humans relate to each other interact with each other and think about each other?

– Social psychology is the study of social behavior and mental processes, with an emphasis on how humans think about each other and how they relate to each other. Social psychologists are especially interested in how people react to social situations. They study such topics as the influence of others on an individual’s behavior (e.g.

conformity, persuasion ), and the formation of beliefs, attitudes, and stereotypes about other people. Social cognition fuses elements of social and cognitive psychology in order to understand how people process, remember, and distort social information. The study of group dynamics reveals information about the nature and potential optimization of leadership, communication, and other phenomena that emerge at least at the microsocial level.

In recent years, many social psychologists have become increasingly interested in implicit measures, mediational models, and the interaction of both person and social variables in accounting for behavior.

What are the diverse approaches to psychology?

There are various approaches in contemporary psychology, An approach is a perspective (i.e., view) that involves certain assumptions (i.e., beliefs) about human behavior: the way they function, which aspects of them are worthy of study and what research methods are appropriate for undertaking this study.

• There may be several different theories within an approach, but they all share these common assumptions.
• The five major perspectives in psychology are biological, psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive and humanistic.
• You may wonder why there are so many different psychological approaches and whether one approach is correct and another wrong.

Most psychologists would agree that no one approach is correct, although in the past, in the early days of psychology, the behaviorist would have said their perspective was the only truly scientific one. Each approach has its strengths and weaknesses, and brings something different to our understanding of human behavior.

Why do we need diversity in psychology today?

How Exposure to Diversity Can Help All Children (And Adults)

Many of us know and embrace that diversity is something to be celebrated. While this positive message is shared explicitly, it hasn’t sunk in deeply enough to penetrate the implicit biases that we have. There is evidence that such biases can start developing quite early in life. Frequent exposure to diversity can reduce or eliminate those biases.

With a White dad from New Jersey, and a White mom from Cuba, I always straddled the line between White and Hispanic. If you look at me, I’m clearly White, as is my Cuban mom, even with our jet-black hair, but I grew up immersed in Cuban culture. I was raised bilingual, speaking both English and Spanish at home.

With grandparents who didn’t speak English and a father who didn’t speak Spanish, I was constantly shifting between languages, which came quite easily as a child. As a parent, I now know that having bilingual children is something to aspire to, but back then, it wasn’t such a highly regarded quality.

From a very young age, part of me felt that being Hispanic was associated with something negative, even though I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what was so bad about it. I was typically the only kid who spoke Spanish at home in my class, and I was embarrassed that I was different.

I was mortified to speak Spanish to my grandparents in public, or worse, in front of my friends, and did everything I could to hide the fact that I was different. I can even recall wishing that we spoke something more “interesting” at home like French or even Italian, and resented the fact that my parents made me choose to take Spanish in school so that I could learn to read and write in the language.

As an adult looking back on my, what embarrasses me now is how embarrassed I was to be Hispanic. I’m ashamed of how ashamed I was to speak Spanish in public, and how much my ability to converse in the language has deteriorated. I also know now that the “something negative” about being Hispanic that I was perceiving was an implicit negative association with being ethnically different, and I’m actually quite shocked at how young I was able to perceive the stereotypes that floated around me and my family, even though I couldn’t name them at the time. Wikimedia Commons/Ilhem34 Importantly, there is evidence that such biases can start developing quite early in life. For example, by three months of age, infants begin to prefer images of adults of their own race over images of adults of other races (Kelly et al., 2005).

Similarly, five- and six-month-old infants show a preference for people who speak their native language, and 10-month-old infants are even more willing to take toys from people who speak their native language compared to people who speak a foreign language (Kinzler et al., 2007). Why does this happen? Before children understand what makes people the same or different on the inside, they rely heavily on these perceptual similarities or dissimilarities on the outside.

In other words, children notice physical features that often determine things like race and early on, and they use these physical features to distinguish between themselves and others, and to build their own identities. This suggests that infants start to treat people who they don’t often have contact with as different from an early age.

1. This is where the importance of diversity comes in.
2. Research suggests that frequent exposure to other races on a daily basis can erase these effects.
3. For example, if children live in neighborhoods where they are often exposed to people of other races, they are better at differentiating between faces of people from other races than children who don’t have the same exposure (Bar-Haim et al., 2006).

The same is true for infants who have exposure to people who speak different languages and have different types of accents. The same is true for adults. In fact, there is evidence that one of the strongest ways to reduce implicit biases is to have exposure to outgroup members—to people who are different from you (e.g., Dovidio et al., 2017).

Altogether, this work suggests that being surrounded by a diverse group of people can function to both limit the formation of biases towards perceived outgroup members, and to reduce the biases we might already have. But diversity isn’t just important for members of our ingroup. It’s also important for the outgroup members.

Studies with adolescents have shown that having same-race peers increases a child’s sense of belonging in school (Rambaran et al., 2022). On top of that, having same-race support figures are important as well. For example, one study reported that Black children who have at least one Black teacher in grades K through 3 were more likely to enroll in college than children who did not have that teacher (Gershenson et al., 2018).

• In fact, there are decades of research demonstrating that individuals exposed to more diversity show more cultural awareness, lower racial stereotyping, and more civic responsibility.
• Further, college students who are exposed to more diversity in school show more critical thinking skills, intellectual engagement, academic, and college retention (Milem, 2003).

The take-home message here is that diversity is important—for everyone, It exposes us to people of all walks of life, helping those of us in the majority to be more open to different experiences and people, and those of us in the minority to feel more like we belong.

• As an adult, I’m incredibly proud of who I am and where I came from—a feeling that every child deserves to have.
• Embracing and promoting diversity is one way we can help make sure that happens.
• References Bar-Haim, Y., Ziv, T., Lamy, D., & Hodes, R.M. (2006).
• Nature and nurture in own-race face processing.

Psychological science, 17 (2), 159-163. Dovidio, J.F., Love, A., Schellhaas, F.M., & Hewstone, M. (2017). Reducing intergroup bias through intergroup contact: Twenty years of progress and future directions. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 20 (5), 606-620.

Gershenson, S., Hart, C.M., Hyman, J., Lindsay, C., & Papageorge, N.W. (2018). The long-run impacts of same-race teachers (No. w25254). National Bureau of Economic Research. Kelly, D.J., Quinn, P.C., Slater, A.M., Lee, K., Gibson, A., Smith, M.,, & Pascalis, O. (2005). Three‐month‐olds, but not newborns, prefer own‐race faces.

Developmental science, 8 (6), F31-F36. Kinzler, K.D., Dupoux, E., & Spelke, E.S. (2007). The native language of social cognition. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104 (30), 12577-12580. Milem, J.F. (2003). The educational benefits of diversity: Evidence from multiple sectors. : How Exposure to Diversity Can Help All Children (And Adults)

Why is diversity important in clinical psychology?

Diversity within the Clinical Psychology Unit. Diversity is a term which is increasingly being used to focus on the differences between individuals and across groups – such as race, culture, ethnicity, spirituality and religious beliefs, sexuality, education, gender and age.

1. Appreciating the diversity of self and others is to value difference as enriching rather than as a problem or difficulty that needs to be overcome.
2. The Sheffield DClin Psy training programme recognises that difference can be at the root of discrimination and oppressive practice and takes steps to address this through clinical training placements and teaching and developing links with the wider community.

Valuing and understanding diversity can help service users and carers, Trainee Clinical Psychologists and staff to work together creatively in order to develop health care education and public services such as the NHS, which better and more realistically meet the needs of the people who use them.

What are the main subfields in relation to psychology?

With So Many Subfields of Psychology, Where Do I Fit? – There are many subfields of psychology and, for prospective students; it can be difficult to determine which subfield is “the best fit.” While researching the various available subfields and graduate programs in psychology, students are often confronted with contradictory information between pop-culture definitions and specific graduate student program definitions of the same subfield(s) of psychology.

This often leaves students wondering if they really understand the differences between the subfields of psychology; and, more importantly, the various available definitions and descriptions of subfields often leaves prospective students wondering which type of psychology best fits their interests and future career plans.

Within the field of psychology, there is a division between “professional” (or practice-oriented) psychology and non-practice-oriented psychology. The term “professional psychology” is somewhat misleading. While there are professionals who practice in all subfields of psychology, the term “professional psychology” is often used to refer specifically to those psychologists who practice psychology by providing psychotherapy and psychological testing services.

1. The three subfields of professional psychology are: Clinical Psychology, Counseling Psychology, and School Psychology.
2. In general, there is significant overlap among the training received by students in all three professional psychology subfields.
3. For example, regardless of whether a student enters a Clinical, Counseling, or School Psychology program, he or she will be required to learn basic research methods, intelligence and personality assessment, and therapy interventions.

How these skills are applied, however, may vary considerably. Broad descriptions can be helpful in understanding the differences among the practice-oriented subfields of psychology. The American Psychological Association (APA), the largest professional association of psychologists in the U.S., offers brief descriptions of 14 various subfields of psychology here,

Clinical Psychologists are “interested in the diagnosis, causes, and treatment of mental disorders (such as depression, personality disorders, or schizophrenia).” Counseling Psychologists are “interested in the treatment of mental disorders. The main difference between is that Counseling Psychologists are concerned primarily with ‘normal’ problems of adjustment or challenge, such as choosing a career, experiencing academic stress, or coping with marital problems.” School Psychologists are “interested in the emotional or learning problems of students.” School Psychologists often engage in psychoeducational testing to diagnose learning disorders and develop educational interventions to assist schools and teachers to help students learn.

While these descriptions are helpful in understanding the differences among the various subfields in psychology, these descriptions are really generalizations. Prospective students are encouraged to learn more about specific programs in deciding which program best fits their needs and interests.

For example, while multicultural and diversity issues are often most salient in Counseling Psychology programs and personality assessment is generally associated with Clinical Psychology training (Price, 2009), not all Counseling Psychology programs provide in depth training in multicultural and diversity issues and not all Clinical Psychology programs emphasize personality assessment.

12 major subfields in psychology (and associated psychology jobs)

While broad descriptions are helpful, they are not absolute. What may be more important than the actual program is the quality of the training students receive and how well the training aligns with a student’s career plans and interests. So, those interested in pursuing advanced training in psychology are best advised to learn about the philosophy and culture of the training programs in which he or she is interested. By: Dustin K. Shepler, PhD, Core Faculty at MSP References Price, M. (2009). Counseling vs. clinical programs: Similarities abound. gradPSYCH. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2009/03/similarities.aspx

How do all areas of psychology fit together?

Although the different perspectives all operate on different levels of analyses, have different foci of interests, and different methodological approaches, all of these areas share a focus on understanding and/or correcting patterns of thought and/or behavior.

How is psychology connected in different theories related to human behavior?

What are psychological theories? – Psychological theories are systems of ideas that can explain certain aspects of human thoughts, behaviors and emotions. Psychology researchers create these theories to make predictions for future human behaviors or events that may take place if certain behaviors exist.

Which psychology focuses on how we interact with and relate to others?

Social psychology focuses on how we interact with and relate to others. Social psychologists conduct research on a wide variety of topics that include differences in how we explain our own behavior versus how we explain the behaviors of others, prejudice, and attraction, and how we resolve interpersonal conflicts.

Does biological psychology overlap with other types of psychology?

Biopsychology – Biopsychology is a psychological area focused on how the brain, neurons, and nervous system influence thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This field draws upon many different disciplines, including basic psychology, cognitive psychology, experimental psychology, biology, physiology, and neuroscience.

What is the definition of diverse psychology?

A psychology of diversity considers how individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behavior are intertwined with their diverse social environments.

What are some diverse perspectives?

The goal of Diverse Perspectives is to develop the capacity to understand the interrelationships between multiple perspectives, such as personal, social, cultural, disciplinary, environmental, gendered, economic, local, and global.

What is a diverse approach?

The focus is on the individual differences of. the persons. The degree of this diversity can include many different dimensions, for example. age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion and physical abilities.

What is respect for human diversity in psychology?

It means understanding and accepting the uniqueness of individuals, as well as respecting their differences. Diversity may include, but is not limited to gender identity, sexual orientation; age; ethnic origin; ancestry, culture; socio-economic status; religion; family status; mental and physical disability.

Why is diversity so important?

FAQ on Diversity importance – Diversity is important in today’s world because it helps us learn from each other and understand that everyone is unique and special in their own way. Just like how each person has their own interests, hobbies, and talents, people also have different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences.

• When we have diversity, we get to learn about and appreciate these differences, and we can also learn from each other.
• For example, if you have a friend who is from a different country, you might get to learn about their language, food, and traditions, which can be really interesting! Or if you have a classmate who has a different skin color than you, you can learn about their experiences and how they see the world, which can help you see things from a different perspective.

Having diversity also helps us to be more accepting and inclusive of others, and to treat everyone with kindness and respect, no matter what they look like or where they come from. This is important because it helps create a better and more peaceful world where everyone can feel happy and included.

• Higher productivity
• Higher creativity
• Higher society satisfaction
• Reduce discriminations
• More economical power

What is cultural diversity in psychology?

Cultural diversity is a central feature of community psychology. It derives from a general psychological focus on the naturally occurring diversity among people within a context and between groups of people who are a part of different contexts. Implicitly, most theories and practices of psychology have inferred ordinal distinctions among people in a context and ordinal distinctions between people of different contexts (Jones, 1994).

Why is there a lack of diversity in clinical psychology?

Bottlenecks Toward Diversity – The field’s continued lack of diversity stems from educational barriers. In the U.S., prospective clinical psychologists spend 10 or more years in higher education, typically earning a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and a doctorate.

• Some groups experience difficulty in higher education because of systemic barriers.
• For example, disabled students have overall college completion rates of about 38%, compared to about 51% of nondisabled students.
• The odds are also stacked against BIPOC students, who are less likely than white students to complete their undergraduate degrees.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, only about half of Black and Latino/a students finished their bachelor’s degrees after six years, compared with nearly 70% of white students. This does not relate to academic ability, as students’ GPAs were similar regardless of race, but financial factors.

Black and Latino/a families are more likely to experience poverty than white families. Students from these racial groups are also more likely to default on their student loans, which relates to the level of financial aid for minority students and financial assistance they receive from their families.

“It’s not cheap to get a doctoral degree. It’s especially difficult if you don’t have financial support and you don’t want to get saddled with incredibly high loans,” says Dr. Anica Mulzac, Psy.D. The average cost of a doctorate costs nearly $115,000. Dr.

Mulzac is a licensed clinical psychologist, Executive Clinical Director and Provost at Resilience Lab and founder of Race (+) Positive, LLC, a consulting firm that aims to dismantle “all expressions of racism, prejudice, and bias in every unique sphere of influence.” “There are so many factors that influence who even gets accepted into programs,” Mulzac says, “who is seen as qualified, what experiences we judge as qualifications for entry into the programs, even being able to pay for the GRE to apply to the school — that’s a costly exam.” She continues, “And then there is the cost of getting tutoring and support to prepare for the exam so you have scores that are desirable.” “There are so many pieces along the way that go into getting into and completing a program successfully that you can see the many cracks that people of color and people with identities can just fall through,” Mulzac says.

Students with marginalized identities also lack support once they are accepted into programs. Mulzac was involved in a project analyzing the mental health of Black faculty in higher education and the unique struggles they face. “Because there are so few Black faculty, a lot of the students who identify as Black or people of color come to them for support.

• But there’s a limited number of people who can serve as mentors for them,” she says.
• And if are burnt out or overwhelmed, then the quality of support that they can give students goes down.
• So, your white peers may have lots of spaces that they can go to and get guidance, get support, get tips, and tricks.” Higher education, in addition, has had difficulty hiring, retaining, and supporting Black faculty.

This can negatively impact a minoritized student’s academic success and deter them from pursuing higher degrees. This is a familiar theme in disciplines that lack diversity, like STEM and finance. When a minority group is underrepresented, it sends a message that they don’t belong.

How does multiculturalism affect psychology?

Multiculturalism in Psychology – In addition to education, multiculturalism also has been a major force in psychology. Multiculturalism in psychology reflects a comprehensive paradigm in which the knowledge and skills needed for the profession have evolved out of the historical and sociopolitical changes in society.

The movement toward multicultural counseling, for instance, occurred in tangent with the civil rights movement, the advocacy work of counselors and psychologists in the early 1970s, and the subsequent establishment of several racially/culturally based professional associations (e.g., the Association of Black Psychologists, the Association of Psychologists Por La Raza, and the Asian American Psychological Association).

In the 1973 American Psychological Association (APA) Vail conference, psychologists began to focus on the significance of race and culture in theory, research, and practice. For example, the recommendation and implementation of subsequent training in cultural diversity for doctoral students evolved out of this conference.

In addition, the establishment of the Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs, followed by the Board of Ethnic Minority Affairs and the Division of Ethnic Minority Affairs, represents concrete efforts by the APA to promote and encourage competent and ethical practices and fair treatment of psychologists and their potential clients, research participants, and trainees.

Throughout the years, the initiatives of these offices have expanded participation of psychologists of color in the APA, who still represent less than 10% of all psychologists. These entities also help to recruit and retain ethnic minority students and prepare all psychologists for an increasingly diverse society.

1. In addition, these offices have recognized and supported policies and programs that encourage pluralism and multiculturalism in the United States.
2. For example, under the recommendation of the Board of Ethnic Minority Affairs, the APA approved a resolution against an English-only initiative in 1990.
3. A number of subsequent APA publications also have highlighted the need to prepare psychologists to work effectively with diverse populations.

These include the APA Accreditation Handbook; the Guidelines for Providers of Psychological Services to Ethnic, Linguistic, and Culturally Diverse Populations; the Guidelines and Principles for Accreditation of Programs of Professional Psychology; and, most recently, the Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice, and Organizational Change for Psychologists.

Today psychologists work and interact with individuals from all walks of life, and thus they are encouraged to be cognizant of issues related to all of the dimensions of multiculturalism in their education, training, research, and practice. In counseling psychology, in particular, multiculturalism emphasizes respect for the life experiences and cultural values of diverse individuals and groups as a fundamental principle of competent assessment, diagnosis, and treatment.

As cultural beings, multicultural psychologists also are aware of their beliefs, attitudes, and impact on individuals with whom they work.

What is the role of psychology in diversity and inclusion?

Importantly, psychologists can help identify opportunities and benefits that a diverse workforce can bring. Yet, psychologists can also highlight the challenges and fault lines that need to be navigated to harness the positive and most rewarding aspects that diversity can achieve for individuals and organizations.

What is psychological diversity?

Psychological diversity refers to differences in underlying attributes of members, which include human features like skills, abilities, personality characteristics, and attitudes (Landy and Conte, 2004).

What does cultural diversity mean in psychology?

1. the existence of societies, communities, or subcultures that differ substantially from one another.2. communities or subcultures that function within a larger society while maintaining their distinct culture traits.

How does multiculturalism affect psychology?

Multiculturalism in Psychology – In addition to education, multiculturalism also has been a major force in psychology. Multiculturalism in psychology reflects a comprehensive paradigm in which the knowledge and skills needed for the profession have evolved out of the historical and sociopolitical changes in society.

The movement toward multicultural counseling, for instance, occurred in tangent with the civil rights movement, the advocacy work of counselors and psychologists in the early 1970s, and the subsequent establishment of several racially/culturally based professional associations (e.g., the Association of Black Psychologists, the Association of Psychologists Por La Raza, and the Asian American Psychological Association).

In the 1973 American Psychological Association (APA) Vail conference, psychologists began to focus on the significance of race and culture in theory, research, and practice. For example, the recommendation and implementation of subsequent training in cultural diversity for doctoral students evolved out of this conference.

In addition, the establishment of the Office of Ethnic Minority Affairs, followed by the Board of Ethnic Minority Affairs and the Division of Ethnic Minority Affairs, represents concrete efforts by the APA to promote and encourage competent and ethical practices and fair treatment of psychologists and their potential clients, research participants, and trainees.

Throughout the years, the initiatives of these offices have expanded participation of psychologists of color in the APA, who still represent less than 10% of all psychologists. These entities also help to recruit and retain ethnic minority students and prepare all psychologists for an increasingly diverse society.

In addition, these offices have recognized and supported policies and programs that encourage pluralism and multiculturalism in the United States. For example, under the recommendation of the Board of Ethnic Minority Affairs, the APA approved a resolution against an English-only initiative in 1990. A number of subsequent APA publications also have highlighted the need to prepare psychologists to work effectively with diverse populations.

These include the APA Accreditation Handbook; the Guidelines for Providers of Psychological Services to Ethnic, Linguistic, and Culturally Diverse Populations; the Guidelines and Principles for Accreditation of Programs of Professional Psychology; and, most recently, the Guidelines on Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice, and Organizational Change for Psychologists.

Today psychologists work and interact with individuals from all walks of life, and thus they are encouraged to be cognizant of issues related to all of the dimensions of multiculturalism in their education, training, research, and practice. In counseling psychology, in particular, multiculturalism emphasizes respect for the life experiences and cultural values of diverse individuals and groups as a fundamental principle of competent assessment, diagnosis, and treatment.

As cultural beings, multicultural psychologists also are aware of their beliefs, attitudes, and impact on individuals with whom they work.