Report From the APA Council of Representatives
José Cortina, Robert Dipboye, Janet Barnes-Farrell,
Deirdre Knapp, Eduardo Salas
All five of your representatives attended APA’s February meeting of the Council of Representatives in Washington, D.C. With five representatives, Division 14 ties for the second largest representation in Council.
The major achievement of your representatives at the February meeting was the building of relationships with other APA divisions. The five SIOP representatives belong to the Coalition for Scientific and Applied Psychology (CASAP). The purposes of this coalition “are to serve as a forum for the discussion of issues coming before the APA Council of Representatives, to formulate positions on issues consistent with the interests of members, to assist in recruiting and electing individuals to positions in APA Governance, and, generally, to further the interests of academic, scientific, and applied-research psychology” [Bylaws of CASAP, 2004]. We managed to get 14 SIOP members placed on the CASAP slate of nominees for APA positions. Your representative, Ed Salas, is among those being considered for important positions such as the Board for Scientific Affairs. Bob Dipboye was elected as a member-at-large on the CASAP Executive Committee and will be responsible for putting together next year’s slate of nominees for APA positions. Steve Breckler, of the APA’s science directorate, met with your representatives at the CASAP meeting to discuss steps that we could take to advocate I-O psychology as a science and how we could work with the newly formed APA Office for Applied Psychology Research.
Janet Barnes-Farrell attended the Women’s Caucus where there was considerable discussion about omission of women and diversity issues in the recent special issue of American Psychologist on leadership. Robert Sternberg, the editor of the special issue, and Norman Anderson, the CEO of APA, were contacted, and as a consequence a special issue of the American Psychologist is planned on women and diversity issues in leadership. Also, an issue of the Monitor will be devoted to this as a lead topic.
As a result of discussions with Division 14, the Science Directorate hosted a meeting on Friday evening with Deirdre Knapp serving as facilitator along with Bonnie Strickland (Division 1) and Bruce Overmier (Division 6). Attendees included representatives from science-oriented and other non-healthcare provider divisions (e.g., Division 13, consulting psychology). Several suggestions for furthering the interests of psychologists who are not healthcare providers at APA were generated in this discussion, including another meeting of this group at the August meeting. APA is also planning to initiate a discussion list for use by this group to facilitate discussion of common issues and ideas between council meetings.
The agenda for the Council meeting was relatively free of controversy and lacking in issues of direct concern to the collective interests of SIOP’s members. Despite the lack of issues typically igniting the passions of SIOP members (e.g., accreditation and licensure), there were several items on the agenda of potential interest to SIOP members. Additional funding was approved for the APA Center for Psychology Workforce Analysis and Research (CPWAR), whose mission is to engage in an ongoing “workforce analysis and research capability to assess relationships among supply, demand, and need for psychologists in society.” Another motion was to accept the report of the Task Force on Military Deployment Services for Youth, Families, and Service Members and to develop and present to the Association a long-term plan of action with specific recommendations for APA regarding mental health services for military service members and their families. Among the motions that provoked the most discussion was the resolution to applaud the consistent repudiation by federal courts of creationism, creation science, and intelligent design as part of science education and to reaffirm APA support for evolutionary theory.
One issue that led to considerable discussion concerned a motion to approve the revised record-keeping guidelines that were developed by the Board of Professional Affairs Committee on Professional Practice and Standards. Rodney Lowman, a SIOP fellow and one of the council representatives from Division 13, questioned the wording and along with some of your SIOP representatives caucused with the guideline authors over lunch to compose a friendly amendment. The revised motion passed and added the following statement to protect against inappropriate extensions. “Extension of the guidelines to some areas of practice (e.g., industrial-organizational, consulting psychology) may likely call for modifications, although some of the same general principles may be useful.”
Another motion that passed was to organize a Strategic Planning Advisory Committee to assist in developing, evaluating, and modifying a strategic planning process for APA. Dr. Rodney Lowman stood up to note that APA members in Divisions 13 and 14 have experience in the strategic planning process and should be included in this committee. As a consequence, Dr. Lowman was appointed as chair of the committee. Two other SIOP members will serve on this committee: James Quick of University of Texas at Arlington and Sandy Shullman of the Executive Development Group organizational consulting firm and a former member of APA’s Workgroup on Executive Coaching.
There were several motions set forth by the Committee on Minority and Ethnic Affairs, including a proposal to amend the name of the Committee on Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Concerns to include transgender concerns, and a resolution opposing discriminatory legislation and initiatives aimed at lesbian, gay, and bisexual persons. Funds were approved to support a meeting of the joint Division 19 (military) and Division 44 (gay, lesbian) task force to implement the joint resolution approved at APA on sexual orientation in the military. Additional funds were approved to support two meetings of the task force on guidelines for assessment and treatment of persons with disabilities and to create a working group on Cultural Competency in Geropsychology. There was a vote to approve $75K to fund Global Opportunities and Long Term Strategies (GOALS), which is intended to build relationships and partnerships with psychologists around the world. Another vote was to discontinue accrediting Canadian psychology programs. This last item involved a great deal of debate, but it appeared that most Canadian psychology programs supported the move.
APA is doing quite well financially, fed primarily by the revenues from real estate and publications. Some concerns were expressed, however, in the financial report, including the need to address recruitment/retention of new members as the membership of APA ages and concerns about risks in the publishing business resulting from open access, Google, and electronic publications.
Our large delegation provides an opportunity to wield influence on APA and to increase the visibility of SIOP among psychologists. One approach is to participate in APA President Sharon Brehm’s special initiatives. An important step was the appointment of SIOP Fellow and former president Dan Ilgen to the Task Force on the Responsible Conduct of Research. A primary mission of this task force is to address growing concerns about the role of institutional research boards. Another approach is to seek funding from APA on an initiative of relevance to SIOP. Your representatives request the ideas of SIOP members on potential topics for an initiative. Another approach is to speak out in favor of some of the many social issues that inevitably dominate the discussion in the Council of Representatives. Much of the effort of your representatives has been focused on advocating the interests of SIOP practitioners and academics on topics such as licensing, external funding, and accreditation. Another type of “advocacy” that has been relatively neglected is speaking out on some of the social issues that typically dominate discussion at the Council of Representative meetings. SIOP can perhaps learn from the military division, which has collaborated with Division 44, the Society for the Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Issues, in initiating a resolution on gays and lesbians in the military. Your SIOP representatives are of the opinion that we should step forward to speak on behalf of motions that are concerned with social issues, especially if there is I-O research to inform public policy. We will contact and ask for input from those constituencies within SIOP that are concerned about these matters.