APA: Uniting psychologists for more than 100 years

It began with a handful of psychologists. Today, it's among the world's largest associations.

APA was just eight years old at the turn of the last century, having been founded by G. Stanley Hall in his parlor in 1892 with seven members. By 1900 there were about 150.

Even Hall couldn't have predicted the tremendous growth of the association in the next 100 years. Today, APA's members number 159,000.

Looking back at the events of 1892, it's clear that Hall believed his founding of APA would give him the leadership of American psychology in his competition with William James. Ironically, Hall found himself largely out of the organization by 1900, supplanted by the very people he was competing against. James was elected president in 1894, followed by J. McKeen Cattell in 1895, James Mark Baldwin in 1897 and Hugo Müensterberg in 1899. All had anti-Hall sentiments.

Until 1906, the only qualification of membership was to be engaged in "the advancement of psychology as science" and to be voted in by the membership. One early APA president was an architect by trade. Membership also included philosophers, psychiatrists and educators.

But as early as 1896 there were complaints from experimental psychologists that too much of the association was dominated by nonexperimentalists; at this point in history, it was the philosophers. By 1907, those in "allied branches," such as philosophy and education, were excluded from membership unless they were actively involved in research of a psychological nature. Those who had only temporary positions in psychology or were graduate students were also excluded.

Work of APA committees during the first decades focused mainly on standardization of psychology methods and terminology. During World War I, APA was active in mobilizing for the war effort. APA created a number of committees to make psychological knowledge available for the war effort particularly in psychological testing.

In the 1920s, APA continued to tighten its membership requirements, calling for a PhD degree with a psychological dissertation and publications in psychology as well as current employment in the field.

It was also in the 1920s that a new category of membership was added--the "Associates" class. This allowed professionals in applied settings and graduate students to join. Although they could not vote, they could participate in the annual meetings. They could also, of course, pay membership fees. Within a few years the number of associates equaled that of members and by 1940 there were three times the number of associates as full members. For the first time, APA became a mass organization.

A major change in APA's role occurred with the acquisition of a stable of professional journals. In 1925, APA obtained Psychological Review, Psychological Bulletin, Psychological Index, Psychological Monographs and the Journal of Experimental Psychology. A year later, Morton Prince gave APA his Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. In 1927, APA began publishing Psychological Abstracts.

Meanwhile, applied psychologists were unhappy with their second-rate status within the APA. By 1937, several of the scattered applied psychological organizations formed an alliance under the American Association of Applied Psychology. This group would be the primary forum for clinical and applied psychologists until APA reorganized after World War II.

The war was a pivotal time of change for the entire psychological landscape. Funding for clinical training in universities came pouring in after the war from the federal government to meet the postwar need for clinical psychologists. This influx of funding and the increased hiring of clinical psychologists in academic programs changed the structure of most academic departments of psychology. APA changed, too. In 1946, APA reorganized with a new divisional structure that allowed components of the American Association of Applied Psychology and other groups not previously represented in the organization to be included. The new structure probably saved APA as a mass organization but led to continuing stresses between its traditional academic and scientific constituency and its new professional and applied constituencies.

During this era, APA membership grew rapidly, from 4,183 in 1945 to 30,839 by 1970. APA's Central Office, which had two rented rooms in 1945, was located in an eight-story office building by 1970. With the implementation of the reorganization, APA appointed an executive secretary, later executive officer, along with its annually elected president. APA had become so large that it was no longer possible for it to meet on college campuses and have the members housed in student dorms during the meetings. Instead, conventions were held in cities that had thousands of hotel rooms.

APA broadened its scope in several ways, including the creation of the American Board of Examiners in Professional Psychology, which, although separately incorporated, recommend to APA's Council of Representatives standards for certification and administered them. APA also initiated accreditation of doctoral programs in clinical, school and counseling psychology.

By the 1950s, with the rapid growth of applied psychology--particularly clinical psychology--experimental psychologists felt that the association no longer represented the interests of scientific, experimental psychology. Their dissatisfaction led to the founding of the Psychonomic Society in 1960. This schism focused attention on the widening gap in the association between members' theoretical and applied interests. Most members of the new organization retained their APA membership, but the stresses between the theoretical and applied aspects of the association continue.

In the 1970s, APA saw a major change in its dealings with public policy issues. Prior to this time, APA had been primarily focused on membership issues and issues of the profession. Largely through the influence of the Tyler Report of 1969, APA entered more into the discussion of societal issues and public legislative policy for which psychological knowledge was relevant. In 1972, the Council for the Advancement of the Psychological Professions and Sciences and the Association for the Advancement of Psychology were founded, both incorporated outside the association for public policy and lobbying efforts. Within APA, the Office of APA National Policy Studies was formed in 1979 to work with federal agencies on matters pertinent to psychology and the profession.

By the 1980s, the dissemination of psychological information occupied much of APA's energies and resources. APA's journal offerings had expanded enormously and PsycINFO entered the electronic age. These additions have been largely positive contributions to the field and to the organization as a whole.

APA experienced an era of positive growth, until the mid-1980s when a significant controversy emerged over the purchase of the magazine Psychology Today. The furor over its purchase, operation and finally its sale caused repercussions in APA that would last for years. The financial crisis brought on by Psychology Today and other matters required APA to sell its building and become a tenant where it had once been owner.

The 1980s were also a time when pressures once again arose to reorganize the association. Dissatisfaction from academic and experimental psychologists over what appeared to be the takeover of APA by the applied fields and public advocacy motivated the creation of the Assembly of Scientific and Applied Psychologists. However, the reorganization proposal that had taken years to prepare failed to receive a majority vote of the membership in 1988. These stresses and others within APA led to the establishment of the American Psychological Society as an alternative organization to APA.

But in the 1990s, APA has continued to grow and develop both in its scientific and professional missions. By 1992, the association was back on strong financial ground and able to build its present 12-story building near Union Station in Washington, D.C.

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