APA Citizen Psychologist™ Initiative
The APA Citizen Psychologist program is an initiative started by 2018 APA President Jessica Henderson Daniel, PhD, ABPP.
What is an APA Citizen Psychologist?
2018 APA President Jessica Henderson Daniel describes the Citizen Psychologist initiative.
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News Updates
Grants have been awarded to 14 APA divisions and state, provincial, and territorial psychological associations (SPTAs) to develop a recognition program for Citizen Psychologists. Congratulations to all awardees.
2019 Awardees
In June 2019, Jessica Henderson Daniel, PhD, ABPP, awarded 14 APA Divisions and State Psychological Associations grants of $1,000 each to develop recognition programs for Citizen Psychologists. These programs will demonstrate the significance of the Citizen Psychologist movement and recognize the prominence of the group’s members who are acting to improve society through voluntary efforts. Congratulations to:
- Division 1: Society for General Psychology and Interdisciplinary Inquiry
- Division 22: Rehabilitation Psychology
- Division 37: Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice
- Division 48: Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence
- Division 52: International Psychology
- Alaska Psychological Association
- Colorado Psychological Association
- Kentucky Psychological Association
- Maryland Psychological Association
- Massachusetts Psychological Association
- Ohio Psychological Association
- Oklahoma Psychological Association
- Pennsylvania Psychological Association
- West Virginia Psychological Association
Definition
APA Citizen Psychologists serve as leaders in their various communities. Through prolonged engagement in significant activities, they contribute to improving the lives of all. This can include public service, volunteerism, board membership and other strategic roles often not directly associated with the day-to-day work of psychologists in our careers. APA Citizen Psychologists come from all branches of the field of psychology. They bring psychological science and expertise to bear on existing challenges to improve community well-being locally, nationally or globally.
Examples
Being a Citizen Psychologist means demonstrating engagement in your community. Engagement can be at any level — from just beginning to explore opportunities in one’s neighborhood that might benefit from a psychological lens, to sustaining meaningful connections with civic and public sector partners on a project of several months or years, to delivering impactful change through exceptional leadership. Roles are as varied as being a long-term volunteer for community programs such as Meals-on-Wheels or Habitat for Humanity; being a state delegate for a political party; participating in your church ministries; volunteering as a content expert speaker for a non-profit organization, such as the local Alzheimer’s Association; fundraising for a charity of your choice; and so on.
Showing leadership as a Citizen Psychologist, one might begin and sustain a mentoring program for a vulnerable population in the community; be elected to a community position such as the school board or the city council; be appointed to the executive committee of a local or national non-profit or professional organization. There are many possibilities. Exceptional leadership activities of Citizen Psychologists will be recognized specifically by Daniel in 2018 with APA Presidential Citations.
Resources from the APA Citizen Psychologist Initiative
Overall, this initiative sought to and continues to establish the ongoing importance of the Citizen Psychologist movement as part of the education of each new generation of psychologists, and bring the science of psychology into decision making on community programming, legislation and other processes that have the potential to improve the lives of all members of society.
The initiative educates the public about how psychology contributes to the formulation and implementation of policies that improve our communities.
- Results from baseline survey data for the frequency and roles that psychologists are currently engaged in nationally as Citizen Psychologists are presented in the curriculum described below.
- The initiative educates fellow psychologists about the APA Citizen Psychologist concept. See some of the coverage in the Monitor on Psychology.
This initiative resulted in a curriculum with learning objectives and educational materials to help educate people people at six different stages of their career (high school, undergraduate and graduate school, internship, postdoctoral fellowship, and lifelong learning) about how to become or serve as a successful APA Citizen Psychologist.
The curriculum is freely available to all. We encourage you to integrate it in your own settings, courses, and individual professional development pathways.
This initiative awarded more than 40 Presidential Citations to exemplary APA Citizen Psychologists and other members of the psychology community engaged in Citizen Psychology work.
Featured Citizen Psychologists
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From 2018 APA President
Jessica Henderson Daniel, PhD, ABPP
The APA Citizen Psychologist initiative grew out of my mantra: Psychology Is Every Day In Every Way.
Almost every aspect of human existence is impacted by psychological science, education and practice. And almost every social policy can be informed by it. For these reasons, I firmly believe that psychologists and psychology students need to be in more rooms, at more tables, and at the heads of those tables when decisions affecting the public are formulated and implemented.
I would like APA members to be energized and motivated as they discover how to serve as an APA Citizen Psychologist! My dream is that the APA Citizen Psychologist concept will be infused into the discipline through education at all levels — from high school to lifelong learning. It is important to me that this concept of service to the public good endures as an integral part of APA’s future.
While 2018 president, I honored the work of APA Citizen Psychologists and other members with APA Presidential Citations, and asked divisions and state, provincial and territorial organizations to not only help me identify worthy recipients, but also sustain recognition in 2019 and beyond,
It is rewarding to be in such a dynamic and expansive discipline. I am excited to see where our members will take psychology next.
Sincerely,
Jessica Henderson Daniel, PhD, ABPP
2018 APA President
Citizen Psychologist Working Group members
Jessica Henderson Daniel, PhD (2018 APA president); Kate Brown, PhD (co-chair); Ron Rozensky, PhD (co-chair); Sharon Bowman, PhD (citations); Lara Bruner (high school curriculum); Kermit Crawford, PhD (internship curriculum); Cynthia de las Fuentes, PhD (citations); Cynthia Gomez, PhD (survey); Amber Hewitt, PhD (postdoctoral curriculum); Elizabeth McQuaid, PhD (internship curriculum); Jeff Mio, PhD (undergraduate curriculum); Carlos Montalvan (high school curriculum); Roger Reeb, PhD (graduate curriculum); Ana Ruiz, PhD (undergraduate curriculum); Peter Sheras, PhD (graduate curriculum); Wayne Siegel, PhD (postdoctoral curriculum), Jennifer Taylor, PhD (lifelong learning curriculum); and Wendi Williams, PhD (lifelong learning curriculum). Staff liaisons: Ameen; Andrade.