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Disability and Neurodiversity: Social and Personality Pillar
Resources to help broaden disability and neurodiversity representation across the social and personality pillar of APA’s National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula
Research summaries
Suggested instructions: Research summaries can be incorporated into a lecture or shared with students as a reading to demonstrate how psychological science explores the diversity of human experience. These resources can also be used to encourage students to identify the major components of a research study (i.e., the hypothesis or study question, sample, method, and findings). Students can be asked to identify potential limitations of the study and encouraged to discuss the implications for our understanding of human behavior. Keywords highlight how concepts within and across pillars are incorporated into a single research study.
Sample research summaries
Ableist microaggressions and the mental health of disabled adults
Disabled people reporting the most ableism in the form of microaggressions also report the worst mental health outcomes.
Autistic mental health disparities may be partially explained by the minority stress model
Stumbling in their shoes: Disability simulations reduce judged capabilities of disabled people
Having people briefly simulate blindness by wearing blindfolds may not increase empathy for blind people
Psychologist profiles
Suggested instructions: Profiles can be shared with students to enhance the visibility of psychologists of diverse backgrounds. As an additional activity, students can be asked to conduct research to learn more about the psychologist and their work. An alternative assignment could be to ask students to find other psychologists of diverse backgrounds whose work falls into this content pillar. Keywords highlight how psychological scientists study concepts within and across pillars.
Sample psychologist profiles
Psychologist diagnosed with rare disability studies how disability impacts people’s social interactions, identity, and experiences of prejudice and discrimination
An early career autistic scholar who is researching ableism within autism research
The double empathy problem reframed autism research and how we can understand autistic sociality.
What does unmasking mean for neurodivergent people? This social psychologist answers
Additional resources
Suggested instructions: Additional resources are provided as supporting instructional aids for teachers to use in class.
Data points
- K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, Cornell University (2024). Disability Statistics [interactive data tool]. https://disabilitystatistics.orgopens in new window
This resource will allow students and teachers to create charts based on gender, age, race, and disability classifications to use in the classroom. Students will be able to better understand the diversity linked to disabilities through the use of this resource.
Article summary
- Townsend, T. G., Dillard-Wright, J., Prestwich, K., Alapatt, V., Kouame, G., Kubicki, J. M., Johnson, K. F., & Williams, C. D. (2023). Public safety redefined: Mitigating trauma by centering the community in community mental health. American Psychologist, 78(2), 227-243. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0001081opens in new window
When people experience a mental health crisis in the United States, police are often dispatched to respond, even when there is no concern for public safety. Such response models lead to inequities in mental health care. Tiffany Townsend and colleagues, aware of the elevated public health risk that a police-centered response carries for people with psychological disabilities, completed a review of all the literature discussing models of mental health crisis response. The team selected 101 articles as relevant. They then sought to identify examples of response models that deprioritized police and centered a therapeutic response consistent with community mental health principles. This qualitative study then completed a thematic analysis of 17 included articles. A thematic analysis involves reading texts looking for patterns and common topics which emerge as themes across the texts, and then those themes can be interpreted by the researchers. They identified three such themes in the form of emergency mental health response models that provide alternatives to the classic police response model: a co-responder model (mental health providers responding with police), nonpolice responders, and comprehensive mental health emergency care programs. Findings from this analysis suggest that deferring mental health response to police is inadequate and can be dangerous. The alternative models suggest that community mental health response better cares for marginalized populations. Implications of this study are at the level of local policy and decision-making about emergency mental health accessibility.
The development of resources to broaden diversity and representation in the teaching of high school psychology resources is an APA Committee of Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools initiative supported by funding from the American Psychological Foundation David and Carol Myers Fund. This resource was developed by Kara Ayers, PhD; Emily Lund, PhD; Erika Sanborne; and Allison Shaver.
Date created: July 2024