WASHINGTON — The American Psychological Association (APA) will file an amicus brief in support of the University of Michigan and requesting that the Supreme Court affirm the University's admissions policies in its undergraduate and law schools.
The APA brief puts forward three sets of research findings in support of the University of Michigan's position. These findings are:
- Research shows that racial and ethnic discrimination and prejudice persist in American society,
- Research also shows that many people who believe themselves to be free of prejudice actually harbor attitudes that can lead to subtle discriminatory behaviors, and
- Research shows that such underlying prejudice and stereotyping may be ameliorated through contact between students of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
Furthermore, the brief refutes criticisms of the Gurin Report; research that the court relied on in upholding the University's admissions policies.
Numerous research studies show that discrimination and prejudice persist in significant and demonstrable ways in America. There is also widespread agreement among social scientists that the social categorization process -- making assumptions about people based on their race or ethnic group, including racial stereotyping -- is a virtually automatic and often unconscious process.
According to research done in the areas of automatic stereotypes, automatic bias is difficult to eliminate, but one promising strategy for doing so may be to create opportunities for people to associate with and learn from people unlike themselves. Over time, such positive exposure to members of other racial groups can help reduce the unconscious stereotyping that otherwise occurs.
As the Gurin report states, students who go to college in a diverse environment "are better prepared to become active participants in our pluralistic democratic society once they leave such a setting."
In addition, the brief describes what the Association believes is psychology's compelling interest in ensuring that psychologists -- clinicians, researchers, public and private sector service providers and educators -- continue to be prepared to deliver culturally competent services as the United States becomes a more and more diverse country.
The need for a diverse and culturally competent workforce is a particularly critical concern for psychology, due to the demonstrated disparity in the availability of mental health services in minority communities. As the then U.S. Surgeon General reported in 2001, ethnic minority Americans face a greater burden from unmet mental health service needs than do majority Americans.
To provide needed services to these currently underserved populations the mental health community must increase its own diversity and cultural competency. Diversity in higher education is crucial to this goal. At present, racial and ethnic minorities are underrepresented among students, faculty, practitioners, and researchers in the field of psychology.
"Diversity is an effective tool for creating cross-fertilization of ideas and contributions in institutions of higher learning," according to Robert J. Sternberg, Ph.D., President of the APA and the Director of the PACE Center at Yale University. "There are multiple means of creating diversity. Affirmative action is one such legitimate means."
For more information:
APA Resolution on Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity (1999)
APA Resolution on Ethnic Minority Recruitment and Retention (1994)
The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world's largest association of psychologists. APA's membership includes more than 155,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 53 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting health, education and human welfare.