Through its publications, special projects, grantsmanship and other efforts, the Ethnicity, Race, and Cultural Affairs Portfolio (ERCA) seeks to increase the scientific understanding of how both culture pertains to psychology, and how ethnicity influences behavior. ERCA also:
-
Promotes recruitment, retention and training opportunities for ethnic minorities in psychology.
-
Works to increase and enhance the delivery of appropriate psychological services to ethnic minority communities and encourages all psychologists to develop some minimal level of multicultural competence.
-
Seeks to promote both greater inclusion of ethnic minorities in organized psychology, and development of public policies that support the concerns of ethnic minority psychologists and their communities.
ERCA provides administrative support for:
- APA's Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs.
- The Commission on Ethnic Minority Recruitment, Retention and Training in Psychology Task Force.
- The Council of National Psychological Associations for the Advancement of Ethnic Minority Interests.
- APA's asTk Force on Race and Ethnicity Psychology Competency Guidelines.
Forrest B. Tyler, PhD, has made a career of finding the beauty in things — from the people he encounters as a community psychologist to the driftwood along a New Zealand shore that has inspired some of his sculptures. Tyler has created about 50 sculptures of marble, stone and driftwood that have been exhibited across the country. "Profiles" signifies the interrelationship of science and art in enhancing the richness of life, Tyler says. He donated the statue to ERCA to remind psychologists of that message.