Chapter 12: Inclusiveness, Identity, and Conflict in Late 20th-Century American Psychology Flashcards
What were some of the issues tackled in the 1960s by psychologists? (Contextual factors)
- Civil rights, race and ethnic identity claims
- Is psychologist a scientist or practitioner?
- What should the relationship between Psychology and the government be?
- How does money and funding control research and psychology?
- Community work
A debate was going on over what psychology should study. What was American Psychologists’ position? What movement did this lead to?
American psychology:
- Sticking to its guns that psychology will uncover universal psychological truths
- White undergrad research participants/white rat
- Psychopathology research medically inspired
- Neglect of contextual factors
- Still using tests for racial oppression and inequality
Led to the Black Power movement - to change the power relations between white majority and black minority
What actions did Black psychologists take to encourage a move toward a more inclusive Psychology?
Formal institutionalization
- Association of Black Psychologists 1968
- Journal of Black Psychology
- Article in Ebony magazine, 1970 “Black psychology” used for the first time, African-American world view
What did Black psychologists do to insight Institutional Changes? What issues did they bring up? What happened as a result?
Establishement of Black Students Psychological Association, 1969
APA 1969 convention ABPsi and BSPA interrupted the presidential address to air grievances:
-Culturally biased testing practices
-Lack of employment opportunities for African Americans in psychology
-Inadequate opportunities and support of Black graduate students
APA agreed to include psychologists when doing any work that involved black communities
What kind of issues concerning psychology in the service minority populations became apparent?
The underutilization of mental health services by minorities was highlighted
Inadequate training for minority issues
Poor quality of services usually by White middle-class mental health workers
Government became concerned with why this was happening and how to solve it
What was the Ten-Point Program by ABPsi, what kind of changes did it lead to?
Accepted by graduate programs to tackle race issues
Agreed to incorporate recommendations: led to an increase of minority graduate students
-Minority Fellowship Program, 1974 NIMH
-Dulles Conference by APA, 1977:
Minority inclusion was accepted wholeheartedly as important, and increase the roles minorities play in psychology
APA pressured to be more inclusive
Accreditation programs required by APA to address diversity topics
What kind of tensions developed within psychology?
Division starting to appear within the profession:
Some felt psychology was a natural science and that’s what it should do
Others felt it should address practical problems and social issues: antiwar movement, abortion rights, LGBT
Crimes of psychology
Psychologists for Social Responsibility 1982
How did psychologists become more involved in the community? What kind of programs were established?
Psychology and social involvement:
NIMH promoted community based mental health services and research 1950s
Government funding
School based prevention programs
Community mental health programs (crisis intervention, support therapy, couple counselling, assessed potential needs for mental health clients, counselling for children)
Community residential programs for patients
Gradual reintegration into society
What are community mental health centers?
Provide mental health services to communities across the socioeconomic spectrum. CMHC based research began enthusiastically 1960s
What kind of issues became apparent when psychologists tried to become more involved in the community?
Communities were not homogeneous but CMHCs were staffed by White professionals
Psychologists were not equipped
Tension and Resentment increasing
What is an example of a psychology institution gone horribly wrong? What is an example of one done right?
Examples
Lincoln Hospital Mental Health services Bronx 1969
An area which is primarily colored.
White staff started working without receiving any minority training
Caused a revolt by non-professional staff of color (blacks and puerto ricans) and they took control of the center
Meharry CMHC Nashville, Tennessee
Employed colored psychologists for primarily black community
Employed and trained paraprofessionals from the community
Showed sensitivity to their issues and problems and was a huge success
What is another example of a successful psychological program?
Clinical psychology training program at Maryland
Forrest Tyler
Multicultural training, recruiting minority students, they required a certain % of minority students in the program, multi-site internships, students trained to respond to the entire community and from a spectrum of social background, taught to respect uniqueness or each community member, taught to respond to diversity, students input taken into account.
Got a lot of resistance, director had to leave
A Question arose of Psychology’s Professional Identity within the APA; what was it? What institutions did it lead to?
Debate within APA Psychologist scientist or practitioner? Stuctural changes to APA: Split happened -American Psychological Society -Association for Psychological Science
How did the Government, and National Security influence the course of psychology?
Psychological research determined by funding
Psychology for political aims: funding from ONR, DoD
What kind of work did psychologists do for the military and government?
Contributions in cold war:
- Counter-insurgency and psychological warfare
- Human factors in military hardware
- Control of people: Project Camelot
- Direction of research had Political aims