Due to safety protocols due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the October 2021 (postponed from August) and February 2022 Council of Representatives (COR) meetings were held remotely using online platforms. In attendance, as representatives for Division 5, were elected Council member, Rachel Fouladi (2018-2020, 2021-2023) and Abigail Panter (2019-2021) at the October meeting and Rachel Fouladi and Amy Schmidt (2022-2024) at the February 2022 meeting. Online platforms at the meetings facilitated effective presentations, productive discussions, and voting procedures.
These past two Council meetings have been marked by the passage of significant importance to the discipline of Psychology and the American Psychological Association. Of particular note were resolutions affirming and consistent with APA’s current commitment to address systemic racism.
“On October 29, 2021, the APA Council of Representatives passed three resolutions which include acknowledging and apologizing for APA’s role in promoting and perpetuating racism and racial discrimination in the U.S.; the role of psychology and APA in dismantling systemic racism in the U.S.; and advancing health equity in psychology” (see APA’s commitment to addressing systemic racism on the APA webpage)
As was true for the October 2021 and February 2022 COR meeting, multiple webinars and online group meetings were held for presentations and discussions of key issues and pending items. Of special note prior to the October 2021 meeting, presentations by APA Chief Diversity Officer Maysa Akbar, PhD, and Kate Brown, PhD, regarding the work of the Advocacy Coordinating Committee, along with the Presidential Citations to the Society of Indian Psychologists, were important in setting the tone for the deliberations and votes by Council in October. Of special note prior to the February 2022 meeting were the plenary session on Adopting a Population Health perspective led by John Ruiz, PhD, and the listening sessions sponsored by the Council Leadership Task Force on Re-envisioning Council.
The online format also allowed the scheduling of caucus and workgroup meetings, held in the weeks before the October 2021 and February 2022 COR Meeting, leading to greater attendance and participation by Council members. In 2021 and 2022, elected representative for Division 5, Rachel Fouladi, has served as president and led meetings for the Caucus called the Coalition for Academic, Scientific and Applied-research Psychology. She was also an active participant in the Caucus meetings, attending meetings of the General Applied Psychologists/Psychology, Women’s Caucus, Public Interest Caucus, Ethnic Minority Issues in Psychology Caucus, the Caucus on the Underutilized New Talent, the Council Diversity Workgroup, as well as discussions of the Council Effectiveness Workgroup; and in February 2022, the newly formed International Interests Caucus. Although not elected representatives for Division 5, there was also good representation and involvement on caucus or workgroup executive committees/leadership by Division 5 members, Jodi Ulman on the (Women’s Caucus) and Fred Wertz (Caucus addressing Council Effectiveness).
At each of the October and February COR meetings, the usual activities, including (a) new representative training for incoming members and appointed substitutes, and (b) a plenary meeting which included brief presentations by APA Presidents (Jennifer Kelly, PhD - 2021; Frank Worrell, PhD -2022) and several individuals interested in running for the position of 2023 president.
The minutes on the October 2021 COR meeting and the draft minutes for the February 2022 COR meeting can be found on the APA website.
Below we review a brief overview of items and reports from October 2021 and February 2022 COR meetings. Italicized items that may be of particular interest to Division 5 members.
1. Main Items from the October 2021 and February 2022 meeting
Note: Item labeling (e.g, Item 2/ Oct2021) refer to the number as it appeared in the corresponding meeting Agenda.
Elections, awards, memberships, and human resources
A. Item 2/Oct2021. COR voted to elect the 107 members listed to fellow status, on the nomination of the indicated divisions and on the recommendation of the Fellows Committee and the Board of Directors.
B. Item 2/Feb2022. COR voted to approve forwarding to the membership for a vote on amendments to the APA bylaws articles concerning the responsibilities of the Membership Board. The language changes the Membership Board’s duties from oversight of membership and recruitment activities to providing guidance on such activities. At the request of Council, the bylaw amendment ballot will be sent to the membership with statements in favor of adopting and against adopting statements in addition to an explanatory statement.
C. Item 3/Feb2022. COR voted to approve forwarding to the Membership for a vote on amendments to the APA bylaws articles concerning the length of time it takes for associate members to achieve voting status. The current bylaws state that associate members shall achieve voting privileges after five (5) consecutive years; the amendment would change this to one (1) consecutive year. At the request of Council, the bylaw amendment ballot will be sent to the membership with statements in favor of adopting and against adopting statements in addition to an explanatory statement.
D. Item 4/Feb2022. COR voted to refer the item, “4. Amendments to Association Rules Regarding APA Awards Committees” to the Board of Directors. The proposed Association Rules changes would have included: transitioning the three standing awards committees so that they would no longer be “continuing committees”; removing details regarding the criteria and selection process for a subset of APA’s awards; and adding language that provides that three of the association’s boards which previously had awards committees have the authority to determine the criteria and selection process for the awards.
Ethics
A. No items at Oct2021 meeting.B. Item 3A/Feb2022. COR voted to approve a motion to rescind all policies and procedures that require that applicants for membership indicate whether they have previously been convicted of a felony and change Association Rule 10-4.1 to read as follows, with the stricken out text removed: "All applicants for Associate member, Graduate Student member or Member status shall indicate whether or not they have previously been rejected for membership in the Association or had membership voided or have previously been
Divisions and the state and provincial and territorial associations
A. No items at Oct2021 or at Feb2022 meetings.
Organization of the APA
A. Item 3/Oct2021. COR voted to extend the expiration date for the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing to December 2026.
B. Item 4/Oct2021. COR voted to approve the amendments to Association Rule 40-1 that creates lifetime term limits for the Council of Representatives, and the number of consecutive years that a representative may serve on Council. This item has implications for the Divisions, etc., in preparation for and identification of candidates for election to Council.
C. Item 5/Oct2021. COR voted to approve a resolution on Recommendations Regarding Council’s Effectiveness as recommended by the Virtual Work Groups’ Report on Council Effectiveness Implementation. This work was the culmination of many productive online meetings involving many Council reps that were held over the course of months between the Feb and Oct 2021, in which Division 5 member Fred Wertz was highly involved. With this resolution Council approved a) the establishment of a nine-member task force, the Council Effectiveness Implementation Oversight Task Force, charged with reporting to Council not later than August 2023, b) the establishment of a seven-member Council Leadership Team Evaluation Task Force, charged with carrying out the tasks specified below in collaboration with Council, and formally reporting to Council not later than August 2022
D. Item 6/Oct2021. COR voted to approve amending Association Rule 220 concerning procedures for Amending APA Bylaws. The amendment provides procedures for the preparation and use of explanatory statements and/or pro/con statements that accompany ballots for proposed bylaw changes.
E. Item 8/Oct2021. COR voted to approve amendments to the Association Rule Regarding Simultaneous Service by members of the Board of Directors, as well as by members of Boards, Committees, and Commissions.
F. Item 8/Oct2021. COR voted to receive the Final Report of the Council Diversity Work Group.
G. Item 8A/Oct2021. COR voted to approve amendments to the Association Rules concerning Procedures of Council, specifically with regard to the creation of positions for up to 3 Organizational Ombudspersons to work with the Council Leadership Team.
H. Item 9/Oct2021. COR voted to approve amending Association Rule 40-2 concerning the Ethnic Minority Psychological Associations such that “Each Ethnic Minority Psychological Association affiliated with APA shall be invited to appoint a non-voting delegate to Council if they choose not to appoint a voting member of Council”.
I. Item 10/Oct2021. COR voted to rescind the portion of its February 2013 action which required regional psychological association observers to be members of APA.
J. Item 5/Feb2022. COR voted to extend the expiration date for the Clinical Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Adults to December 31st, 2023.
K. Item 6/Feb2022. COR voted to approve withdrawal of Council New Business Item #12A/Feb 2020, “Remove Hoffman Reports (aka Independent Review), dated July 2, 2015, and September 4, 2015, from APA Website.”
L. Item 7/Feb2022. COR voted to archive the 2014 Resolution on Interrogations of Criminal Suspects, which provides guidance to those conducting interrogations in such a way as to minimize the occurrence of false confessions, especially when interrogating members of vulnerable populations. Additionally, Council voted to adopt as APA policy a 2022 Resolution on Interrogation of Criminal Suspects, which extends the original resolution to include recommendations that researchers investigate whether suspects from marginalized communities (e.g., BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, women) experience disparate impact from high-risk interrogation techniques and that triers of fact should be presented with testimony from expert witnesses regarding the science of interrogations and confessions, and in particular the difficulties distinguishing between true and false confessions.
Publications and communications
A. Item 11/Oct2021. COR voted to approve the creation of a new Division 15 journal, to be titled Educational Psychology for Policy and Practice
B. Item 12/Oct2021. COR voted to approve amendments to the Association Rules, concerning pertaining to the American Psychologist, as “the flagship journal”, and removing reference to Psychological Abstracts.
Educational affairs
A. Item 13/Oct2021. COR voted to approve the continued recognition of Counseling Psychology as a specialty in professional psychology for a period of seven years,
B. Items 14 & 15/Oct2021. COR voted to approve an extension of recognition of Sleep Psychology and of Clinical Psychology as specialties in professional psychology for an additional period of one year, to expire in August 2022
C. Item 16/Oct2021. COR voted to adopt as APA policy the Student Learning Outcomes for Introductory Psychology and approve December 2031 as the expiration date.
D. Item 8/Feb2022. COR voted to adopt as APA policy the National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula and approves December 31, 2031, as the expiration date for the Standards.
Professional affairs
A. Item 17/Oct2021. COR voted to adopt as APA policy the Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Military Service Members, Veterans and Their Families and approve December 2031 as the expiration date for the Guidelines.
B. Item 18/Oct2021. COR voted to adopt as APA policy the Guidelines for Optimal Use of Social Media in Psychology Practice and approves December 2031 as the expiration date for the Guidelines.
C. Item 18A/Oct 2021. COR voted to adopt as APA policy the APA Resolution in Support of the Centers for Disease Control’s Guidance on Adding “Mental Health Conditions” to its List of Underlying Medical Conditions that are Directly Related to Increased Risk of Severe Illness or Mortality from COVID-19
D. Item 9/Feb2022. COR voted to adopt as APA policy the Guidelines for Child Custody Evaluations in Family Law Proceedings and approves December 31, 2031, as the expiration date for the Guidelines.
E. Item 10/Feb2022. COR voted to adopt as APA policy the statement on Psychology’s Role in Advancing Public Health, in which APA affirms that an individual’s health cannot be considered in isolation from the relationships, communities, and societies to which they belong. To advance population health, a biopsychosocial perspective is important across the lifespan, and across the communities and settings where people live, work, learn, and play. APA describes population health as a multi-tiered approach that includes: universal provision of preventative tools and health promotion for all people, families, and communities; monitoring, anticipatory guidance, and early intervention for those with risk factors for physical, mental health, and substance-related conditions; and psychosocial and mental health/substance use care for those experiencing illness and/or escalating physical health and mental distress. The statement calls on APA to: work within and across systems to advance population health; work “upstream” by promoting prevention and early intervention strategies; Educate psychologists and community partners on population health; and enlist a diverse array of community partners.
Scientific affairs
A. No items in Oct2021
B. Item 11/Feb2022. COR voted to adopt as APA policy the revised Guidelines for Ethical Conduct of Behavioral Projects Involving Human Participants by High School Students and approves December 31, 2031, as the expiration date for the guidelines.
C. Item 12/Feb2022. COR voted to adopt as APA policy the Guidelines for Ethical Conduct in the Care and Use of Nonhuman Animals in Research (2022) and approves December 31, 2032, as the expiration date for the guidelines.
D. Item 13/Feb2022. COR voted to receive the Report of the Task Force on Climate Change.
Public interest
A. Items 19/Oct2021. COR voted (a) to archive the 2010 Resolution on Ending Homelessness, and (b) to adopt as APA policy the 2021 APA Resolution on Homelessness titled, Resolution on Ending Homelessness
B. Item 20/Oct2021. COR voted to adopt the as APA policy the Resolution on Advancing Health Equity in Psychology, prepared/presented to Council by the APA Presidential Task Force on Psychology and Health Equity.
C. Item 21/Oct2021. COR voted to adopt as APA policy the Apology to People of Color for the Role of the American Psychological Association in Promoting, Perpetuating, and Failing to Challenge Racism, Racial Discrimination, and Human Hierarchy in the United States
Item 21/Oct2021. COR voted to adopt as APA policy the Resolution on the Role of Psychology and the American Psychological Association in Dismantling Systemic Racism Against People of Color in the United States.
D. Item 22/Oct2021. COR voted to receive the report entitled, Examining Psychology’s Contributions to the Belief in Racial Hierarchy and Perpetuation of Inequality for People of Color in the United States Historical Review
E. Item 24A/Oct 2021. A new business item, Resolution Affirming and Building on APA’s History of Support for Reproductive Rights, was referred to the Board for the Advancement of Psychology in the Public Interest and the Policy and Planning Board.
F. Item 14/Feb2022. COR voted to archive the 2000 Resolution on Poverty and Socioeconomic Status, which called on APA to advocate for more research on the causes and impact of poverty and to publicly support efforts to ensure adequate food, shelter and income for all. In addition, COR voted to adopt as APA Policy the 2022 Resolution on Poverty and Socioeconomic Status, which extends the previous policy and calls for culturally sensitive and inclusive research on the causes and impact of poverty.
G. Item 15/Feb2022. COR voted to adopt as APA policy the Resolution for Reproductive Justice: Affirming Abortion Access, which calls upon APA to reaffirm its denunciation of abortion restrictions.
H. Item 15A/Feb2022.COR voted to adopt as APA policy the Guidelines for Assessment and Intervention with Persons with Disabilities. In addition to sections on (a) Disability Awareness, Training, Accessibility, and Diversity (b) Interventions, the Guidelines include a section on Testing & Assessment (Guidelines 12-18), namely,
*Guideline 12. Psychologists strive to consider the interactions among disability and other individual and contextual dimensions in determining the breadth of assessment.
*Guideline 13: Psychologists strive to ensure the validity of assessments by considering disability-related factors when selecting assessment tools and evaluating test norms.
*Guideline 14: Psychologists strive to provide appropriate accommodations to individuals with disabilities to optimize meaningful participation in the assessment process.
*Guideline 15: Psychologists strive to validly assess individuals with disabilities by appropriately adapting test administration based on disability-related factors.
*Guideline 16: Psychologists strive to validly interpret assessment results based on consideration of co-occurring factors impacting the performance of individuals with disabilities.
*Guideline 17: Psychologists strive to conduct appropriate multi-modal assessment to provide diverse information to support valid interpretation of assessment results.
*Guideline 18: Psychologists strive for accurate interpretation of assessment data by addressing personal biases and assumptions regarding individuals with disabilities.
Ethnic minority affairs
A. No items in Oct2021
B. Item 16/Feb2022. COR voted to refer the item titled, “Amendments to Association Rule 106-1: Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs” to the Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs.
International affairs
A. No items in Oct2021
B. Item 16A/Feb2022. COR voted to approve the following motion: The American Psychological Association is an organization that stands for human rights and the psychological and physical health and well-being of all people worldwide. The recent military invasion of Ukraine threatens the life, liberty, physical, and psychological well-being of people in Ukraine and surrounding nations. The American Psychological Association stands in solidarity with the National Psychological Association of Ukraine, the Ukrainian people, and colleagues in the Eastern European region, as the Ukrainian nation defends itself against military invasion. We are gravely concerned about the immediate and long-term trauma and psychological impacts on people of all ages, families, communities, and the environment. We deplore the human cost of such aggression, including violations of human rights, adverse humanitarian consequences, deep psychological distress, and the loss of dignity and freedom. We stand in solidarity with all who are raising their voices and working tirelessly to protect and safeguard human life.
Financial affairs
A. Item 23/Oct2021. Council voted to approve amending Association Rule 210, regarding the operations of the Finance Committee, by removing a paragraph on specific operations.
B. No items in Feb2022
2. Information items/paper updates received as information
Councils received a variety of updates, such as those pertaining to the Organization of the APA.Oct2021
A. Arthur C. Evans, Jr., PhD, APA CEO, provided Council with an overview of recent work by APA, across Science, Education, Public Interest, Applied Psychology, including re-affirmation of the APAs commitment to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and work within the APA to address issues of EDI within the APA (c.f., APA website articles on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and Addressing Racism)
B. Maysa Akbar, PhD, APA Chief Diversity Officer, provided an update on activities of the Equity office regarding actions of the APA towards an audit of the APA and a Template of a Diversity Matrix for the audit.
C. Jean Carter, PhD, APA Treasurer, provided Council with the financial report.
Feb2022
D. Arthur C. Evans, Jr., PhD, APA CEO, provided Council with a summary of the inventory of APA’s work to eradicate systemic racism and engaged Council in a conversation about next steps.
Item 23A. COR received as information the “Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion: The Racial Equity Audit Report.” This report constitutes a key step as in the APA’s commitment to a “comprehensive audit of all its EDI and other antiracism-related activities including ethnic representation of governance leaders and central office staff and policies, practices, and procedures currently underway and in use.”
E. Jean Carter, PhD, APA Treasurer, provided Council with the financial report.
ADDITIONAL
Oct2021
Update on the Ethics Task Force (oral presentation provided at plenary)
Item 25. Council received as information an update on the business pending item, Reiteration of APA’s Values on Discrimination in Light of Contemporary Resurgence in Discrimination and Hate Crimes (NBI #20A/Feb 2019)
Item 26. Council received as information an update on the business pending item, Healthcare Practice Guideline Policy (NBI #13B/March 2018).
Item 27. Council received as information an update on the business pending item, Item 27/Oct21. (27) Council received as information an update on the business pending item, Police Citizen Contact New Business Item from Peace Psychology Division Violence Summit (NBI #21A/Feb 2017).
Item 28. Advocacy Coordinating Committee Report to Council
Item 29. Council received as information an Update on the Development of Clinical Practice Guidelines by APA. Development of Clinical Practice Guidelines by APA
Item 30. As information an Update on APA Climate Change Task Force
Item 31. 2020 Audited Financial Statements
Feb2022
Item 21 & 21A. Update on the Ethics Task Force, information update regarding Ethics Committee Slates.
Item 23. Advocacy Coordinating Committee Report to Council
Item 24. Publications and Communications Board Activities Update
Item 25. Update on the Efforts to Develop an Accreditation System for Master’s Programs in Health Service Psychology and Associated Efforts Related to Ensuring Continued Access to Pathways to Practice
Item 26. Update on the Development of Clinical Practice Guidelines by APA
Item 27. 2020 IRS Tax Form 990 and 990-T