APA Division 35 Townhall Blog

The Division 35 Executive Committee voted to sign the   Joint Public Statement by Psychology Groups on U.S. Immigration Policies and Practices   authored by our colleagues in Division 45 (Helen Neville, president; J. Manuel Casas, Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas, Nicholas Culp, Roberto Abreu, members, Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race (APA Division 45)). The statement and supporting references are here:  http://helenneville1.wixsite.com/website-1

Following Society procedures, the chair of the governance committee, Dr. Asuncion Austria, submitted a request for statements from the five candidates for APA president-elect. (see below for a detailed report.) The five candidates and links to their general statements are at the APA web site:  http://www.apa.org/about/governance/elections/index.aspx Dr. Austria received responses from four of the five candidates: Sandra L. Shullman, PhD Jean Lau Chin, EdD Steven D. Hollon, PhD Susan K. Whitbourne, PhD Dr. Signorella then received a statement from the fifth candidate: Armand Cerbone, PhD ======================================================= Dr. Austria's governance report: As provided for in the Handbook of Society for the Psychology of Women, the Governance Committee sent a letter to each of the five candidates for President-elect of APA, requesting them if they could send Division 35, a 500-statement that summarizes their tract record on women’s issues and th...

For an overall summary of the proposed APA structure changes, you can view the presentation by APA CEO Arthur Evans. http://psyciq.apa.org/transforming-apa-new-structures-new-era/ This page also includes the slides and a transcript.. Remember to post comments or send to Div 35 Council Reps or post comments here. dkawahara@ALLIANT.EDU woolflm@webster.edu premer@email.uky.edu

From Division 35 Council Representative, Debra Kawahara: Dear Division 35 Colleagues, As you may be aware, APA has posted guidelines for the treatment of PTSD and plans to develop more guidelines for other diagnoses. A group of APA members, Council representatives, and an activist group of psychologists are voicing concerns about the issues regarding the guidelines. A major concern is that the studies used as the bases for the guidelines do not adequately consider matters of culture, race, ethnicity, SES, as well as using only a narrowly defined criteria for treatment.  Below is the link to the petition opposing the guidelines, as well as responses to some of the opposition to the petition. I urge you to read both the petition and the arguments supporting it and please consider   sign ing  before the next APA Council meeting that begins on March 9, 2018 . Thank you for your consideration. Respectfully,   Debra Kawahara Debr...

Division 35 Council Representatives have alerted us that there will be a motion introduced in council entitled: "Resolution for the Use of the term "Patient" in American Psychological Association Policies, Rules, and Public Relations Activities When referring to the Health-Related and Scientific Activities of Health Service Psychologists and Scientists in Health Care Services and Settings." There has been concern raised about this motion and the idea that language would be mandated, and that the relationships implied by the use of "client" rather than "patient" might be impacted. Please review the introduction and resolution on the linked page and comment below.

Division 35 of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Psychology of Women, would like to increase the discussion and dialog among members. One step in that direction was the creation of the division Townhall listserv, which does allow discussion of posted issues. It can still be difficult, however, to follow threads of discussion on a listserv. We therefore began this site as an experiment to see if greater interactions will ensue. Please join in reading and commenting. Margaret L. Signorella, Ph.D. President, Society for the Psychology of Women Division 35 Presidential Trio: Moorehead-Slaughter, Signorella, Tsong