Arguably, the Division of Consulting Psychology (Division 13) holds seniority status among the growing numbers of American Psychological Association (APA) divisions. Moreover, Division 13 inherits a specific challenge from APA founders: to identify and ascertain which psychologists are qualified to perform as consulting psychologists. APA's 1915 Whiple Resolution first called attention to the need to differentiate professionally qualified psychological examiners and experts from consultants without scientific psychological knowledge and experience who were offering services and opinions for public consumption. The process involved identifying salient knowledge and literature, conducting demographic surveys, determining important training experiences and career settings, and cataloging types of clients and services. Interest in working as a consulting psychologist intensified division efforts to complete and disseminate guidelines for doctoral programs in consulting psychology.

A Society of Consulting Psychology (SCP), survey, The Best of the Century (BoC) found Freud, Lewin, Maslow, and Argyris to have the "strongest influence on consulting psychology" in the 20 th century. Lewin, Kelly, and Levinson were identified as having the "most influence on my practice. " Organizational Diagnosis (Levinson, 1972) was considered the most significant contribution to consulting psychology literature. Modeled on the critical incident technique (Flanagan, 1954), the BoC survey asked about: (1) influences on the practice of consulting psychology (CP); (2) influences on the respondent's consulting practice; (3) books and articles that influenced CP; (4) unfinished business that will impact the future; and, ( 5) notable achievements or bluners of the 20 th century. Personality theories and intervention methods were considered the greatest achievement. "Overestimating, overselling, overemphasizing, and overdoing of behaviorism" received resounding endorsement as the blunder of the century. The pressing future need was seen as an identity issue: What differentiates consulting psychologists from other types of consultants? How can psychologists influence public perceptions of what consulting psychologists do, and can do? The caveat for the future: avoiding cookie-cutter approaches.

This article presents personalized reactions to the special issue on Culture, Race, and Ethnicity Challenges in Organizational Consulting Psychology. The first part of the article presents the responses of 4 consulting psychologists to 4 questions. The 4 consultants, an African American woman and man and an Anglo American woman and man, were selected based on their experiences in working with consultees and client systems where diversity and multicultural factors mattered. The second part of the article identifies the common themes that emerged from their 4 narratives plus suggestions to assist consultants in better working with consultees and client systems of diverse culture, race, and ethnicity.

This article was adapted from Ann M. O'Roark's presidential address to the Division of Consulting Psychology, "Celebrating the Century and Welcoming the Millennium," presented during the 108th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, August 2000. Ann M. O'Roark is in private practice as a consulting psychologist. She specializes in management and leadership, personality assessment, organization development, and creative problem solving.

This article examines leadership/influence effectiveness in democratic psychosocial situations, a frequent subject of discussion and research. Perceptual theory, a humanistic paradigm, provides context and empirical references. The demonstration of methods focuses on a comparison of inferred beliefs about self, others, and situations held by public school counselors and elected legislators. Beliefs of individuals engaged in these two different “democratic” work atmospheres were inferred by trained judges who evaluated significant‐incident interviews. MANOVA found significant difference (.05) in the hypothesized direction. The author also suggests methodological value, a discriminatory potential, and areas for further research.