History of the Struggles Within the American Psychological Association to Attain Membership Requirements, Test Standardization, Certification of Psychological Practitioners, and Professionalization

The professionalization of psychologists as court personnel: Consequences of the first institutional commitment law for the “feebleminded”

“…Despite the professional rivalries and antagonism, psychiatrists were justified in one thing: demanding higher standards. As a result, Wallin pushed for higher standards that would enhance the scientific status of clinical psychologists and set them aside from both psychiatrists and “Binet testers” (Wallin, , ). He drafted a resolution the American Psychological Association (APA) adopted in 1915 whereby the APA “discourages the use of mental tests for practical psychological diagnosis by individuals unqualified for this study” (Ogden, , p. 49).…”

“…The AACP was the first professional organization devoted to elevating “the standards of qualification [of those engaged in clinical work] and the professional status of clinical psychologists [vis‐à‐vis “Binet testers”]” (Wallin, , p. 114; see also Gesell, ; Wallin, , , ). With Wallin as Chairman and Leta S. Hollingworth as Secretary, 46 invited psychologists joined the association (J. P. Symonds, , ; P. M. Symonds, ; Wallin, , ).…”

A brief history of practice— expanded.

“…With the growth of this new assessment psychology, and as early as 1911, the low status of psychologists at some state institutions was being discussed as well as the lack of appropriate training by some users of psychological tests. In 1915, the APA Council of Representatives passed a resolution to “discourage the use of mental tests of practical psychological diagnosis by individuals psychologically unqualified for the work” (Wallin, 1960, p. 302). In 1916, at the APA annual convention, discussion was held about these problems, and a roundtable was held at the next annual convention in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to consider the advisability of forming an autonomous clinical psychology organization.…”

“…Opposition to AACP continued for two years, primarily on the issue of whether the organization would be autonomous or a section of APA (Wallin, 1938). A conference committee was formed to report back at the 1919 meeting, and the fledgling AACP became the Section of Clinical Psychology (SCP), APA's first division, for largely undocumented reasons (Wallin, 1960). By 1921, sufficient pressure by the applied psychologists had been exerted to form the Division of Counseling Psychologists within APA's SCP (Hilgard, 1987).…”

The crisis of experimentalism in the 1920s: E. G. Boring and his uses of history.

“…0 When Fernberger left Clark for the University of Pennsylvania, his students (Note 47) expressed to him their hopes that he would "carry the only true Gospel to the unenlightened in the wilderness of Penn!" forts to uplift professional standards, these proposals served to suppress applied endeavor within the APA (Reisman, 1966, p. 185;Wallin, 1960). Even the associate membership-justified as a liberalization of the tendency toward restrictionism-represented a second-class, nonvoting citizenship, a badge of scientific inferiority (Fernberger, Note 48, Note 49; Anderson, Note SO).…”