APA Model Act Information

What’s in a Name?

If you asked me, I could tell you the difference between a clinical psychologist, a social psychologist, an experimental psychologist, and a developmental psychologist. I could also tell you how a school psychologist differs from all of the above. Most of you probably could too. In contrast, many members of the general public have difficulty differentiating between psychiatrists and psychologists, let alone distinguishing the different psychology disciplines. Usually this amounts to nothing more than an inside joke among school psychologists about how even our own families are not sure what we do. However, the way that school psychology and the title school psychologist may potentially be affected by the proposed revision to the American Psychological Association’s Model Act for State Licensure means that we must take a more proactive role in how the general public perceives and understands our profession.

Some terms come and go, and that is a very good thing. (Formerly known as feeblemindedness, there is now a push for changing the term mental retardation to intellectual and developmental disability.) Other terms, such as school psychology and school psychologist, have been around for more than a century and are still the best descriptor of what we do every day. There is a reason that psychologists from other psychology disciplines need to be recertified before they can work as school psychologists. To quote NASP, “the term school psychologist is an accurate reflection of the training and supervised field-based experiences in psychology and education required for credentialing in the states.” We would not be psychologists outside of an educational setting because - although we sample from many different disciplines such as applied behavior analysis, counseling, and learning and developmental theories – it comes together as psychological services delivered in an educational setting. What other term could so succinctly and accurately describe our job of consultation, evaluation, intervention, prevention, and research & planning? We are the perfect storm of school and psychology and the title fits.

AASP Powerpoint - School Psychology and the APA Model Act

More information about the APA Model Act and how it affects Arizona, by Claudia Weiss

NASP Response to APA Model Act Revisions