The American Psychological Association, which sets the standards for professional mental health training, voted to suspend the requirement that graduate programs demonstrate commitment to recruitment and employment diversity.
The decision is for accrediting bodies across higher education to scramble to respond to a signed executive order that President Trump attacks diversity, equity and inclusion policies. It pauses the willingness to broaden the profession of psychology, disproportionately white and women, at a time of growing distress among young Americans.
The APA is the leading accreditation body for professional training in psychology and the only body recognized by the US Department of Education. It offers accreditation to approximately 1,300 training programs, including doctoral internships and postdoc residences.
Trump threatened accreditation agencies in one campaign video to make a specific target for his crusades against the DEI program and “dismissing radical left accreditor who allowed our university to be controlled by Marxist enthusiasts and madmen,” and “accepting applications for new accreditors.”
Justice Department officials have put pressure on accreditation agencies in recent weeks, warning the American Bar Association that they could lose their position unless they abolish their diversity obligations. The ABA voted in late February to suspend law school diversity and inclusion standards.
Concessions by the APA, a fortress of support for diversity programming, are specific landmarks. The Association has made racism a central focus in its work in recent years, and in 2021, it adopted a resolution apologizing for its role in perpetuating racism, particularly by promulgating eugenic theory.
Aaron Joyce, accredited senior director at the APA, said the decision to suspend diversity requirements was driven by a “large influx of concerns and inquiries” from programs that are concerned they could withstand the president's orders.
He said he was worried that institutions were often instructed by their legal advice to stop diversity-related activities, which would put their acquiescence at risk.
“The committee does not want to list the program in the danger of not being present due to a dispute between institutional guidelines and standards of recognition,” Dr. Joyce said.
He did not explain the tally of the March 13th vote. “It was an easy decision and not taken lightly,” he said. “Understanding personal and cultural diversity is a central aspect of psychological practice.”
The committee chose to maintain another diversity-related standard. Programs should teach trainees to respect cultural and individual differences in order to effectively treat patients. In reviewing each standard, the committee measured weights “those that put the program in a compromised position” against “something essential to psychological practices that cannot be changed.”
Kevin Cochley, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, said this week he was “absolutely devastated” to learn about the APA's decision on psychology listserves.
“Frankly, I think this decision is truly ruthless given that we know the importance of having a diverse mental health provider,” Dr. Cochlee said. “We don't know how the APA can make these kinds of decisions, but we still think we are maintaining the highest standards of training.”
He said he believed the APA had acted prematurely and could wait until he faced a direct challenge from the administration.
“I think there's always a choice,” he said. “I think this is a classic example of APA engaged in predictive compliance. They started moving out for fear of what would happen to them.”
According to APA data, the psychology workforce is disproportionately white. In 2023, over 78% of active psychologists were white, 5.5% were black, 4.4% were Asian, and 7.8% were Latinos. (The general population is about 58%, with 13.7% black people, 6.4% Asians, and 19.5% Latinos.)
In contrast to demographic collapse for doctoral graduate students, the programme is nationally aligned. According to APA's 2022 data, 54% of doctoral students were white, 10% black, 10% Asian and 11% Latinos.
John Dovidio, Yale's professor emeritus in psychology and author of Unequal Health: Anti-Black Racism and the Threat to American Health, said the APA focuses on diversity in recruitment.
“It's really something the department takes very, very seriously,” he said. “I've personally seen the impact.”
The memorandum of understanding announcing the decision is described as “a temporary lawsuit while awaiting further court guidance” regarding Trump's executive order, upheld by the federal court of appeals on March 13. The order says, “litigation is currently law.”
Cynthia Jackson Hammond, chairman of the Council on Higher Education, which coordinates more than 70 accredited groups, said receiving direct orders from the government was “unprecedented.”
“The government and higher education have always worked independently and have worked sincerely with each other,” she said. “All we've had throughout the decades is healthy separation up until now.”
The federal government began to play a role in post-World War II accreditation as veterans flooded universities under the GI bill. The accreditation bodies are regularly reviewed by the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, and advise the Secretary of Education whether they will continue to recognize them.
But government officials have never used the leverage to impose ideological orientation on higher education, Jackson Hammond said. She said recruitment diversity remains a serious challenge for higher education, so the standards are still very commonly used.
“Given what our institutions look like before, it could be a barometer that we see when we're not paying attention,” she said.
