African American Psychologists: A History of Training, Employment, and Professional Gain

Darnell SchuettlerPsych 5060

Training at White Universities

• Few northern schools accepted students– University of Pennsylvania– New York University– University of Chicago– Columbia University– University of Minnesota– Ohio State University– Temple University (PA)– Northwestern University (IL)

Training at White Universities

• Required a second degree to validate student’s abilities

• Few encouragements, no university assistantships, no student

appointments• Largely a matter of good

fortune and ability to negotiate confrontational environments

• Geography and Costs

Julius Rosenwald Foundation

• Only required recommendation from professors for student scholarship apps

• Most desired source of funding by all Black scholars

• 1945-also attempted to integrate hiring practices of 500 all-white schools

Howard University

• Largest African American University during early era of these schools

• Leading conduit for Black students to matriculate into grad school

• Between 1919-1938 20 students had enrolled in Psych grad program vs. 32 in white schools• 3 person department-1930

– Frances Sumner– Max Meenes– Frederick Watts

Howard University• Undergraduate Courses

– 3 Quarter Psych course•Titchener, Watson (behavioral),

McDougall and Freud (psychodynamic)

– Learning, personality, personal hygiene, religion– Emphasized laboratory- experimental psychology

Howard University

• Masters Degree– Stressed Cultural Significance– Prep for PhD. German and

French Readings courses to pass entrance language exams

– Prepared for various professional areas such as

business, education, law, religion, music, art, clinic work, and nursing.

Employment

• Professor– Difficult to find a position, only at Black

colleges– Extremely underpaid, teaching 18-20 hrs/week– Lack of money, resources, and overwork make

it difficult to buy books and keep up in the field, much less make contributions-No incentive or money in Black Schools

Employment

• Clinical – RARE in private sector– Military

•544 officers•VA-2 clinical psychologists

• Research– Federal Government

Black Psychologists Organize• APA ignored African American’s concerns

as a whole• 1904-ATA formed as a powerful voice for

Black teachers• 1938 and 1969-Two conventions focusing on lack of appropriate attention, vocational direction and guidance for successful employment• 1969-Department of Psychology at ATA established

APA-1960s• Black psychologists concerns continually

ignored• 1967-proprosal to study training and

employment needs of Blacks in psychology

• 1968 APA Convention• 75 people involved in initial meeting, 200 immediate members

Assoc. for Black Psychologists (ABPsi)

Black Students in Psychology Assoc. (BSPA)

• 1969-students interrupted APA Presidents address with appeals for Black concerns and increased production of Black Psychologists

• APA agreed to address concerns and recognize their association

• Joint committee of APA, ABPsi, and BSPA met to discuss culturally biased tests and raising number of Black students

National Conference of Levels and Patterns of Training in Professional Psychology

• 1973-open forum for laying out important concepts for grad program accreditations, ethical issues, and need to

increasing the enrollment of ethnic grad students in training programs

1970-”Towards A Black Psychology”

• Generalization of traditional white theories• Need a new philosophical basis• Arguments of dichotomized psychology• Late 1970s-1080-ABPsi placed major emphasis on “Africentrically- principled discourses and spiritual

rejuvenation”– African Psychology– African Personality in America

Towards an Integrated Traditional Psychology

• 20th Century-Modern Psychology and Black American Psychologists developed, nurtured, and matured. It produced significant research for the understanding and betterment of Black American.

• Investigation of bicultural evolution and models of racial identity development was new focus– Kenneth and Mamie Clark

• Doll studies and reversal of “separate but equal”

– William H Greier and Price M. Cobbs• “Black Rage” inner dimensions & desperation of Black American Life

Reference

• Even the Rat was White: A Historical View of Psychology by Robert V. Guthrie