A REVIEW OF HISTORICAL AND CURRENT ORGANIZATIONAL INITIATIVES

Although modern psychology is international in its origins, psychology in the U.S. became increasingly insular and dismissive of the discipline as situated elsewhere in the world. With the advent of contemporary globalization and its derivative impact on psychological science and practice, U.S. psychology is now challenged to become less parochial and ethnocentric. This presentation traces the historical and current initiatives within the American Psychological Association (APA) and various international psychology organizations, most notably, the International Council of Psychologists (ICP), to advance the internationalizing of the psychology curriculum in the U.S. Several key accomplishments are described: the recommendations of the 2001 APA Education Leadership Conference, guidelines of the 2002 APA Board of Educational Affairs Task Force on Psychology Major Competencies, learning outcomes of the APA Working Group on Internationalizing the Undergraduate Psychology Curriculum, organizational networking by the APA Interdivisional Task Force on Internationalization of the Teaching of Psychology, contributions by the APA Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology, and current projects undertaken by the APA Division of International Psychology, including ongoing collaboration with the ICP to internationalize the psychology curriculum. The accomplishments of the APA and ICP are compared with calls made by leading international psychologists in the U.S. for internationalizing the psychology curriculum and the successful efforts of several U.S. universities to internationalize their campuses. The presentation concludes by articulating the challenges to building a systematic and sustained organizational movement to internationalize the psychology curriculum and invites discussion among panelists and the audience.

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