Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm74051730
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The records of the American Psychological Association were given to the Library of Congress between 1967 and 1986.
The records of the American Psychological Association were processed in 1968 and 1975 by C. Langston Craig and expanded and revised in 1992 by Joseph Sullivan and Paul D. Ledvina with the assistance of Jerry Bolling, Paul Colton, Kathleen Kelly, Lisa Madison, John Monagle, Andrew Passett, and Catherine Wilkins-Susynski. The finding aid was revised in 2009. The finding aid was updated in 2023 by Maria Farmer as part of a division-wide remediation project by the Inclusive Description Working Group.
A phonodisc sound recording and recordings of oral history interviews have been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division where they are identified as part of these records.
Other records of the American Psychological Association are located at the Akron University Psychological Archives, Akron, Ohio.
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of the American Psychological Association is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
The records of the American Psychological Association are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, American Psychological Association Records, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Founded in 1892 and incorporated in 1925, the American Psychological Association (APA), a professional organization for psychologists, numbered slightly over seventy-two thousand members as of 1991. The primary purpose of the organization, according to Article I of the original articles of incorporation, is "to advance psychology as a science, as a profession, and as a means of promoting human welfare." These objectives are accomplished through annual meetings, through publication of journals, pamphlets and books, and through administrative services that strive to improve standards and training for psychologists.
The chief governing body of the APA is the Council of Representatives, whose members include representatives from each of the association's divisions and affiliated state associations. The Board of Directors is the administrative agent of the council and exercises general supervision over the affairs of the association through interaction with the executive officer. The board is composed of six council members elected by the council and six officers of the association (president, past president, president-elect, recording secretary, treasurer, and executive officer). The executive officer does not vote.
The administration of the organization is vested in the executive officer, at various times called the executive secretary, executive officer and chief executive officer, who manages the central office located in Washington, D. C. Adjuncts to the executive are a number of specialized administrative offices that support the administrator according to the interests of the office. For instance, there are offices dealing with educational affairs, scientific affairs, women's issues, and professional affairs.
Associated with the organization are divisions, committees, and affiliated organizations that help define the interests of the association. Presently the APA has forty-two divisions, ranging from "general psychology" and "psychologists in private practice," to "counseling," "teaching of psychology," "personality," and "family." Committees guide projects and handle issues ranging from ethical standards to insurance and financial questions. Some committees are standing bodies; others are continuing or ad hoc. Committees are established by the council of representatives, board, or other committees. Affiliates are organizations that have merged or associated with the APA. One such group represented in the records is the American Association of Applied Psychologists.
Information on the formative period of the organization is contained in an article by Samuel W. Fernberger, published in the
The records of the American Psychological Association (APA) span the years 1917-1986, with the bulk of the records concentrated in the period 1940-1980. The records consist of correspondence, memoranda, reports, minutes of meetings, agenda, ballots, financial records, drafts of books, articles, and lectures, testimonies, printed and near printed matter, and miscellaneous material. The collection is organized into eight series representing the structure and function of the organization, including Council of Representatives , Board of Directors , Administration , Boards and Committees , Divisions , Journals and Publications , and Affiliated Organizations , as well as a Miscellany file. The records are replete with gaps. A lack of consistency in the retirement of APA records may have contributed to the absence of material regarding certain periods or subjects. Many divisions and committees did not retire their records to the Library of Congress, preferring the Akron University Psychological Archives in Akron, Ohio. The records of the APA held by that institution should be consulted where gaps exist here.
The governing bodies of the APA – the Council of Representatives and Board of Directors – are represented in these records by separate series dating between the end of World War II and the beginning of the 1980s. Consisting largely of correspondence, memoranda, reports, and meeting data, these series treat business and organizational issues and relate to the professional direction of the association.
More extensive in scope and chronology is the Administration file. Until 1955, much of the material in the records of the APA was maintained in the office files of the executive secretary of the association. Dating primarily from the 1930s, the Executive Officers File in the Administration series reflects the managerial decisions of the organization's chief officers and documents its main activities. Featured in the personal records of various executives – from Donald Gildersleeve Paterson and Willard Clifford Olson in the 1930s and 1940s to Arthur H. Brayfield and Kenneth B. Little in the 1960s and 1970s – are the concerns and issues that defined their tenure as leaders. Themes of significance include APA-government relations, psychological testing, forensic information, loyalty investigations, the behavioral sciences, scientific exchanges, science and education, and the Peace Corps. Other important issues include legislation on aging, television projects, legal testimony, White House conferences, international cooperation, and ongoing publication efforts.
Also in the Administration series are Departmental Offices Files relating to the principal subdivisions in the association, including the Educational Affairs Office, Professional Affairs Office, Programs and Planning Office, Scientific Affairs Office, and Women's Program. In subject matter, they document the thrust of the APA's post-1950s operations from the minutia of daily activities to the practical applications of its programs and policies. As an example, within the files of the Professional Affairs Office are studies concerning abortion, contraception, population issues, and social attitudes, all under the term "family planning."
The Boards and Committees series offers further documentation of APA's outreach in developing and promoting psychology as a profession and field of study. Principal groups represented are boards relating to professional affairs, scientific affairs, social and ethical responsibility, education and training, and publication. Featured as well are the files of temporary bodies or continuing committees such as boards on ethical standards in psychological research, on psychology in governmental and public affairs, on revision of test standards, and on the APA's association with the guilds of related disciplines.
Topics highlighted in the Boards and Committees series reflect the core concerns of the organization, especially after 1960. Prominent are women's issues, equal opportunity for minorities, drug use, attitudes concerning sexual orientation, Vietnam War veterans, post-doctoral education, sex-role stereotyping, and social justice. Particularly extensive are files relating to the ethical treatment of human subjects during research. Also significant are testing and training questions and problems. Health issues are prominent throughout the collection, from licensing considerations and insurance matters to community health centers and the relationship between psychology and psychiatry.
The remaining files of the APA consist of a large Divisions series, followed by Journals and Publications , Affiliated Organizations , and a small Miscellany . Eclectic and incomplete, the Divisions series is organized by number of division, but the numbering is inconsistent and not all divisions are represented in the records. The files for Divisions 12, 14, and 17 ("Clinical," "Industrial" and "Counseling Psychology") are the most complete.
The records in the Journals and Publications series are also fragmentary, with the stronger portion beginning in the 1970s. Included are editorial and administrative matter related to books, abstracts, monographs, and journals published by the organization.
The Affiliated Organizations series consists of files relating to the American Association for Applied Psychology, the Conference of State Psychological Associations, and the Virginia Psychological Association, which beginning in the 1940s affiliated with the APA.
Among the prominent or frequent correspondents in the collection are George Albee, Arthur H. Brayfield, Arthur Centor, Isador Chein, Kenneth Bancroft Clark, Dorothy Clendenen, John Gordon Darley, Nicholas Hobbs, Erasmus Leonard Hoch, John McVee Hunt, Thelma Hunt, Kenneth B. Little, Joseph B. Margolin, Wilbert James McKeachie, John H. McMillan, Willard Clifford Olson, Fillmore H. Sanford, Leona Elizabeth Tyler, Dael Lee Wolfle, Robert Mearns Yerkes, and Joan S. Zaro.
The collection is arranged in eight series:
Correspondence, memoranda, minutes of meetings, ballots, budgetary and financial matters, reports, rules of council, and recommendations.
Arranged alphabetically by type of material and thereunder chronologically.
Correspondence, memoranda, reports, agendas, ballots, newspaper clippings, minutes of meetings, and miscellaneous material.
Organized by type or topic of material.
Correspondence, memoranda, reports, administrative material, and subject files of the administrative officers of the APA Central Office.
Organized according to five offices or positions - executive secretary, executive officer, president, president-elect, and recording secretary - and therein chronologically by officeholder, with further subdivisions arranged alphabetically by type or subject of material.
Correspondence, memoranda, budgetary and financial matter, records relating to projects and programs, and various other administrative and informational data.
Arranged alphabetically according to name of office and therein by subject or type of material.
Correspondence, reports, minutes of meetings, budgetary matters, and miscellaneous material.
Arranged alphabetically by subject or type of material.
Correspondence, memoranda, minutes of meetings, reports, agenda, surveys, graphs, charts, lists, proceedings, questionnaires, auditing data and other financial matter, drafts of publications, printed and near-print matter, and miscellaneous administrative and informational material.
Organized by type of committee – standing boards, standing committees, ad hoc committees, continuing committees, joint committees, commissions, and joint commissions – and therein by name of board, committee, or commission, with further subdivisions grouped alphabetically according to subject or type of material.
Correspondence, memoranda, agenda, minutes of meetings, bylaws, reports, reviews, surveys, lists, applications, budget material, statements, financial material, notebooks, articles, handbooks, legal material, studies, papers, dissertations, surveys, and miscellaneous administration and informational data.
Organized by division according to the number or designation given the material by the APA and therein alphabetically by subject or type of material. A miscellany file arranged alphabetically by type of material is at the end of the series.
Correspondence, memoranda, reports, surveys, drafts of articles, reviews, lists, and miscellaneous material.
Organized into a general administrative file and journals file and therein by subject, type of material, or name of publication.
Correspondence, memoranda, agenda, abstracts, minutes of meetings, lists, legislation, notices, ballots, bills, expense reports, newsletters, bylaws, certificates, programs, and miscellaneous material.
Arranged by name of organization and therein alphabetically by administrative subheadings, subject files, or type of material.
Correspondence, memoranda, minutes of meetings, reports, agenda, transmittal sheets, receipts, forms, surveys, notes, ballots, printed matter, fragmentary material, notices, speeches and articles, testing material, and miscellaneous data.
Arranged alphabetically by subject, name of office, committee or organizations, or type of material.