American Psychological Association: Celebrating Diversity Was a Major Theme of Their 125th Meeting

By Jo Freeman

Celebrate Diversity was a major theme of the 125th meeting of the American Psychological Association as it met in Washington, D.C. Aug. 3-6.

 Diversity can mean many things, though these days it usually means demographic diversity.  Of its 65,000 members 58 percent are women and 54 percent are white.  Over 38 percent are over 65. 

Illustration from the APA

There almost three times as many people in the labor force with an appropriate professional degree who told the Census that psychology is their occupation.  Of these almost 70 percent were female and slightly over 80 percent were white. 

The gender gap in both the psychology labor force and in APA members has increased over the years as male psychologists retire and females enter at a more rapid rate than young men.   It is particularly large for ethnic psychologists.  The gender gap is biggest among blacks and smallest among whites, with Asians, Hispanics and  “other” in between.

Unlike the other social sciences, psychology is thriving.  While the supply of trained psychologists in the labor force has remained constant since 2005, the demand has grown.  Quite a few employers purchased booths in the exhibit area just to advertising that they were hiring and interview potential recruits.  They ranged from clinics in Hattiesburg, MS to New Zealand.

The military was also well represented with 30 different sessions devoted to military themes, and 17 to veterans.   By comparison, “women’s studies” had 37 sessions and “men’s studies” had 14.  Nine different booths were rented by military or veteran exhibitors and another half dozen by other federal entities.

Aging adults got some attention, but not as much as children.  For example, there is “an enduring misconception that HIV is a disease of the young,” but even in countries with advanced health care systems “almost half of all people living with HIV are 50 or older.” This was the conclusion of Mark Brennan-Ing, Ph.D., director of research and evaluation at ACRIA, a non-profit HIV/AIDS research organization in New York City.

 Another big problem for the older population is social isolation, which often leads to premature death.  Approximately 42.6 million adults over age 45 in the United States are estimated to be suffering from chronic loneliness, according to AARP’s Loneliness Study.

©2017 Jo Freeman for SeniorWomen.com