CRITIQUE OF APA ACCREDITATION CRITERION-II - CULTURAL AND INDIVIDUAL-DIFFERENCES

The Committee on Accreditation of the American Psychological Associati on has published standards, and more recently issued a report, describ ing the content and implementation of Criterion II: Cultural and indiv idual differences. We believe that these documents do not fully addres s important concerns of doctoral training and internship programs in p rofessional psychology Among these are inadequacies of criterion defin ition and the focus of compliance judgments. We believe that in the de termination of compliance, more emphasis could be given to available n ormative data, site visitor threshold judgments, and annual program re ports. In our experience, accredited professional psychology programs are highly supportive of the goals of Criterion II, and a resolution o f these issues would lead to increased understanding and probably a hi gher level of compliance. Specific recommendations to facilitate this process are offered.