APA’s Race and Ethnicity Guidelines
These APA guidelines aim to address the persistent inequalities among people of different races, ethnicities and cultural backgrounds in the United States.
The new Race and Ethnicity Guidelines in Psychology: Promoting Responsiveness and Equity cover fundamental values of the field, as well as how to consider race and ethnicity in clinical practice, research, and training and education. They are a follow-up to the 2003 Guidelines for Multicultural Education, Training, Research, Practice, and Organizational Change for Psychologists, narrowed to a more specific focus on race and ethnicity.
Fundamental guidelines
The first set of four guidelines focus on fundamental considerations shared by all areas of psychology. They urge practitioners to recognize the influence of race and ethnicity in society, and to view racial and ethnocultural responsiveness as a lifelong journey. The guidelines also call for psychologists to maintain a scholarly knowledge of race and ethnicity, including global perspectives. This might involve seeking out sources from disciplines such as anthropology or sociology. Psychologists should further seek to understand their own "positionality," a term referring to one’s place in the racial and sociocultural hierarchy. This might mean reflecting on what cultural values one carries or what assumptions and biases shape one’s beliefs. One way to facilitate this type of reflection, according to the guideline authors, is to participate in group activities focused on race and ethnicity, such as workshops or professional society interest groups. Psychologists should also strive to address bias, prejudice and discrimination within institutions and professional groups.
Training and education
As education shapes the future of the field, inclusive and reflective training is a key goal of the new guidelines. The first of the training and education guidelines urges educators to develop inclusive curricula, which should be comprehensive, supportive and take a strengths-based approach to the issues facing racial and ethnic minorities. The second asks educators to promote critical thinking and awareness, including cultural humility, or a commitment to continual learning and examination of one’s own beliefs about culture, race and ethnicity. The third urges educators to instill in their students and trainees clinical skills to help them serve diverse populations. This might involve in-class exercises to promote self-reflection, for example, or collaborative community partnerships that help teach students to meet clients where they are. Finally, the guidelines urge psychologists to promote educational systems that address biases and foster justice on a macro level. This might involve advocating for curriculum changes or more inclusive standards or sharing psychological knowledge across disciplines to get information about bias and justice into more hands.
Practice
In clinical practice, psychologists should strive to provide services free of racial or ethnocultural bias. This should include considering issues of race, ethnicity and culture in not only treatment, but also assessment. Psychologists should also reflect on how their own biases and assumptions affect the types of services they provide, and seek out understanding of indigenous and traditional healing methods, with an eye toward supporting clients who find meaning in these methods. Finally, psychologists should recognize the structural oppressions in society and within health care systems, and seek to challenge the biases and oppressions that affect their clients’ health and well-being.
Research
Given the critical role of research in informing practice and policy, psychologists should strive to conduct and disseminate research that benefits racial and ethnic minorities, and to reflect critically on their theoretical suppositions and how culture might affect them. They also should take care to reduce the impacts of racial and ethnocultural biases on research. This might involve carefully considering who is included in samples, what kind of measures are used, and how variables related to race and ethnicity are categorized. In particular, vague definitions of ethnicity and race have muddied the research literature, making it difficult to compare results across studies. Finally, psychologists conducting research should maintain racially and socioculturally responsive ethical standards. This could include sharing data ownership when working with marginalized or vulnerable groups or including community stakeholders in the analysis and dissemination of research conclusions.
APA guidelines suggest or recommend specific professional behavior, endeavor or conduct for psychologists or for individuals or organizations that work with psychologists. To see all APA guidelines and standards, visit www.apa.org/about/policy/approved-guidelines.