 | This article needs to be updated.(October 2017) |
| Formation | 1969 |
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| Headquarters | Bethesda, Maryland |
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Executive Director | Kathleen Minke |
| Website | www |
The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) is the major national professional organization for school psychologists in the United States.
Its stated mission is to "represent and support school psychology through leadership to enhance the mental health and educational competence of all children." The vision of NASP is that all children and youth access the learning, behavior, and mental health support needed to thrive in school, at home, and throughout life. The four main purpose of this organization is "a) to actively promote the interests of school psychology; b) to advance the standards of the profession; c) to help secure the conditions necessary to the greatest effectiveness of its practice; and d) to serve the mental health and educational interest of all children and youth". [1]
The National Association of School Psychologists was created on March 15, 1969, during a two-day national conference in St. Louis. NASP is the world's largest organization to serve the interests of school psychologists exclusively. NASP is govern by nationally elected officers and state-elected representatives to the NASP's primary legislative body, NASP Delegates Assembly. There are two delegate representatives in each of its four region with the executive council consisting of the elected officers and program managers. Including committee members, editors, etc. within the program manager areas, the governing body exceeds 200 individuals. The policies and business of NASP emanate from the association’s central office, located in Bethesda, Maryland. [2]
NASP provides a year-round membership and access to evidence-based resources, periodicals exploring the most current issues, and networking opportunities. There are different rates and categories offered to become a member such as regular member, student member, retired member, international member, and so forth. The memberships run from July 1-June 30. NASP offers a Find-A-Mentor Program where an individual can choose to become a mentor or find a mentor. This program provides support at all levels of professional growth and development. NASP also offers awards, grants, and scholarships. [3]
NASP Practice Model represents NASP's official policy regarding the delivery of school psychological services. The NASP Practice Model is one of the four major of parts of Professional Standards NASP 2010 and creates flexibility for agencies and professionals to develop policies and procedures that meet local needs, while also providing sufficient specificity to ensure appropriate, comprehensive service provision. The NASP Practice Model consists of two parts: Professional Practices and Organizational Principles.
While the American Psychological Association (APA) serves similar purposes through Division 16, [4] one way that NASP differs fundamentally from the APA is in that it officially recognizes the specialist degree as the entry-level degree for the field, as opposed to the doctoral degree. The two organizations, however, are more complementary than competing. Many view NASP as the governing body for sub-doctoral school psychologists and the APA as the governing body for doctoral-level school psychologists, although there are many doctoral-level school psychologists who belong to NASP. Further, NASP approval of graduate programs does not compete with APA accreditation; the APA does not accredit non-doctoral programs, [5] and NASP will more quickly approve programs that have already been APA-accredited. [6]
NASP provides standards for ethics and practice, and approves graduate training programs that sufficiently adhere to its training guidelines. NASP is a constituent member of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and although NCATE accredits units (such as colleges of education), not programs, it does provide "national recognition" status to NASP-approved programs located in units accredited by NCATE. [7]
The organization also offers an opportunity for those who have successfully completed their graduate coursework, participated in a 1200-hour internship with at least 600 hours in a school setting, and received a score of at least 660 on the School Psychologist Praxis II Examination to apply for National Certification in School Psychology.
The National Association of School Psychologists currently distributes one journals: School Psychology Review, which is the second-largest psychology academic journal and includes research and theory related to school psychology. It previously distributed [8] School Psychology Forum: Research in Practice, an electronic publication, but the final issue was published in spring 2019. [9] NASP also publishes a periodical, Communiqué, which is the official newspaper of NASP that covers news, events, innovative practices, legislative developments, and other topics relevant to the field.
NASP also provides a yearly convention which takes place in various cities and states. This convention hosts a wide variety of school psychologists. The convention allows for professional development, training and research to be presented. [10]
Medical psychology or medico-psychology is the application of psychological principles to the practice of medicine, primarily drug-oriented, for both physical and mental disorders.
The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 146,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It has 54 divisions—interest groups for different subspecialties of psychology or topical areas. The APA has an annual budget of around $125 million.
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how individuals relate to each other and to their environments.
School psychology is a field that applies principles from educational psychology, developmental psychology, clinical psychology, community psychology, and behavior analysis to meet the learning and behavioral health needs of children and adolescents. It is an area of applied psychology practiced by a school psychologist. They often collaborate with educators, families, school leaders, community members, and other professionals to create safe and supportive school environments.
The Doctor of Psychology is a professional doctoral degree intended to prepare graduates for careers that apply scientific knowledge of psychology and deliver empirically based service to individuals, groups and organizations. Earning the degree was originally completed through one of two established training models for clinical psychology. However, Psy.D. programs are no longer limited to Clinical Psychology as several universities and professional schools have begun to award professional doctorates in Business Psychology, Organizational Development, Forensic Psychology, Counseling Psychology, and School Psychology.
Clinical psychology is an integration of human science, behavioral science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development. Central to its practice are psychological assessment, clinical formulation, and psychotherapy, although clinical psychologists also engage in research, teaching, consultation, forensic testimony, and program development and administration. In many countries, clinical psychology is a regulated mental health profession.
The Association for Psychological Science (APS), previously the American Psychological Society, is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in research, application, teaching, and the improvement of human welfare. APS publishes several journals, holds an annual meeting, disseminates psychological science research findings to the general public, and works with policymakers to strengthen support for scientific psychology.
The California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) was founded in 1969 by the California Psychological Association. It is part of the for-profit Alliant International University where each campus's Clinical Psychology Psy.D. and Ph.D. program is individually accredited by the American Psychological Association. The school has trained approximately half of the licensed psychologists in California.
Fielding Graduate University is a private graduate-level university in Santa Barbara, California. It offers postgraduate and doctoral studies mainly in psychology, education, and organizational studies, primarily through distance education programs.
The Institute for the Psychological Sciences (IPS) is a graduate school of psychology and an integral part of Divine Mercy University (DMU) in Sterling, Virginia. The institute was founded in 1999 with the mission of basing the scientific study of psychology on a Catholic understanding of the person, marriage, and the family, as well as being an international center for scholarship and professional training. It seeks to educate new generations of psychologists and mental health professionals, as well as open new areas of research for psychological theories that explore the relationship between psychology and the Catholic-Christian understanding of the human person.
The California Graduate Institute (CGI) was founded in 1968 as an independent graduate school specializing in psychology, marital and family therapy, and psychoanalysis. CGI and The Chicago School of Professional Psychology formally announced in fall 2008 that they were uniting. The merger was approved by The Chicago School’s accrediting body, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), in October 2008. HLC joins the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) as two of six regional associations that accredit public and private schools, colleges, and universities in the United States.
The National Register of Health Service Psychologists is the largest credentialing organization for psychologists in the United States. Founded in 1974, the National Register was created to identify qualified Health Service Providers. Today, the National Register certifies 11,000 licensed psychologists as health service providers and reviews credentials for doctoral students. The National Register is a 501c3 nonprofit organization based in Washington DC.
The prescriptive authority for psychologists (RxP) movement is a movement in the United States of America among certain psychologists to give prescriptive authority to psychologists with predoctoral or postdoctoral graduate-level training in clinical psychopharmacology; successful passage of a standardized, national examination ; supervised clinical experience; or a certificate from the Department of Defense Psychopharmacology Demonstration Project; or a diploma from the Prescribing Psychologists Register to enable them, according to state law, to prescribe psychotropic medications to treat mental disorders. This approach is non-traditional medical training focused on the specialized training to prescribe for mental health disorders by a psychologist. It includes rigorous didactics and supervised clinical experience. Legislation pertaining to prescriptive authority for psychologists has been introduced over 180 times in over half of the United States. It has passed in five states, due largely to substantial lobbying efforts by the American Psychological Association (APA), the largest professional organization of psychologists in the world with over 146,000 members. Prior to RxP legislation and in American states where it has not been passed, this role has been played by psychiatrists, who possess a medical degree and thus the authority to prescribe medication, but more frequently by primary care providers who can prescribe psychotropics, but lack extensive training in psychotropic drugs and in diagnosing and treating psychological disorders. According to the APA, the movement is a reaction to the growing public need for mental health services, particularly in under-resourced areas where patients have little or no access to psychiatrists.
Adler University is a private university, with two campuses in North America. The university's flagship campus is in Chicago, Illinois, and its satellite campus is located in Vancouver, British Columbia. The university also offers online classes and degree programs online for both masters and doctoral students.
William James College, formerly Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology (MSPP), is a private college of psychology in Newton, Massachusetts. With more than 750 students, William James College offers graduate academic degree and certificate programs across four departments: Clinical Psychology, Counseling Psychology, Organizational and Leadership Psychology, and School Psychology, as well as a Bachelor of Science completion program in Psychology and Human Services.
Saybrook University is a private university in Pasadena, California. It was founded in 1971 by Eleanor Camp Criswell and others. It offers postgraduate education with a focus on humanistic psychology. It features low residency, master's, and doctoral degrees and professional certification programs. The university is accredited by the WASC Senior Colleges and University Commission. The university is classified an exclusively graduate institution with programs that are "Research Doctoral: Humanities/social sciences-dominant". As of Fall of 2017 the university had 785 students enrolled. The university reported 222 full-time and part-time academic faculty in 2017.
Rodney L. Lowman is an American psychologist, academic administrator and entrepreneur whose major contributions have been in the areas of career assessment and counseling, ethical issues in Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the integration of clinical psychology and I-O psychology and helping to develop the field of consulting psychology. In a study of the most prolific contributors to the Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, Lowman was rated the second highest contributor for articles for the period 1992–2007.
The Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP) is Division 2 of the American Psychological Association. It is an academic society that promotes effective pedagogy while providing supports for teachers of psychology at all levels. Although it is one of the divisions of the American Psychological Association, it does not require its members to join the APA. The STP provides access to peer-reviewed teaching resources, such as course syllabi and e-books, free of charge to the general public through its website. Some sections of the website require STP membership to gain access.
Divine Mercy University (DMU) is a private Catholic graduate university of psychology and counseling located in Sterling, Virginia in the United States.
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