Australian Psychological Society

Website: http://www.psychology.org.au

Postal Address:
Australian Psychological Society, PO Box 38, Flinders Lane, VIC 8009, Australia

Street Address:
Australian Psychological Society, Level 11, 257 Collins Street, Melbourne VIC, 3000, Australia

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About the Australian Psychological Society

With 18,900 members, the Australian Psychological Society (APS) is the peak body for psychologists in Australia, representing a high proportion of Australian psychologists. The mission of the APS is to promote, advance and represent psychology and psychologists within the context of improving community wellbeing and scientific knowledge.

Providing support for psychologists across all workplace settings, the APS also advocates with government, public and private bodies, and the media on behalf of the profession. The APS has a long-standing responsibility for accrediting university psychology training programs across Australia and for setting professional practice standards. The community-focused activities of the APS include hosting a high profile Annual Oration and National Psychology Week, developing media and information campaigns, undertaking development roles in government-funded projects for community health and wellbeing, and supporting the establishment of the Australian Indigenous Psychologists Association. APS members enjoy a wide range of benefits and services including subscription to the Society’s bulletin, journals and email alerts, leading professional development opportunities and conferences, professional and ethical resources and advice, and online referral and recruitment services.

The APS is governed by an elected Board of Directors. The functions of the APS are conducted through the National Office in Melbourne with a staff of over 110 people, and through the 140 active member groups within the Society. There are 40 APS Branches spread across Australia, nine APS Colleges representing specialty areas within the profession (clinical neuropsychology, clinical psychology, community psychology, counselling psychology, educational and developmental psychology, forensic psychology, health psychology, organisational psychology and sport psychology), and 37 Interest Groups representing the wide range of special interests of the APS membership.

Membership

Full membership of the Australian Psychological Society requires the completion of a six-year sequence of study in psychology. The six years must cover four years of Australian Psychology Accreditation Council (APAC) accredited study in psychology, as well as either a two year or more APAC-accredited postgraduate coursework degree, or a postgraduate research degree (minimum two years full-time) in psychology. Other grades of membership are Associate (requiring four years of training), Fellow (recognition of advanced standing and contribution to the Australian Psychological Society), and Honorary Fellow (to a maximum of fifteen). Affiliates and students make up the rest of the membership.

Members of APS Colleges must meet strict eligibility requirements that represent a high level of training and supervised experience in the specialist area of psychology. The current standard route for entry into an APS College is via an accredited and approved professional Doctorate degree in the specialist area, or an accredited and approved Masters degree in the specialist area with additional supervised experience.

APS members are required to abide by principles of professional conduct. These are set and monitored by the Society in its Code of Ethics. The Code was developed to safeguard the welfare of consumers of psychological services and the integrity of the profession. The APS Code of Ethics has recently been adopted by the national registration board as the code of ethics for the profession in Australia.

History

The Australian Psychological Society Limited was established in 1966. In 1945, however, Australian psychologists formed the Australian Branch of the British Psychological Society, the precursor of the present society.

Under the title of mental philosophy the study of psychology was undertaken in the departments of philosophy of six Australian universities at various times between 1881 and 1913. Courses in experimental psychology began in 1913. During the 1920s trends toward independent departments of psychology emerged, and the first independent department was founded at the University of Sydney in 1929. A department was founded at the University of Western Australia in 1930. Most of the important developments occurred postwar, many of them emerging from the application of psychology to manpower planning and selection for the armed services during World War II. Before that time the application of psychology had been mainly in education. Independent departments or schools of psychology now exist in thirty-eight Australian universities. A history of the Australian Psychological Society and Australian psychology 1944-1994 has been published.

Publications

InPsych, the bulletin of the Australian Psychological Society, 6/year
The Australian Journal of Psychology, 1948- , 3/year
Australian Psychologist, 1965- , 3/year
The Australian Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 1982- , 2/year
The Clinical Psychologist, 1998- , 2/year

Contributors

Professor Lyn Littlefield OAM
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Ms. Alexandra Bignell
Personal Assistant to the Executive Director
The Australian Psychological Society
Level 11, 257 Collins Street, Melbourne 3000
PO Box 38, Flinders Lane PO, Melbourne 8009
Tel: +61 3 8662 3300
Fax: +61 3 9663 6177
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Updated July 2010