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COGDOP at 50: Reflections on the History of Graduate Education in
Psychology1
David B. Baker
The University of Akron
The history of COGDOP is inextricably woven into the seismic
impact World War II had on American society and psychology. Like other
sciences and professions, psychology mobilized rapidly in the 1940s to
contribute to the war effort. In a remarkable demonstration of unity,
academic and research psychologists merged with applied psychologists to
form a newly constituted APA in 1945. Among many other developments,
the reorganization of APA gave us the divisional structure that we know
today.
Psychology had proven its value to the federal government during
WWI by supplying methods for group administration of tests of ability and
achievement. The work was deemed useful for classifying recruits for
service. The data that was produced also generated warnings and concerns
about the educational and intellectual ability of the nation. World War II
provided similar data on the mental status of recruits and by extension the
nation. Mental health screenings indicated an alarmingly high rate of mental
This is a summary of a talk presented at the Annual Meeting of the Council of
Graduate Departments of Psychology, February, 20th, 2015
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illness, as high as 28%, among new recruits. Given this and the fact the
majority of casualties of war were psychiatric, the federal government
quickly realized that the available supply of mental heath professionals was
wholly inadequate to address the problem. Responding to this the National
Mental Health act was past by Congress in 1946.
The National Mental Health Act was remarkable in many ways, one
was the show of bipartisanship that allowed for swift passage and enactment
of legislation aimed squarely at rapidly creating a mental health workforce
for America.
The lion’s share of the money went to training psychiatrists followed
by training for clinical psychologists. The Veterans Administration, the
United States Public Health Service, and the APA all worked in close
concert to formulate plans for the creation and accreditation of doctoral
training programs in clinical psychology. An instrumental leader in this
effort was Donald G. Marquis (1908-1973), chair of the psychology
department at the University of Michigan. Through his efforts and
involvement the Committee of University Department Chairman was
formed as a committee of the APA. The first meeting of the committee was
held on September 6, 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania in conjunction
with the annual meeting of the APA. The expectation was that the committee
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would concern itself with training at the graduate and professional level and
advise the Association on issues of curricula and accreditation. The APA
was willing to support the committee for two years, after which time it was
expected that the committee you would become an independent association
with a recognized affiliation with APA.
Marquis and members of the committee were well represented at the
1949 Boulder conference on Graduate Education in Clinical Psychology. For
two weeks 73 participants wrestled with the creation of a model for doctoral
training for clinical psychologists and agreed upon the scientist practitioner
(Boulder) model. Hotly debated and examined, the Boulder model was
foundational to the creation of COGDOP.
The early years of the Committee of University Department Chairman
were a time of establishment of an identity. For many years meetings
occurred in conjunction with the APA annual meeting and the Committee
continued as an APA based group. In 1950 the committee adopted the name,
The APA Committee of Departments Offering Doctoral Training.
As a result of a newly constituted Education and Training Board, APA
decided to sunset the Committee of Departments Offering Doctoral Training
in August of 1951. The Committee was informed of the break-up by mail.
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Throughout the 1950’s the Committee of Department Chairman
continued but in a much more informal manner. Activity renewed in the
early 1960s largely as a result of the growth of APA accredited programs in
clinical psychology and a corresponding growth of psychologists providing
psychological services. In a number of states, discussions and debates about
proper credentialing and use of the title psychologist intensified.
In 1962 the University of the State of New York began to propose
regulations that specified curriculum requirements for graduate education in
psychology. Alarmed by a perceived threat to their autonomy as well as the
failure to recognize the difference between training in professional and
experimental psychology, faculty members and department chairs in
psychology in the state of New York began to organize and these concerns
were brought to the national level at the APA meeting in St. Louis in 1962.
There was enough momentum generated, or instigated by the actions of
the University of the State of New York that department chairs in
psychology began to once again more formally organize themselves as they
had done in 1946. In September of 1964, The Council of Chairmen of
Graduate Departments of Psychology was founded at an informal meeting of
department chairs at the annual meeting of the APA in Los Angeles. Lloyd
Humphreys (1913-2003) of the University of Illinois chaired the meeting
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and was elected first chairman of the organization. The first formal meeting
of the Council of Chairmen of Graduate Departments took place at the
annual meeting of the APA in Chicago in 1965.
As had been true for two decades, issues of accreditation and
curriculum would occupy much of the agenda for the Council of Chairman
of Graduate Departments of Psychology. The current designation as the
Council of Graduate Department of Psychology is credited to Gregory
Kimball (1917-2006) who as chair of the Council of Chairman of Graduate
Departments of Psychology in 1974 proposed and presided over the name
change.
History provides perspective and this cursory reviews suggests that
COGDOP has:
o a lasting connection APA.
o always concerned itself with accreditation, especially weighted
toward professional psychology.
o a presence and voice that have increased over time.
o shown flexibility and adaptability in meeting the challenges it
has faced both internally and externally.
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Outside pressures regarding curricula and accreditation have always
mobilized COGDOP, these issues are here again with issues of alternative
accreditation of clinical psychology at the doctoral level and mental health
professionals at the masters level to name a few. So Happy 69th, COGDOP
has much to be proud of and has achieved a foundation that can help face the
challenges ahead.