Professional Associations Review and Report Paper Example

Introduction

Professional associations are non-profit making organizations aiming to enhance a given profession, the members' interests and the interests of the general public. They develop and monitor professional training programs, updating the skills of members, and also certify qualified persons in that area of knowledge. The paper presents a report of the following professional psychological associations: American Psychological Association (APA), American Counseling Association (ACA), American School Counseling Association (ASCA), Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), and American Psychology and Law Society. In this paper, I summarize the purpose, function, and mission of each association. I discuss the ways through which each association meets the stated mission, highlighting major initiatives and activities. I also highlight the member benefits and resources available to the public by each association. The conclusion is a brief statement of my thoughts on the value of professional associations for students, early career, and experienced professionals in psychology.

American Psychological Association (APA)

It is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States of America. It is based in Washington DC and has over 130,000 members including scientists, consultants, educators, clinicians, and psychology students (Weiner, I. B. 2013).

Purpose of APA

The American psychological association is oriented toward furthering psychology as a science, a profession as well as a means to promote human welfare, health, and education. Mission of APA

"To enhance the development, communication, and the application of psychology to benefit the society and improve people's lives."

Functions and initiatives of APA

Enhancing and promoting the psychological knowledge. It does so through encouraging education and research on psychology, promoting the growth of psychology, and putting in place professional standards for psychologists.

Regulation of official titles. The American psychological association controls how the professional title "psychologist" is used. For one to be named a psychologist, he must have undergone systematic training in psychology from a regionally accredited professional school or university and must attain a doctoral degree in psychology.

Publishing the manual for official style. The APA Style is a set of rules which helps in communicating information in psychology, education, and sociology. It assists in organizing professional articles, listing references, and citing sources.

Benefits of APA

Members enjoy numerous benefits such as a free one-year subscription to psychological monitor, getting a 25% discount when purchasing all APA books or DVDs, opportunities to acquire funding from APA or APF. Moreover, members enjoy networking benefits such as the APA membership directory, incredible discounts on registration for the APA annual conventions, involvement in the APA governance, and networking opportunities in any division of the APA. Furthermore, members enjoy the financial discounts, travel discounts, and business discounts. They also enjoy discounts to APA publications.

American Counseling Association (ACA)

The American Counseling Association is a non-profit body which represents the licensed professional counselors, and counseling students in the united states of America. It has over 55,000 members from different areas of the counseling practice such as school, family, rehabilitation, mental health, marriage, addictions and substance use, as well as the career and employment counseling.

Mission

To encourage a high quality of life in the society through developing the professional counselors, advancing the counseling profession, and using the counseling practice and profession as a means of promoting respect for human dignity and diversity.

Benefits of the American counseling association

Diverse learning opportunities from online courses, webinars, podcasts and many more educational sessions at the annual conferences, making it easier to acquire CEs.

ACA promotes counseling awareness and recognition for its members

The American counseling association advocates for its members for equality, access, and reimbursement.

ACA provides a wide range of professional resources for its members such as journals, books, and peculiar tools such as the online community, and the ethics hotline.

The American counseling association provides offers and discounts on insurance, car rentals, directory listings, etc.

ACA initiatives and functions

ACA develops and promotes the counseling profession and practice through organizing annual conferences and EXPO where counselors come together to learn and grow.

ACA facilitates the access to high-quality resources and training for the professional counselors (Belgrave et al. 2013).

At the American counseling association, one can advocate, engage and take action.

The American counseling association promotes human dignity and enhance service to the people.

ACA offers a good opportunity for training and updating skills of professional counselors through encouraging education and research

Furthermore, the American counseling association has codes of ethics that guide the counseling profession and practice by its members. By controlling the counseling profession and practice of its members, ACA enhances the achievement of its goals to the American society.

American School Counseling Association (ASCA)

The American school counseling association is a national organization which represents the profession of school counselors.

ASCA mission

To represent school counselors and promote professionalism and ethical practices.

ASCA functions and initiatives

ASCA looks for and strives to meet the needs of school counselors regardless of setting, level of experience, or needs.

ASCA provides professional development, researching the suitable practices for effective school counseling, and promoting the school counseling programs.

The American school counseling association initiates and enhance the relevant research and evaluation programs in school counseling.

ASCA develops opportunities for all school counselors to improve performance in areas of critical need through the timely propagation of the relevant information that enriches their skills and professionalism.

ASCA develops and reinforces professional and ethical standards to regulate the practice and profession of the school counselors.

ASCA maintains a proper organizational structure which enhances the achievement of the set goals and objectives.

ASCA helps school counselors to come up with programs necessary for meeting the needs of students.

ASCA Benefits

The members of ASCA are provided with professional school counseling journal and full-text online articles and archives which keeps them well informed of the current advances in the field.

The ASCA school counselor magazine gives its members an incredible opportunity to master practical counseling as well as addressing the common issues the school counselors face.

ASCA keeps its members up to date with several discounted publications which target the areas in need such as career counseling, school violence, social development, programs for the comprehensive guide, and many others.

ASCA provides the opportunity for certified professional development. Apart from its annual conferences, workshops, and webinars, ASCA supports members training in collaboration with other organizations on the needy topics such as career counseling, ethics, and many other areas.

Members of the American school counseling association enjoys free liability insurance.

Members enjoy a plethora of free resources such as lesson plans, checklists, job descriptions, back-to-school handouts available at the SCENE Library.

The ASCA online community, the ASCA SCENE, gives its members incredible networking opportunities with other school counselors, enabling them to learn and share their common interests.

Members of the American school counselor association can also use the ASCA MEMBER logo on their website, letterheads and business cards.

Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP)

SIOP is a professional association which enhances science, teaching, and practice of industrial and organizational psychology. It is also called the Division 14 of the American Psychological Association (APA).

Mission

To enhance the human well-being and performance in the organization and work settings through promoting science, teaching, and practice of the industrial-organizational psychology.

Roles of SIOP

SIOP supports its members in studying and teaching the principles of the industrial-organizational psychology.

SIOP provides interactive forums and platforms where the industrial-organizational psychologists share insights, and findings to the science, practice, and teaching of the industrial-organizational psychology.

Creating opportunities for expansion and development of the I/O science and practice.

SIOP monitors and addresses the various challenges to the understanding and practice of industrial-organizational psychology both in the organizational and work settings.

Enhance proper training of both current and future industrial-organizational psychologists

SIOP is also responsible for promoting public awareness of the industrial-organizational field.

Benefits of SIOP

The American Society for the industrial and organizational psychology offers a wide range of benefits to its members. The following are some of the common benefits enjoyed by the members of SIOP.

SIOP promotes a great opportunity for networking for its members through such interactive programs as the leading edge consortium and annual conferences, the SIOP social media, the SIOP consultant locator service, database for media resources and the committee volunteer positions.

Provision of incentives for members to further their career.

Provision of scholarship funds, awards, and grants exclusively for the SIOP members.

Members enjoy a 20% discount on all books and free shipping from Routledge.

American Psychology and Law Society (APLS)

The American psychology and law society is an organization for legal, forensic and any general psychologist with interest for application of the psychology to law. The APLS is the Division41 of the American Psychological Association (APA). The organization publishes the academic journal and human behavior.

Goals

The American psychology and law society has three main goals.

Enhancing psychological contributions to understand law through basic or applied research.

Creating awareness of the psychological and legal communities on current education, research, and services in the field of law and psychology.

Promoting learning of psychology and law.

Mission

To enhance well-being, justice, and human rights through science and practice of psychology in the legal context.

Activities for fulfilling the Mission

The American psychology and law society enhance the international engagement in the training of psychology and law (Chacon, F. P. et al. 2012).

The body encourages research on important social problems across several disciplines, societies, and divisions.

It provides mentorship for students and professional research.

Promote professional and ethical standards in research.

Advocating for federal research funding for the issues relating to psychology and law.

Developing listservs for forensic psychology.

Disseminate relevant information about cases in forensic psychology practice.

Maintaining a strong focus on professional growth and development for early career professionals and students.

Conclusion

The professional psychology organizations represent professionals from various areas of specialization, providing th...