EC Psych Dept Resolution Led Way for APA Policy Change

After a year of helping lead the charge for a change in the American Psychological Association's (APA) stance on allowing members to participate in certain interrogations, the Earlham College Psychology Department and convener Michael R. Jackson can claim victory. This week APA announced that its membership has voted in favor of a petition resolution to specifically bar members from working where "persons are held outside of, or in violation of, either International Law or the U.S. Constitution."

Last year, the psychology department at Earlham passed a resolution calling for a change in the interrogations policy of APA. Breaking new ground by taking this national leadership role, Earlham's Resolution Regarding Participation by Psychologists in Interrogations in Military Detention Centers was the first of its kind issued by an American college or university academic unit. Nearly a dozen additional colleges have since signed onto the Earlham resolution.

Jackson said that not only did APA violate its own established ethical principles and code of conduct by refusing to "pass judgment on psychologists' presence" at so-called CIA "black sites," but that it permitted psychologists to be associated with agencies or facilities in which prisoners were deprived of due process of law, which, he said, is also a violation of the APA code.

"Most troubling of all," wrote Jackson in a letter to colleagues at other colleges last year, "by allowing psychologists to continue to participate in the interrogations of detainees in secret military and CIA facilities, it continues to aid in legitimizing these interrogations and (foreign detention centers)."

Jackson's ethical concerns seemed to resonate with those of other members, who passed the new changes 8,792 to 6,157. Another group wrote the language in the new resolution, which is similar the language of the Earlham resolution, according to Jackson.

Information released by APA notes that the new petition resolution expands on a 2007 resolution calling on the U.S. government to ban at least 19 specific abusive interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, that are regarded as torture by international standards. APA recognizes that the approval of this new language marks a significant change to the organization's policy regarding the involvement of psychologists in interrogations. Jackson praised the vote and the change.

Calling it an "inspiring development," Jackson said that this vote was "the latest victory of a national anti-torture a movement led, in part, by psychologists at Earlham, and it represents the first time that members of the APA have officially repudiated a position taken by their leadership on an ethical issue."

According to the organization's bylaws, the resolution will become official policy as of their next annual meeting, which takes place in August 2009. APA's membership includes more than 148,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. It is the world's largest association of psychologists.

"It's a testimony to the ability of individuals to change the direction of a powerful organization when it has gone wrong," said Jackson.