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International Psychological Organizations 537

As American psychologists began to prepare for national
service in the event of U.S. involvement in the war, women
psychologists felt excluded. One stated that she and her
women colleagues grew frustrated with male psychologists
who either wanted to go on “reading papers on rat reactions
and retroactive inhibitions as though psychology had no
concern with a world already launched into inferno” or who
sought to exclude women from war work (Schwesinger,
1943, p. 298). Women psychologists were repeatedly coun-
seled by male psychologists in leadership positions in orga-
nized psychology to wait patiently. Finally, when it became
clear that nothing was going to be done for them, a group of
50 women voted to organize as the National Council of
Women Psychologists (Capshew & Laszlo, 1986). By June
1942, membership had grown to 240 women PhD psycholo-
gists (Schwesinger, 1943). The NCWP was successful in
gaining its members useful civilian roles in wartime service.
NWCP members provided a variety of educational, assess-
ment, and placement services. However, the NWCP was un-
able to significantly increase the number of women faculty
members, even though there was a chronic shortage of quali-
fied male professors of psychology.
Membership in the NCWP declined after the war. Rather
than disband, its leaders decided to add an international focus
and took a new name, the International Council of Women
Psychologists (Carrington, 1952). The ICWP developed an
extensive educational and support role for psychologists
around the world. Included among these activities were sup-
port for displaced psychologists and the publication of a
book,Women Psychologists: Their Work and Training and
Professional Opportunities (1950), meant to encourage
young women to become psychologists.
However, the promotion of women in psychology
remained the first goal of the ICWP. The 1950s was an era
that was not sympathetic to women’s issues. Leading
male psychologists were frequently unsympathetic, if not
hostile, to women as professional colleagues (e.g., Boring,
1951). One departmental chairman stated that if “women
were really capable, nothing could hold them back and
that any effort to support women psychologists just because
they were women was a mistake” (cited in Walsh, 1985,
p. 21). Leaders of the ICWP sought divisional membership
in the American Psychological Association (APA) as a
means to gain a voice for women’s issues in psychology but
were repeatedly turned down by the APA leadership. In
1959, after considerable discussion, the ICWP changed its
constitution to allow men to become members and its name
to the International Council of Psychologists. Still, the APA
would not admit the organization to divisional status
(Walsh, 1985).

After 1959, the mission of the ICP was broadened so that

the advancement of women and men in psychology was fo-

cused on psychological science and practice in the interna-

tional arena. The ICP now has women and men members in

over 90 countries and sponsors annual meetings at various

sites around the world. The ICP is registered as a Non-

Governmental Organization with consultative status at the

United Nations and has representation on many UN initia-

tives. Members of the ICP are organized in committees

and interest groups that reflect a broad array of psychologi-

cal concerns and activities (Davis, 2000; Gielen, Adler, &

Milgram, 1992).

The ICP and the APA cohost a reception for international

visitors at each annual APA convention. The two organiza-

tions also jointly sponsor a program to donate books and

journals to libraries in third-world countries.

International Associations: Regional

The European Federation of Professional Psychology Asso-

ciations and the Interamerican Society of Psychology are the

two major regional psychological associations that hold reg-

ular conventions in years when neither the IUPsyS nor the

IAAP are holding their congresses. In addition, the IAAP and

the IUPsyS jointly sponsor regional conferences on a peri-

odic basis, usually in developing areas of the world.

The Interamerican Society of Psychology

The Interamerican Society of Psychology (usually known

by its Spanish-language acronym, SIP) was founded in De-

cember 1951 during the Congress of the World Federation

of Mental Health. The founding members intended for the so-

ciety to be a small group of prominent psychologists who

would work together to foster psychological science in the

Americas and the Caribbean. There were only 50 members in

1953, most from the United States, Mexico, and a few

Caribbean islands. However, membership grew to more than

900 by 1964, and the society was restructured to accommo-

date growth. The number of countries represented grew to

include many more Latin American countries. In 2000, the

society’s membership included approximately 1,000 individ-

uals from 26 countries.

To fulfill its mission to promote psychology in the Western

Hemisphere, the society has held the Interamerican Congress

of Psychology since 1953. For the first 7 years, the congress

was held annually, with a move to biennial meetings held in

odd-numbered years after 1959. All the major areas of psy-

chology have been historically represented in the society and

at the congresses. Focuses in the last years of the twentieth