American Psychological Association
scientific and professional organization headquartered in the Washington, D.C.

The American Psychological Association (APA) is a professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 190,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It has 54 divisions, which function as interest groups for different subspecialties of psychology or topical areas.
Profile
The APA has task forces that issue policy statements on various social matters, including abortion, human rights, the welfare of detainees, human trafficking, the rights of the mentally ill, IQ testing, sexual orientation change efforts, and gender equality.
Membership
Full membership with the APA in United States and Canada requires doctoral training whereas associate membership requires at least two years of postgraduate studies in psychology or approved related discipline. The minimal requirement of a doctoral dissertation related to psychology for full membership can be waived in certain circumstances where there is evidence that significant contribution or performance in the field of psychology has been made.
Affiliate organizations
American Psychological Association Services, Inc. (APASI) was formed in 2018 and is a 501(c)(6) entity, which engages in advocacy on behalf of psychologists from all areas of psychology. Its predecessor was the American Psychological Association Practice Organization (APAPO). APASI contains the Psychology Political Action Committee (PAC), which engages in lobbying on behalf of psychologists at the federal level.
“American Psychological Association” enters the record as scientific and professional organization headquartered in the Washington, D.C. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what American, Psychological and Association can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“American Psychological Association” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, American, Psychological and Association provides the most credible route into that argument.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q466587. VIAF identifies the subject as 153428680. The Library of Congress control number is n80126082. 1 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2018.
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This entry incorporates text from “American Psychological Association” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.