The historical background of the IPSO

On August 21, 1999 at the 107^th annual convention of the American Psychological Association (APA) in Boston, Massachusetts, an exciting Conversation Hour entitled, “An International Student Group for Psychology: Desirable? Feasible?” was attended by approximately 10 psychologists and 15 psychology students. The conversation hour was chaired by Dr. Slater Newman and participants included Alette Coble from the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS), Shannon McCaslin, Student Committee Co-Chair of the APA’s International Division, Andrea Perrino, student representative from the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA), and Richard Yuen from the American Psychological Society Student Caucus (APSSC).

More discussions on this same topic have taken place at the 108^th APA meeting as well as in other parts of the world. Two of the discussions took place in July 2000: one during the International Council of Psychologists meeting in Padova, Italy and one during the International Congress of Psychology in Stockholm, Sweden. During the meeting in Italy, the conversation centered around the logistics of arranging academic exchanges overseas. A group of Italian students had begun an organization at the University of Padova which arranged international academic exchanges and expressed interest in advising our organization on this type of exchange. Approximately 20 students were present at the meeting in Stockholm, from countries as diverse as Argentina, Belgium, China, India, Sweden, and the USA. During this meeting, Shannon McCaslin met and collaboration was begun with two other students: Nana Opoku Owusu-Banahene from Ghana and Edward Van Rossen from Belgium, at that moment the president of the European Federation of Psychology Students’ Associations (EFPSA).

Most students who attended these meetings expressed their excitement and enthusiasm to begin the enactment of a worldwide psychology students’ organization, and several students have expressed their ideas and thoughts on the goals of such an organization. These included the compilation of information about study/exchange programs and the creation of mailing lists to facilitate international discussions, research, traveling, relocations, participation in congresses, etc.

Several substantial steps toward the formation of a real organization that would accomplish these goals were made since the meeting in Stockholm. To begin with, a voting round was organized among more than 100 students from about 25 countries to decide on the name of the organization and with regards to the question of whether or not the IPSO should “become” a student division of the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP). As a result, the organization continued as a separate entity (but valuing affiliation with the IAAP and seeking other ways to formalize this) and was named IPSO, the International Psychology Students’ Organization. Since then, no more voting rounds have been organized; primarily because the web-based tool that was used has been deactivated by the former host. Because of this, and because it is easier to work in a small and dedicated group, the further work on the formation of the IPSO has been carried out by only four persons: Shannon McCaslin, Nana Opoku Owusu-Banahene, Edward Van Rossen, and Malin Gustafsson Wiking, doctoral student at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. These four individuals have composed a mission statement, a list of possible services, and by-laws that are based upon those of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP); thus combining both individual and organizational membership (“Student Members” and “Constituents”, respectively). They also agreed that the financial threshold for membership should be kept as low as possible, and therefore at present there is no membership fee required.

The by-laws also include a category of “Professional Members”, intended for former IPSO-executives and for professional psychologists who wish to be involved as advisors or link pins. Most of these will probably be informal representatives of professional organizations, who have already been a great support to the IPSO. They have advised the IPSO-executives, helped them to develop a worldwide network of interested students and supportive psychologists, and supported them to attend meetings like the International Congress of Applied Psychology in Singapore, last July. There’s no doubt that without them the IPSO would not be where it is now, and we’d therefore like to thank Dr. Kay Greene, former Secretary-General of the International Council of Psychologists (ICP), Scott Mesh, co-founder of the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS), Dr. Pierre Ritchie, Secretary-General of the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS), Dr. Charles Spielberger, Past President of the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP), Dr. Harold Takooshian, President of Psi Chi, Tuomo Tikkanen, president of the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations (EFPA), the Organizing Committee of the XXV. International Congress of Applied Psychology, and Dr. Slater Newman, Past President of Psi Chi.

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Note: In late 2002, an extended version of this text was published as an article in two magazines: (1) Eye on Psi Chi (Volume 7, Issue 2), the magazine of Psi Chi (the American Honor Society of Psychology), and (2) International Psychology Reporter (Volume 6, Issue 3/4), the publication of Division 52 of the APA (American Psychological Association).