Comment: Reply from the American Board of Examiners in Professional Psychology

The American Board of Examiners was most interested in the letter regarding its activities which appeared in the February issue of the American Psychologist. It appears most appropriate to consider the issues raised by the writers of the February letter point by point. They state first that the main source of criticism concerns the "grandfather" clause under which psychologists "are certified without formal examination." It should be pointed out that in all of the early published materials about the Board, the judgment regarding waiver or non-waiver of the PhD degree requirement and/or the examinations, was always to be a responsibility of the Board under the "grandfather" clause. The second point made by the writers of the letter is that "the main function of the Board was to exclude the charlatans and unethical practitioners." There appears to be some misunderstanding of the functions of the Board if this means that the Board was to take the initiative in identifying such individuals among the membership of the APA. The APA already has, and has had for many years, committees on ethics designed to discharge this responsibility. This brings us to the next point made by the writers of the February letter--the inspection of names of diplomates as they have been published. The autobiographical data, the endorsements by colleagues both within psychology and outside of the profession, and the Board's own inquiries provide a far more extensive sample of the professional lives of the individual candidates than does a cursory reading of names of diplomates, or an analysis of the 1948 directory, or even the casual knowledge of such a group as the writers of the letter.