Asian American Psychological Association

The Asian American Psychological Association (AAPA) is a national organization dedicated to the advancement of Asian American psychology and advocacy for Asian American communities and their psychological well-being. Its advocacy efforts include the promotion of culturally responsive mental health services for Asian and Asian American communities, the advancement and dissemination of psychological research on Asian Americans, the education and training of Asian American mental health service providers, the development of culturally appropriate mental health policies, and the establishment of professional collaborations and networks within the field of mental health. Founded in December 1972 in the San Francisco Bay Area, the AAPA has grown from a local organization with 10 regular members to a national organization of approximately 600 members in 2006. Parallel to their growth in the United States, Asian Americans constitute approximately 4% to 5% of the doctorates awarded in psychology, according to the National Science Foundation.

Despite the AAPA's contemporary origins, its formation occurred within a historical context of discrimination and toward Asian Americans within the United States. Since the arrival of Chinese immigrants in the United States in the mid-1800s, subsequent groups of Asian immigrants from a variety of ethnic groups have encountered strikingly similar patterns of individual, institutional, and cultural forms of racism. Historically, Asian Americans have been the targets of numerous anti-immigration, anti-naturalization, and anti-miscegenation laws. Currently, Asian Americans, despite their diverse ethnic origins and histories, continue to be treated as a homogeneous community and stereotyped as a “model minority” (i.e., presumably a uniformly successful racial group in terms of educational and economic achievement) and “perpetual foreigners” (i.e., a racial group of untrustworthy outsiders). Moreover, Asian Americans continue to be the targets of modern-day forms of racism ranging from homicide and physical assaults to glass ceiling barriers in the workplace to implicit quotas within higher education. Recognizing this shared history of discrimination and inspired by the larger civil rights and antiwar movements, predominantly Japanese American and Chinese American activists coined the term Asian American in the late 1960s to unite the various Asian ethnic groups in recognition of their shared experiences. More importantly, Asian American activists across the nation formed a range of organizations to challenge racial inequities in areas such as physical and mental health, education, and politics. Within this context, AAPA was formed in recognition of the neglect of Asian American issues within psychology and the sense of isolation among Asian American mental health professionals.

The cofounders of AAPA were two brothers, Derald Wing Sue and Stanley Sue. Both men recognized their own lack of training in working with Asian and Asian American communities and the lack of a professional network for mental health service providers. As a result, the two brothers began to organize informal gatherings to discuss Asian American issues and their roles as Asian American clinicians and scholars. D. W. Sue was chosen to be the first president of AAPA out of respect for his status as the older brother, and S. Sue was elected as secretary. In the initial days of AAPA with so few Asian American psychologists, many members of the organization were social workers, counselors, educators, and other allied health and mental health professionals. Additionally, interdisciplinary alliances with fields such as Asian American studies and with community leaders were key to the initial formation of AAPA. Indeed, one of the seminal papers in the field of Asian American psychology, S. Sue and D. W. Sue's “Chinese American Personality and Mental Health” was published in 1971 in Amerasia Journal, the first Asian American studies journal. At an organizational level, AAPA drew inspiration from the newly formed Association of Black Psychologists, which was founded in 1968, also in San Francisco. In particular, the activism of organizations such as the Association of Black Psychologists and academic disciplines such as ethnic studies inspired AAPA to strive for organizational and systemic transformation within the field of psychology.

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