The American Psychological Association, which sets standards for professional training in mental health, has voted to suspend its requirement that postgraduate programs show a commitment to diversity in recruitment and hiring.
The decision comes as accrediting bodies throughout higher education scramble to respond to the executive order signed by President Trump attacking diversity, equity and inclusion policies. It pauses a drive to broaden the profession of psychology, which is disproportionately white and female, at a time of rising distress among young Americans.
The A.P.A. is the chief accrediting body for professional training in psychology, and the only one recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. It provides accreditation to around 1,300 training programs, including doctoral internships and postdoctoral residencies.
Mr. Trump has made accrediting bodies a particular target in his crusade against D.E.I. programs, threatening in one campaign video to “fire the radical Left accreditors that have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics” and “accept applications for new accreditors.”
Department of Justice officials have pressured accrediting bodies in recent weeks, warning the American Bar Association in a letter that it might lose its status unless it repealed diversity mandates. The A.B.A. voted in late February to suspend its diversity and inclusion standard for law schools.
The concession by the A.P.A., a bastion of support for diversity programming, is a particular landmark. The association has made combating racism a central focus of its work in recent years, and in 2021 adopted a resolution apologizing for its role in perpetuating racism by, among other things, promulgating eugenic theories.
Aaron Joyce, the A.P.A.’s senior director of accreditation, said the decision to suspend the diversity requirement was driven by “a large influx of concerns and inquiries” from programs concerned about running afoul of the president’s order.
In many cases, he said, institutions had been instructed by their legal counsels to cease diversity-related activities, and were worried it might imperil their accreditation.
“The Commission does not want to put programs in jeopardy of not existing because of a conflict between institutional guidelines” and accreditation standards, Dr. Joyce said.
He would not describe the tally of the March 13 vote, which followed about three weeks of deliberation. “Nothing about this was an easy decision, and not taken lightly,” he said. “The understanding of individual and cultural diversity is a core facet of the practice of psychology.”
The commission opted to retain another diversity-related standard: Programs must teach trainees to respect cultural and individual differences in order to treat their patients effectively. In reviewing each standard, the commission weighed “what may put programs in a compromised position” against “what is essential to the practice of psychology that simply cannot be changed,” he said.
Kevin Cokley, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, said he was “absolutely devastated” to learn of the A.P.A.’s decision on a psychology listserv this week.
“Frankly, I think the decision is really unconscionable, given what we know of the importance of having diverse mental health providers,” Dr. Cokley said. “I don’t know how the A.P.A. can make this sort of decision and think that we are still maintaining the highest standards of training.”
He said he thought the A.P.A. had acted prematurely, and could have waited until it faced a direct challenge from the administration.
“I think that there is always a choice,” he said. “I think this is a classic example of the A.P.A. engaging in anticipatory compliance. They made the move out of fear of what might happen to them.”
According the data from the A.P.A., the psychology work force is disproportionately white. In 2023, more than 78 percent of active psychologists were white, 5.5 percent were Black, 4.4 percent were Asian and 7.8 percent were Latino. (The general population is around 58 percent white, 13.7 percent Black, 6.4 percent Asian and 19.5 percent Latino.)
The demographic breakdown of graduate students in Ph.D. programs, in contrast, is more in line with the country. According to 2022 data from the A.P.A., 54 percent of doctoral students were white, 10 percent were Black, 10 percent were Asian and 11 percent Latino.
John Dovidio, a professor emeritus of psychology at Yale and the author of “Unequal Health: Anti-Black Racism and the Threat to America’s Health,” said the A.P.A.’s focus on diversity in recruiting had played a major part in that change.
“It really is something that departments take very, very seriously,” he said. “I have seen the impact personally.”
A memorandum announcing the decision describes it as an “interim action while awaiting further court guidance” on Mr. Trump’s executive order, which was upheld by a federal court of appeals on March 13. The order, it says, “is currently law while litigation is pending.”
Cynthia Jackson Hammond, the president of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, which coordinates more than 70 accreditation groups, said it is “unprecedented” for such bodies to receive direct orders from the government.
“The government and higher education have always worked independently, and in good faith with each other,” she said. “Throughout the decades, what we have had is a healthy separation, until now.”
The federal government began taking a role in accreditation after World War II, as veterans flooded into universities under the G.I. Bill. Accrediting bodies are regularly reviewed by the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, which advises the Secretary of Education on whether to continue to recognize them.
But government officials have never used this leverage to impose ideological direction on higher education, Ms. Jackson Hammond said. She said diversity in recruitment remains a serious challenge for higher education, which is why the standard is still so commonly used.
“If we think about what our institutions looked like before,” she said, “that might be a barometer of what it’s going to look like if there’s not attention paid.”