Discuss the steps taken by the APA through the years to reduce the tension between pure, scientific psychology and applied psychology.
Many psychology students and professors joined APA (American Psychological Association), after it was formed at Worcester. Hall, Munsterberg and Witmer were all members of APA. Munsterberg was one of the key founders of applied psychology.
On the other hand, Wundt believed in psychology as a science discipline. However, his students went on to support applied psychology. Tension has ensued between the two groups of scientists, who believed in scientific psychology and applied psychology, respectively.
Sensing the differences between these two groups, APA took several initiatives to reduce the gap between the two. It organized itself into 18 several divisions, each of the division had its own president along with officers. The initial goal of APA was to advocate psychology as a science discipline.
However, in order to unify the two groups of psychologists, they extended their goal to promote it as a science, and also as a profession and a medium for advancing human welfare. Later, a new issue was published namely American Psychologist spreading the views in a unified voice.