Forging a way forward in latin american psychology

Psychology International | December 2015 The Colombian Congress of Psychology and the First Regional Latin American Conference of Psychology: Building Capacity for our Region Forging a w

Psychology International | December 2015

The Colombian Congress of Psychology and the First Regional Latin American Conference of Psychology: Building Capacity for our Region

Forging a way forward in Latin American psychology

By Wilson López López, PhD, María Constanza Aguilar Bustamante, and Pablo Vera Villaroel Last September, a combined Colombian national and Latin American regional conference were held in Armenia, Colombia The Colombian Congress of Psychology and the First Regional Latin American Conference of Psychology were hosted by the Colombian College of Psychologists, and the Colombian Association of Faculties of Psychology, with support from the International Union of Psychological Science (IUPsyS), the International Association of Applied Psychology (IAAP) and the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology This was a landmark event in the history of Colombian psychology There were more than 2200 participants, and over 1000 presentations in an intense agenda that combined a national, regional and

international focus

The international schedule, linked to the regional conference, had the goal of creating a framework for future work in Latin America, aimed at building and strengthening the capacities of psychology as a discipline and

as a profession in our countries

The conference was attended by representatives of psychology organizations in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Cuba, the Bahamas, Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Argentina: 15 countries in Latin America We also hosted representatives of organizations linked to IUPsyS, IAAP and others such as the Ibero-American Federation of Psychology (FIAP) and the Interamerican Society of Psychology Other

organizations, such as APA, were also participants and observers

The capacity development proposal was carried out using the United Nations Development Program methodology (2009), which aims to go beyond the development of tasks to create sustainable, lasting attitudes This methodology involves five steps:

1 Identifying actors

2 Assessing capacity assets and needs

3 Formulating a program

4 Implementing it

5 Evaluating development

For our exercise, we identified and consulted with a number of regional leaders or people with leadership potential, assessed needs and then grouped them into the four proposed topics for the workgroups:

1 Organizations

2 Training

3 Social Impact

4 International presence of Latin American psychology

We also collected the experiences of organizations and leaders in the region such as the

“i ergia proje t After dis ussio , the out o es of orkgroups’ ork ere prese ted to all the capacity development session attendants for comment This resulted in a longer, consensually-achieved document and a declaration that is intended to direct our actions in the future The work carried out by each group will be a permanent resource for Latin American psychology This declaration (see box) is relevant for the context of Latin American psychology With close

to one million degree-holding psychologists, thousands of training programs and a growing scientific output, psychology in Latin America is stronger than ever before The Latin American scientific literature is supported by more than 80 open-access psychology journals (PDF, 168KB) that are edited in the region and are accessible through the Redalyc system, a project that has been promoted and supported by the Ibero-American organization of psychology associations, FIAP Every journal in the system has achieved a high value in over 60 quality criteria and publishes abstracts in English and Spanish Latin American psychologists also continue to publish in international journals in growing numbers, as shown by an increase from 308 papers in 2000 to 2241 in 2014 The dynamics of Latin American scientific output in

psychology are being actively discussed, for example in the special issue of Información

Psicológica devoted to Ibero-American psychology, or papers recently published in Universitas Psychologica, and a special issue that will be published shortly in Psicologia: Reflexão e Critica

The Psicologia Coopera proje t o i es the efforts of o er 3 resear hers fro 6

countries, working to increase the visibility of our regional knowledge

Despite strong development, psychology in Latin America faces many challenges that are reflected in the conclusions reached by the workgroups These challenges include:

 A need to foster the emergence of strong leaders in the region

 A need to strengthen our organizations

 A need to achieve better synergies among local, regional and international entities

 A need to promote more collaboration and cooperation in every level

 A need to strengthen communication processes and training in psychology

Another most important need is to increase our participation in public forums, addressing both public policies and public opinion, to enable us to work toward a more socially-oriented

psychology that can help the most vulnerable groups in our societies All these issues are

reflected in the Armenia Declaration, signed at the end of the conference

Armenia Declaration

The psychologists present at the capacity building meeting, representing 16 countries of Latin America, gathering

at the Latin American Regional Conference of Psychology 2015, recognize:

 The fundamental role of psychological science in the well-being of our societies and especially of the most vulnerable individuals and populations

 The need to strengthen professional and scientific organizations of psychology in the region to accomplish their mission

 The importance of an effective cooperation among national organizations and search for synergy with regional and international organizations

 The importance of interdisciplinary cooperation, based on scientific and professional strengths of

psychology

 The need to promote training and professional behavior with high ethical and quality standards, within the context of diverse societies and cultures

 The relevance to promote participation of psychology in public policy, its incidence in the quality of life, social well-being and sustainable development, as well as the societal recognition of the profession

We agree to promote actions that contribute to the attainment of goals derived from the present declaration

Signed by representatives from: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, The Bahamas and Venezuela

We are certain that this declaration will direct our future work in the region and we anticipate

continuing to count on the support of APA for the development of these actions, which will

translate into the improvement of our societies in Latin America

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