Appendix VIII: History of Creation of Divisions as Structural
Units of the APA A major reorganization of the APA took effect
in 1945. The events that culminated in the reorganization began
in 1942 with the deliberations of the National Research Council
(NRC) as a part of the war mobilization effort. Its major
concern was the fractional state of organized psychology. There
were nearly a dozen organizations representing some special
interest of psychology at that time. The APA was the oldest and
was recognized as the organization national in scope that
represented psychology. The American Association for Applied
Psychology (AAAP) was a major force as well. Under guidance from
the NRC, an APA-AAAP constitution committee developed the plan
for the new APA that was adopted by the membership in 1944. The
purpose of the reorganization was twofold. One purpose was to
give greater recognition to individual differences, both
scientific and professional, of specialized subgroups within the
total APA membership. The seco