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Abstract

This study focuses on the inclusion of the American Psychological Association’s learning goals in the mission statements of undergraduate psychology programs across the US. We reviewed the mission statements available on websites for 1336 psychology programs listed in the Carnegie classification. Results of a content analysis revealed that of the 205 (15.34%) psychology departments with mission statements available online, 11% addressed all five American Psychological Association learning goals, 95% addressed at least one of the five learning goals, and almost 5% (4.87%) did not address any learning goals.

Keywords

Mission statement undergraduate psychology program learning goals APA Guidelines

Educational mission statements are generally used to communicate the purpose, characteristics, values, and history of an institution or program to an external community (Morphew & Hartley, 2006). By definition, mission statements are considered to be reliable indicators of an organization’s fundamental goals. A mission statement allows an educational institution or program to identify its commitment to core activities and set priorities (Kosmützky, 2012). Ideally, in the academic arena, mission statements are used in strategic planning for program development, assessment, and resource allocation.

A mission statement is

a written, formal document that attempts to capture an organization’s unique and enduring purpose and practices ... it should answer some really fundamental questions such as: ‘Why does this organization exist?’ and ‘What does this organization want to achieve?’ (Bart & Tabone, 1998, p. 54–69).

In contrast, a vision statement generally refers to the organization’s goals for the future.

Researchers have shown that mission statements can be reliably coded and are useful in understanding the stated purpose of an organization, institution, or in the case of this research, a psychology program or department (Buff & Yonkers, 2004; Estanek, James, & Norton, 2006; Stemler, Bebell, & Sonnabend, 2011; Young, 2001).

A program demonstrates its commitment to the external community by carefully constructing, articulating, and publishing its mission statement (Fugazzotto, 2009). All of the major educational accrediting bodies at the institutional level require mission statements. While undergraduate psychology programs in the United States are not currently subject to any formal accrediting agency, the American Psychological Association (APA) does provide very specific guidelines for the undergraduate psychology major.

In 2013, the APA revised the existing guidelines, resulting in the publication of APA guidelines for the undergraduate psychology major, version 2.0. Guidelines 2.0 “represent a national effort to describe and develop high-quality undergraduate programs in psychology” (APA, 2013, p.1). The Guidelines set forth five learning goals with associated student learning outcomes that represent best practices in psychology education (APA, 2013). The five broad goals in Guidelines 2.0 are:

Goal 1: Knowledge Base in Psychology

Goal 2: Scientific Inquiry and Critical Thinking

Goal 3: Ethical and Social Responsibility in a Diverse World

Goal 4: Communication

Goal 5: Professional Development (APA, 2013).

The authors of the document state “we hope the Guidelines will motivate departments and programs to pursue meaningful assessment of a well-designed program tailored to their shared programmatic mission and vision” (APA, 2013, p.4), indicating a recognition of the importance of mission in overall programming. The purpose of this research study was to systematically analyze a sample of United States undergraduate psychology program mission statements, publically available through the Internet, to determine the representation of the five goals outlined in the APA guidelines for the undergraduate psychology major, version 2.0.

Method

The 2011 Carnegie classification system was used to develop this sample. Of the Carnegie list, 1336 colleges and universities mentioned psychology majors on their websites. A total of 694 (51.9%) websites provided detailed information about their psychology program: 205 provided mission statements, 158 goals or objectives, 102 descriptions, 14 program overviews, 15 student learning objectives, one a summary, and one a vision statement. As recommended by Morphew and Hartley (2006), for a more valid analysis only those departments with explicitly identified mission statements available on their websites were considered, generating a sample of 205 undergraduate psychology programs. The remaining 669 programs did not provide any online information specifically about their psychology programs at the time of the data collection. Data collection began in October 2014 and was completed by September 2015.

From the information provided on the websites, it could be determined that of the 205 institutions, 73 offered a BA degree, 31 offered a BS degree and 49 offered both BA and BS degrees. In terms of size, 79 were small, 75 were medium and 45 were large. One hundred of them were public and 99 were private. Two identified as a national university and the rest were regional. Eleven were considered historically black colleges or universities. Fourteen were considered Hispanic-serving institutions and 18 were considered minority-serving institutions.

The three researchers selected keywords from the descriptions of each of the five APA learning goals available in the APA guidelines for the undergraduate psychology major, version 2.0. Realizing that the goals provided are not mutually exclusive, the researchers chose keywords that reflected the primary intent of the goal. For Goal 1, the keywords were concepts, principles, themes, framework, content, application, theoretical foundations/perspectives, theory, historical trends, understanding of empirical findings/science/research, knowledge, breadth, focus. For Goal 2, the keywords were scientific inquiry, critical thinking, scientific reasoning, problem solving, interpret/design/conduct research, information literacy. For Goal 3, the keywords were ethic, social, diverse/diversity, professional ethics/values, personal values, multicultural, global, values, society, community, responsibility, interpersonal, relationship. For Goal 4, the keywords were communication, oral, written, presentation skills, interpersonal communication, conference presentations/publications. For Goal 5, the keywords were self-reflection, self-efficacy, self-regulation, career, teamwork, employment, graduate school/training, study/programs/education, professional school, occupation, workforce/workplace/ project management, life after graduation, professional development/success/skills/growth, advanced degrees, post graduate/baccalaureate. To be coded as pertaining to a particular goal, only one of the keywords assigned to the goal needed to be mentioned in the mission statement.

The analysis took place in stages. Initially, to ensure inter-rater reliability, each researcher independently coded the same 10 mission statements. A comparison of the 10 coded mission statements showed that the researchers were consistent in their coding practices, thus the above keywords were used as the coding template. The primary researcher analyzed each of the 205 mission statements. The other two researchers divided the 205 mission statements in two, each analyzing half of them. The researchers then compared results. When discrepancies in coding were identified, the coders reviewed, discussed and came to a consensus regarding the divergent results. Thus, each mission statement was coded twice and 100% agreement was achieved.

Results

Out of a total of 1336 institutions that listed a psychology program on a website, 694 (51.9%) provided some detailed information about the program, and only 205 of those (29.53%) provided mission statements. Eleven percent of available mission statements contained keywords indicative of all five APA learning goals, 16.58% of the statements included keywords of four goals, 32.19% presented keywords of three of the goals, 21.95% acknowledged keywords of two goals, and 13.65% provided keywords of one of the goals. Therefore, 95% addressed at least one of the five learning goals. Almost 5% (4.87%) did not address any of the student learning goals. The most common theme in the mission statement of this group was a focus on faculty goals.

The most frequently cited goal was Goal 3, Ethical and Social Responsibility in a Diverse World, with 79.50% of mission statements addressing this goal. The second most frequently cited goal was Goal 1, Knowledge Base in Psychology, with 76.09% of mission statements mentioning a keyword associated with this goal. The least frequently cited goal was Goal 4, Communication, with a low of 19.02% of statements citing any relationship to communication skills. Goal 2, Scientific Inquiry and Critical Thinking, was mentioned in 61.46% of the statements and Goal 5, Professional Development, was referred to in 57.07% of statements.

Goal 3: Ethical and Social Responsibility in a Diverse World 79.50%

Goal 1: Knowledge Base in Psychology 76.09%

Goal 2: Scientific Inquiry and Critical Thinking 61.46%

Goal 5: Professional Development 57.07%.

Goal 4: Communication 19.02%

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to identify the inclusion of APA learning goals for the undergraduate psychology major in undergraduate psychology mission statements. Out of 1336 institutions with a psychology department, only 205 posted mission statements online. While it is encouraging that 95% of the mission statements of our sample addressed at least one of the five goals, it is relevant to point out that our sample represents only 15.34% of the number of psychology programs in the United States with a mission statement available online.

The most frequently cited goal was Goal 3, Ethical and Social Responsibility in a Diverse World, consistent with research by Meacham and Gaff (2006) and Morphew and Hartley (2006) who found that social responsibility and commitment to diversity were two of the most frequently cited elements in institutional mission statements. Upon closer examination of Goal 3, the authors noted that it was, in effect, a combination of two rather distinct concepts. The first concept identified in Goal 3 is ethics and values, while the second is multiculturalism and social responsibility. As noted above, to be coded as pertaining to a particular goal, only one of the keywords assigned to the goal needed to be mentioned in the mission statement. Combined, this goal was the most frequently cited goal, however if the two concepts are examined independently, ethics and values was only mentioned in 23.41% of mission statements and the keywords related to multiculturalism and social responsibility were cited in 56.09% of mission statements. The authors were particularly interested in this analysis as their previous research into the issue of ethics in undergraduate psychology syllabi showed a distinct absence of focus on ethics and values (You, Warchal, & Ruiz, 2011). The results on the inclusion of ethics in undergraduate psychology mission statements is similar to the findings of Meacham and Gaff (2006) who, in a study of institutional mission statements, found that fewer than 15% of mission statements encouraged student ethical development.

Keywords related to Goal 4, Communication, were cited the least number of times in the mission statements (19.02%). This finding was again consistent with Meacham and Gaff’s (2006) research which found that despite the national consensus on the importance of communication skills, only 12% of the institutions in their sample identified writing and public speaking as explicit student learning goals. In psychology, much of the work in the major is focused on research and effectively communicating the research results. The authors wonder if the skills related to communication are so inherent in the psychology major course offerings that they were not explicitly mentioned.

There are few limitations to this study. Our deliberate choice to focus only on undergraduate psychology programs in the United States that had mission statements posted on their website may have eliminated programs that have mission statements that are not posted online, and those that indeed incorporate the APA learning goals into their programs, but their mission statements do not reflect this. As noted above, 158 colleges/universities did list goals or objectives which may have included the APA learning goals and 133 colleges/universities listed various other forms of program descriptions. Since the Guidelines (APA) were not published until 2013 and we examined the websites during summer 2015, it is possible that some institutions had not had adequate time to revise their mission statement to reflect the updates. One conclusion of this study is that there is no uniformity in the way undergraduate psychology programs in the United States are marketed on their respective websites. A universal accreditation for undergraduate psychology programs in the US would insure that programs develop a mission statement and standardize their student learning goals.

Our choice to code the goals based on the presence of at least one of the keywords does not reflect the importance of the goal in the overall functioning of the psychology program, especially with respect to Goal 3 and Goal 4. With Goal 3, it is possible that either ethics and values or multiculturalism and social responsibility were the departmental focus. With Goal 4, it is possible that communication skills are taken for granted.

Several questions arise from this study. If mission statements are good indicators of purpose and values, why do relatively few psychology departments post their mission statements online? Are mission statements taken seriously enough by psychology departments to be included in the overall program assessment plan? Is it time for an accreditation process that would set goals for undergraduate psychology programs? How many programs use measures such as exit exams, standard tests, alumni job placements, internship supervisors, and graduate school acceptances as a way to access mission effectiveness? What other ways can we close the feedback loop between the mission statements and student outcomes?

The research on mission statements and their relationship to assessment would be enhanced with an examination of the actual syllabi from the mission statement programs and an analysis of how and where in the curriculum the goals are promoted. At this time in higher education when there is increased scrutiny on all undergraduate major programs and psychology, in particular, has come under attack as not leading directly to post-graduate employment, there is a need for undergraduate psychology programs to more clearly articulate their mission to a larger audience.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This research was supported in part by a grant from the Alvernia University Faculty Excellence Summer Grant program.

Author biographies

Judith R. Warchal is a professor in the Psychology and Counseling Department at Alvernia University in Reading, Pennsylvania. She is the program coordinator for the Master of Arts in Clinical Counseling program. She has extensive experience as a therapist specializing in rehabilitation counseling, individual and family counseling, cognitive assessments, geriatric counseling, and evaluating clients for bariatric surgery. She has co-authored a book on ethics in service-learning, articles on teaching ethics in psychology, and the online resource Teaching Ethics to Undergraduate Psychology Students – TEUPS.

Ana I. Ruiz BS Speech Pathology, Catholic University of Pernambuco, Brazil; MA Cognitive Development, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil; PhD Developmental Psychology, Cornell University; Wye Faculty Seminar, Aspen Institute is a professor of Psychology at Alvernia University. Her publications include the books Service learning in psychology: Enhancing undergraduate education for the public good and Service-learning code of ethics, numerous chapters and articles on ethical issues on international service learning and research on international service learning, the impact of service on alumni career development, and teaching ethics to undergraduate psychology students. She is the co-creator of the online resource Teaching Ethics to Undergraduate Psychology Students – TEUPS.

Di You is an associate professor of Psychology at Alvernia University. Her research interests are moral development and professional ethics. She has published academic papers on moral sensitivity, moral reasoning, ethics in the undergraduate psychology curriculum, moral distress, mental illness stigma, and multiculturalism.

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