Master's Level Practice: Introduction, History, and Current Status

The master's degree has been an elusive training and practice component of psychology as early as 1947, generating well over 45 conferences and many working groups charged with determining the function and role of the degree within the field. In 2016, a Master's Summit was held for the same purpose and to ask the same questions including, "Should APA embrace the training of psychological practitioners at the master's level?" This article introduces the Special Section on Master's Training in Psychological Practice and reviews the early major conferences, taskforces, and reports which, over the last 70 years, have investigated the master's issue and identified the recurring topics, findings, and recommendations. Periodic, internal APA work groups on the issue have conferred in recent years but few publications have been issued since the early attention to the topic. This article first provides a brief overview of the history and context of each of four master's topics that were themes of the 2016 Master's Summit and were recurring topics of master's discussions over the years (American Psychological Association Minority Fellowship Program, 2017). These topics are (a) quality assurance and accreditation, (b) scope of practice, (c) regulation and licensure, and (d) marketplace and workforce and each of these is presented in an article in this special section. Past barriers to resolution of the master's issue are reviewed, why questions could not be answered earlier, and reasons why they may be answered now are proposed. The final article of the series identifies consensus findings and suggests future directions. Public Significance Statement This article highlights history of the debate regarding master's practice in psychology and describes the context that fueled the pro and con stances. Descriptions of elements of the debate-quality assurance/accreditation, scope of practice, regulation/licensure, marketplace/workforce, current barriers, and potential resolutions for the future of master's level practice-provide the context for review of the subsequent articles in this special section.