Obstacles to diversification: Lived experiences of visible minority applicants and faculty members in psychology.

Canadian Psychology / Psychologie canadienne, Vol 67(3), Aug 2026, 201-213; doi:10.1037/cap0000417

[Clarification Notice: A clarification for this article was reported online in Canadian Psychology / Psychologie canadienne on Nov 17 2025 (see record 2026-92202-001). In the original article, the “Lack of Diversity in Professional Psychology” section includes the following text: “Thirdly, they stress the importance of providing funding to students (Ding et al., 2021), or as Faber et al. (2023) suggested, it is critical to remove the ‘financial burden’ (p. 349) to relocate for a mandatory residency.” In this sentence, “mandatory” was intended to describe the residency and was not intended to imply that relocation was mandatory. Clearer wording is “… as Faber et al. (2023) suggested, it is critical to remove the ‘financial burden’ (p. 349) to relocate for a mandatory residency when it is not within the professional psychology program’s geographical location.” In addition, according to the Canadian Psychological Association’s (CPA’s) 2023 Accreditation Standards for Doctoral and Residency Programs in Professional Psychology (https://cpa.ca/docs/File/Accreditation/CPA%202023%20Accreditation%20Standards_EN_Web.pdf), “a CPA-accredited residency (or its equivalent) is required for graduation with a doctoral degree in professional psychology” (p. 19). Based on Training Standard VII–Residency, there is no explicit requirement for residency relocation. Furthermore, in the Residency Standards, Administrative Standard I.A.1 also requires that “Financial remuneration of residents meets and can exceed the living wage in the community in which the program is located” (CPA, 2023, p. 25).] The profession of psychology demonstrably lacks diversity, with inequitably low numbers of visible minorities represented in the field. Although equity, diversity, and inclusion as a social advocacy movement have received increasing attention within the profession and at the university level, changes are thus far too small to be noticeable. Little is known about the lived experiences of minority applicants applying to professional psychology graduate programmes nor the experiences of faculty members involved in student selection processes. We interviewed eight unsuccessful minority applicants and eight faculty members affiliated with Canadian professional training programmes to identify obstacles in diversifying the profession. Thematic analysis of interview data revealed that obstacles were multifaceted, ranging from unsuccessful minority applicants reporting lack of support during the application process and feeling worried about the impact of their identities to faculty members expressing insufficient resources to provide mentorship experiences to minority undergraduate students. We discuss the practical implications of the obstacles identified in relation to how to dismantle those systemic barriers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)

Read the full article ›