Psychology Education and Training at the University in Argentina

Abstract

From a sociocultural approach to the history of psychology, this chapter proposes to analyze psychology education in Argentine universities. It describes the academic culture which, despite the territorial extension and sociocultural diversities, promoted a fairly homogeneous training matrix since the 1950s. The change of profiles is described: from the primitive programs of psychotechnics and professional orientation to the current undergraduate programs in psychology. It explains the process by which these were expanding with a predominance of clinical and psychoanalytic bias, according to several reports published between the 1960s and 1980s that pointed out their limitations and evidenced debates, union struggles and a process of conquests in the professional practice of psychology. Evidence is provided that this matrix was consolidated until the early 1980s, when there began to be greater openness to new training models and the sanctioning of laws on the professional practice of psychology in the whole country. Since the 1990s, we describe the expansion of the university system and the creation of a system of evaluation and accreditation of higher education, a period in which psychology undergraduate programs proliferated, updating tensions and renewing challenges. It analyzes the process that began with the declaration of mandatory accreditation by the Council of Universities in 2004, continued with the resolution of the Ministry of Education that established in 2009 the training standards, contents and common hourly load, and ended with the first experience of accreditation of all programs in the country since 2012. Challenges for the achievement of national and international standards of university education and training in psychology are discussed in the light of the historical precedent, the labor situation of professionals throughout the country and the training experiences recovered in the context of the COVID 19 pandemic.