A steering committee has been formed under the belief that the creation of an APA division devoted to the scholarly and practical study of the psychological aspects of the entertainment industry holds the promise of significant benefit to the field of psychology, our clients and society at large.
The entertainment industry is a multi-billion dollar industry with numerous professional unions including the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) with 120,000 members; American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) with 70,000 members; and American Federation of Musicians (AFM) with 45,000 members. The child and adult members of these unions would benefit from a specialized division of psychological services. In addition, there are many actors, comedians, musicians, singers, dancers, theater actors, radio personalities, reality TV stars, beauty queens and virtual reality characters who are unaffiliated with unions who will stand to benefit as well.