EFPA collaborates with the American Psychological Association on the topic of digitalisation

July 2025, Paphos Cyprus—Building on the Memorandum of Understanding signed in July 2019 and both organisation's commitment to the topic of digitalisation as a strategic priority, the American Psychological Association (APA) & the European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations AISBL (EFPA) are happy to confirm an international collaboration on the topic of digitalisation.

The societal impact of technology is increasingly being recognised, and in domains where psychology has particular expertise. These include, among many other examples: communication technologies such as the internet, social media and online video calls; immersive technologies like virtual reality and the metaverse; and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

This leads to the question of how society—and, in particular, psychologists—can best respond. On a policy level, the need for a thoughtful approach to the deployment of technology has been recognised by organisations such as the United Nations (1), the World Health Organisation (2) and the European Commission (3).

In the United States, APA (4) has been actively focused on topics of digitalisation and the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) (5). In Europe, EFPA (6) has chosen digitalisation as one of its strategic fields of action, in July 2025 launching six digitalisation priorities (7).

This cooperation between APA and EFPA will involve three key actions relating to policy direction, resource sharing and the holding of joint events on the topic of digitalisation.

From left to right: Arthur Evans (APA), Debra Kawahara (APA), John Francis Leader (EFPA), Isane Aparicio (EFPA), Amanda Clinton (APA), Sofia Ramalho (EFPA)

References

1. United Nations, 2015, N Resolution 70/1, https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/generalassembly/docs/globalcompact/A_RES_70_1_E.pdf

2. World Health Organisation, 2021, Global Strategy on Digital Health 2020-2025, https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240020924

3. European Commission, 2021, Europe’s Digital Decade, https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/europes-digital-decade

4. American Psychological Association, 2024, About Us https://www.apa.org/about

5. APA, 2024, Offering guidance on new government guidelines on the use of artificial intelligence, https://www.apaservices.org/advocacy/news/artificial-intelligence-government-guidelines

6. European Federation of Psychologists’ Associations, 2024, Who We Are https://www.efpa.eu/who-we-are

7. EFPA, 2024, Digitalisation, https://www.efpa.eu/digitalisation