Organizing of the psychologist in Serbia was preceded by the establishment of the Association of Psychologists in Yugoslavia, 20th February 1953 in Zagreb, during which was the first conference of psychologists in Yugoslavia. Its president was professor. Dr. Ramiro Bujas. Representatives in the administration of the Association were elected Professor of psychology from Serbia: PhD Borislav Stevanovic and PhD Slobodan Popovic. On this inaugural Assembly all psychologist agreed to establish branches of the Association in the Republics. Such branches could establish in that time only three Republics, which had a sufficient number of psychologists: Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia.
At the instigation of the Association of Psychologist in FNRJ, as its part, is established and the Section of psychologist’s of Republic of Serbia, 7 June in 1953. in Belgrade. At the inaugural meeting, in which work is involved 15 psychologists were adopted Rules of the Section, established Section A Steering Committee, and the first president was elected. That was professor Borislav Stevanovic, who was in the role of elected for a second term to March 1956., when was elected the new Board of Directors and the new President – PhD Bajic Baja, who held the position until March 1959. After the first term management of the Section by PhD B. Stevanovic in 1953. and PhD B. Bajic in 1956.,as newly elected leader of the Section in March in 1959. year is choosen Tomislav Tomeković. In early 1960s. is elected a new Board of Directors, with Milos Jovicic as President of the Section, which was going to college in the U.S. at the end of the year, and was replaced by Nikola Rot. At the Assembly of Section in the beginning of 1961. President of the Section became Aleksandar Radojkovic. In early 1962 was elected as President of the Section Josip Berger, and Secretary was LJubomir Stoic. In 1963.as President of the Section was elected Vera Smiljanic – Cholanovic, who held the position until April 1964., when the Section was renamed in the Society, and was elected new President −PhD. B. Bajic. He was in that position next year for the term 1965/66.
The Serbian Section is actively involved in the composition of the Association of Psychologists of Yugoslavia (UPJ), as part of it. So ,the professor B. Stevanovic was elected president of UPJ III Assembly (from April 1956. to June 1958.) and LJ. Stojić was secretary. Again, they found themselves in the same roles in December 1962. to December 1964. Chairman of the Board of Yugoslavia psychologist Associaton from 1968-1970 was professor PhD . Nikola Rot, vice chairman was Nenad Havelka, and secretary was Mladen Kostic.
In addition to these, and many other representatives from Serbia were the delegates of the Steering Committee and other bodies UPJ (APY).
Already at the very beginning of the establishment and work, as defined in Section main tasks were: encouraging members of professional association to scientific work, assisting schools to improve teaching, encouraging introduction of the subject of psychology at middle and high schools where it has not been introduced, popularizing the science of psychology to the public, giving informations to the members of professional association, research, as well as self-determination of individuals. These tasks were dominant in the work of the members of the Section during the first decade and a half of second decade of development. Maintained, as a regular, annual meetings at which members submitted detailed reports about work of the administration in the past year, but also and about the professional activities of each member: what works (books and articles) each of them was published and where, to whom and about lectures which they held at that professional and scientific meetings is that time , in which scientific research project member has been engaged, and so on. The Section was bound to sent such detailed reports to the Psychological Association of Yugoslavia .
At the first Annual Meeting of the Section of November in 1954. was running an important task: to solve the status of psychologists – work on the recognition of psychologists – professionals for Applied Psychology. Until then the only existing title was : Professor of Psychology, the title which absorbed very small percentage of graduated psychologist,that was the first problem, and other was : psychology is the first decades after World War II all over the world, including and Yugoslavia , showed a strong expansion of applications in all social sectors, of which education is only one part of and professorship was inadequate term for all other areas.
This work particularly agile Section adopted during 1957. when was drafting a federal law about public servants. Section forwarded its proposal to the appropriate committee. And the Association of Psychologists of Yugoslavia in early in 1956. sent a letter to the State Secretariat for Legislation and organization, in which was described the rapid development of psychology and the need for psychologists in various social fields, but in which was described and their status, which was not regulated by law, but that time they were classified as teachers, with the obligation of taking inappropriate and various professional examinations. To the letter was attached a draft with ten subcategory, which were designed for specialized clinical, industrial and school psychologists (included was and the program for specialization), with the title of the proposal: a psychologist, a specialist in applied psychology. This proposal was not adopted. Certain intellectual “profiles”, which had a strong ideological and social position at that time, perceived psychology as competitive science to themselves, and thus, showed strong resistance to it. Work on the legal regulation of the title psychologist continued during, 1960-61. year.In 1960. was sent to the competent authorities the appropriate proposal, in which it was said that most of the members of the Section (the list was with 138 members,and list was growing) working in health and social services (such as clinical psychologists), schools (such as school psychologists), the economy (as industrial psychologists) and in service for the vocational guidance, and in that proposal was talk about the “opening” of specialization of psychologist and about how regulation of title psychologists is base for the specialization.
SOURCE:
Stojanovic, M., “Fifty Years of Association of Psychologists of Serbia from 1953 to 2003.”, Psychological Association of Serbia 2003.
