The APA Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Applied Research (until 2003 known as the Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Knowledge) is a scientific award presented by the American Psychological Association "to a psychologist whose research has led to important discoveries or developments in the field of applied psychology."

The 1997 award to John E. Exner raised a controversy, as it was seen as granting a professional endorsement to the Rorschach test, seen by some as pseudoscience.. This paper is primarily devoted to debunking a claim appearing in Exner's award citation regarding the power of the Rorschach test.. This overview of the controversy over Exner and the award states "This award could be understood as a formal endorsement of the Rorschach. One would not provide an award for distinguished contributions to knowledge to Exner if the Rorschach had not provided substantial or significant contributions to knowledge."

List of recipients Source: American Psychological Association

1979 Sol L. Garfield, Leopold Bellak, Harry Levinson 1980 Leonard D. Eron 1981 Carl Eisdorfer 1982 Roy Schafer 1983 Neal E. Miller 1984 Norman Frederiksen 1985 Albert Ellis 1986 Edward Zigler 1987 Mary D. S. Ainsworth, Hans H. Strupp 1988 Herman Feifel 1989 Allen E. Bergin 1990 Manfred J. Meier 1991 W. Grant Dahlstrom, Joseph Matarazzo 1992 Leopold Bellak, Harry Levinson 1993 Paul E. Meehl 1994 John L. Holland 1995 Kenneth I. Howard, Lester B. Luborsky 1996 Paul Satz 1997 John E. Exner, Samuel M. Turner 1998/1999 Peter E. Nathan 2000 Simon H. Budman 2001 Marvin R. Goldfried 2002 John D. Krumboltz 2003 Theodore Millon, Stanley Sue 2004 Robert J. Gatchel 2005 Gail S. Goodman 2006 Stephen M. Weiss 2007 Bruce E. Wampold 2008 Richard Rogers 2009 Luciano L'Abate 2010 Catherine E. Lord 2011 Ronald F. Levant 2012 Leslie S. Greenberg 2013 Richard M. Fox 2014 J. Thomas Grisso 2015 Leonard A. Jason 2016 Albert Rivera 2017 Cameron J. Camp 2018 Gary W. Harper 2019 David C. Schwebel 2020 Nancy E. Betz 2021 Joseph Patrick Gone 2022 Sandra Graham-Bermann 2023 Jennifer Wolff 2024 Pim Cuijpers 2025 Karen Chan Osilla

See also List of psychology awards

References