Abstract

As national demands in mental health have sharply increased in modern society, importance of psychological services and their regulation for the public have surged. The Global Psychological Alliance has declared the role of psychologists for citizens' mental health in 2022. The majority of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries have legislated laws and regulations of psychologists for providing evidence-based and ethical psychological services, and protecting the public from unethical and harmful services by specifying core competencies of psychologists. However, there is no legal regulation of psychologists in South Korea. The current study reviewed the international standards of psychologists including Canada, United States of America (USA), United Kingdom (UK), Australia, and Japan. The required qualification standards for licensed psychologists in OECD countries were also summarized. Finally, we discussed the benefits of regulations and legislation of psychologists and the need of requiring core competencies for psychologists. It is concluded that international standards of psychologists should be implemented to enhance the public mental health and minimize harm.