Psychology Education in Brazil: A Nationwide Mapping of Undergraduate Curricula

Psychology is one of the growing fields in Brazilian higher education, but significant disparities persist in how undergraduate curricula are structured. This study presents the first systematic and publicly accessible database of undergraduate psychology curricula in Brazil. We aimed to map and analyze national trends in course offerings, theoretical orientations, and institutional compliance with curricular guidelines. Using a collaborative crowdsourcing approach, we collected data from 925 higher education institutions in the country, which were available on the Brazilian Ministry of Education website in October 2023. From this initial list, 28.5% of institutions did not provide any curricular information - a violation of national legislation. Furthermore, only 8.3% of the institutions provided complete course syllabi, and only 25.3% included areas of emphasis. Our final mapping consisted of 661 institutions representing 70% of all psychology programs in the country. We categorized courses to analyze curricular structures, the presence of theoretical emphases, and the availability of curricular information. Our initial findings reveal significant inconsistencies in curriculum structure and theoretical diversity. Only 21% of institutions offer courses covering all major psychological approaches, with cognitive-behavioral therapy and behavior analysis being underrepresented in psychology programs (in 57% and 49%, respectively) compared to Psychoanalysis (94%) and Existential/Humanistic psychology (85%). The lack of transparency poses risks to the quality and equity of psychology education, as do the regional disparities observed in professional training. The open dataset developed in this study provides a critical tool for future research, evaluation, and policy in psychology training in Brazil.