British Psychological Society

The British Psychological Society (BPS) is a representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom. The BPS is also a Registered Charity and, along with advantages, this also imposes certain constraints on what the Society can and cannot do. For example, it cannot campaign on issues which are seen as party political.

Founded on 24 October 1901 at University College, London (UCL) as The Psychological Society, the organisation initially admitted only recognised teachers in the field of psychology. Its current name of The British Psychological Society was taken in 1906 to avoid confusion with another group named The Psychological Society. Under the guidance of Charles Myers, membership was opened up to members of the medical profession in 1919. In 1941 the society was incorporated,

In 2012 the BPS had 49,678 members and subscribers, in all fields of psychology, 18,342 of whom were Chartered Members. Its current President, for 2013-14, is Dr Richard Mallows, formerly Head of the Psychology Department at York St John University. Every year, usually in June, the Society holds its Annual Conference, in a different town or city each year. In recent years it has been held in Dublin (2008), Brighton (2009), Stratford-upon-Avon (2010), Glasgow (2011), London (2012) and Harrogate (2013). In 2014 the conference will be in Birmingham.

Chartership

Following the receipt of a royal charter in 1965, the society became the keeper of the Register of Chartered Psychologists. The register was the means by which the Society could regulate the professional practice of psychology. Regulation included the awarding of practising certificates and the conduct of disciplinary proceedings. The register ceased to be when statutory regulation of psychologists began on 1 July 2009. The profession is now regulated by the Health and Care Professions Council.

A member of the British Psychological Society who has achieved chartered status has the right to the letters "C.Psychol." after his or her name. The BPS is also licensed by the Science Council to award Chartered Scientist status. The highest designation the Society can bestow is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society (FBPsS), showing a significant contribution to and understanding of the discipline.

Mission

The Society aims to raise standards of training and practice in psychology, raise public awareness of psychology, and increase the influence of psychology practice in society. Specifically it has a number of key aims, as described below.

• Setting standards of training for psychologists at graduate and undergraduate levels.
• Providing information about psychology to the public.
• Providing support to its members via its membership networks and mandatory continuing professional development.
• Hosting conferences and events.
• Preparing policy statements.
• Publishing books, journals, The Psychologist monthly magazine, the Research Digest blog, including a free fortnightly research update, and various other publications (see below).
• Setting standards for psychological testing.
• Maintaining a History of Psychology Centre.

Journals

The BPS publishes 11 journals:

• British Journal of Clinical Psychology
• British Journal of Developmental Psychology
• British Journal of Educational Psychology
• British Journal of Health Psychology
• British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology
• British Journal of Psychology
• British Journal of Social Psychology
• Journal of Neuropsychology
• Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology
• Legal and Criminological Psychology
• Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice

Founders

The following were the ten founder members who first met on 24 October 1901 at University College, London:^[1]

• Robert Armstrong-Jones
• Sophie Bryant
• W.R. Boyce Gibson
• Frank Noel Hales
• William McDougall
• Frederick Walker Mott
• William Halse Rivers Rivers
• Alexander Faulkner Shand
• William George Smith
• James Sully

Presidents

The following have been Presidents of the Society^[2]

Honorary Members and Fellows

Honorary members

The following were Honorary Members of the Society:^[3]

• 1904 John Hughlings Jackson
• 1905 Harald Høffding, Sir Francis Galton, William James, Georg Elias Müller, Théodule Armand Ribot, Carl Stumpf
• 1910 James Sully
• 1911 Oswald Külpe
• 1912 Franz Brentano, James Ward
• 1926 Edward Claparède, Sigmund Freud, Gerardus Heymans, Pierre Janet, Henri Piéron, Edward Lee Thorndike, Edward Bradford Titchener, Hendrik Zwaardemaker
• 1927 Baron Albert Eduard Michotte van den Berck
• 1928 Mary Whiton Calkins
• 1932 James Rowland Angell, James McKeen Cattell, Sante de Sanctis, William Stern
• 1934 Havelock Ellis, Ernest Jones, Felix Krueger, William McDougall, Conwy Lloyd Morgan, Charles Samuel Myers, Alexander Faulkner Shand, Charles Edward Spearman, George Frederick William Stout
• 1937 Samuel Alexander, Henry Head, Charles Scott Sherrington
• 1940 Georges Dumas, Beatrice Edgell, Kurt Koffka, Carl Emil Seashore

In 1946 all surviving Honorary Members were made Honorary Fellows.

Honorary Fellows

The following have been or are still Honorary Fellows of the Society:^[4]

The Research Digest

Since 2003 the BPS has published reports on new psychology research in the form of a free fortnightly email, and since 2005, also in the form of an online blog - both are referred to as the BPS Research Digest. As of 2014, the BPS states that the email has over 32,000 subscribers and the Digest blog attracts hundreds of thousands of page views a month. In 2010 the Research Digest blog won "best psychology blog" in the inaugural Research Blogging Awards. The Research Digest has been written and edited by psychologist Christian Jarrett since its inception

Member networks: Sections, Divisions and Branches

The British Psychological Society currently has ten Divisions and thirteen sections. Divisions and Sections differ in that the former are open to practitioners in a certain field of psychology, so professional and qualified psychologists only will be entitled to full membership of a Division, whereas the latter are interest groups comprising members of the BPS who are interested in a particular academic aspect of psychology.

The Divisions include the Division of Teachers and Researchers in Psychology, the Division of Health Psychology, the Division of Forensic Psychology, the Division of Child and Educational Psychology, the Scottish Division of Educational Psychology, the Division of Occupational Psychology, the Division of Counselling Psychology, the Division of Clinical Psychology and the Division of Neuropsychology. The Division of Clinical Psychology is the largest Division within the BPS - it is subdivided into Faculties - the largest of these is the Faculty for Children, Young People and Their Families.

The Sections include the Consciousness and Experiential Psychology Section, the Cognitive Psychology Section, the Developmental Psychology Section, the Psychology of Education Section, the History and Philosophy Section, the Psychology of Sexualities Section, the Psychobiology Section, the Psychotherapy Section, the Qualitative Methods Section, the Psychology of Women Section, the Social Psychology Section and the Transpersonal Psychology Section.

The term "Division" in the American Psychological Association does not have the same meaning as it does in the British Psychological Society, coming closer to what the British Psychological Society refers to as "Sections". Branches are for members in the same geographical region.

Consciousness and Experiential Psychology

The Consciousness and Experiential Psychology Section (CEP) is a Section of the British Psychological Society for those interested in the psychology of consciousness and experience. Initiated in 1994 by Jane Henry, Max Velmans, John Pickering, Elizabeth Valentine and Richard Stevens, the Section promoted and supported the reincorporation of consciousness studies into mainstream psychology.^[5] Official approval for CEP was announced in 1997 during the BPS Annual Conference. The Section’s mission is ‘to advance our understanding of consciousness,^[6] to bring scientific research on consciousness closer to other traditions of inquiry into the nature of mind, and to explore how this research can be used to improve the quality of life’.^[7] As of 2010 Susan Stuart is the Section Chair. Every year in September the Consciousness and Experiential Psychology Section holds its annual conference,^[8] usually in Oxford.

The Consciousness and Experiential Psychology Section is one of thirteen Sections of the BPS.^[9] This Section is for anyone interested in broad-based, rigorous academic exploration of consciousness and experience. The Section is an interest group comprising members of the BPS and also unaffiliated members. In the modern era the Consciousness and Experiential Psychology Section was the first, and remains the only, Section of a nationally representative body of professional psychologists devoted to the study of consciousness.^[10]

Statutory regulation

Following a number of scandals arising in the 1990s in the psychotherapy field, the UK government announced its intention to widen statutory regulation, to include inter alia psychologists. The BPS was in favour of statutory regulation, but opposed the proposed regulator, the Health Professions Council (HPC), preferring the idea of a new Psychological Professions Council which would map quite closely onto its own responsibilities. The government resisted this, however, and in June 2009, under the Health Care and Associated Professions (Miscellaneous Amendments) Order, regulation of most of the psychology professions passed to the HPC, since renamed the Health and Care Professions Council.

Society offices

The Society's main office is currently in Leicester in the United Kingdom. Before the transfer of registration and associated functions to the HPC, there were over 100 staff members at the Leicester office. There are also smaller regional offices in Belfast, Cardiff, Glasgow and London.

Logo

The British Psychological Society's logo is an image of the Greek mythical figure Psyche, personification of the soul, holding a Victorian oil lamp. The use of her image is a reference to the origins of the word psychology. The lamp symbolises learning and is also a reference to the story of Psyche. Eros was in love with Psyche and would visit her at night, but had forbidden her from finding out his identity. She was persuaded by her jealous sisters to discover his identity by holding a lamp to his face as he slept. Psyche accidentally burnt him with oil from the lamp, and he awoke and flew away.^[11]

A note about psychotherapy

The BPS does not supervise the separate profession of psychotherapy (including hypnotherapy and other techniques), which is covered by the overarching body, the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP). As a special member of the UKCP,^[12] the BPS believes that "psychotherapy is best regarded as a further qualification for someone already working as a psychologist, psychiatrist or in another mental health profession.". The UKCP maintains a register of psychotherapeutic counsellors who are not necessarily BPS members.^[13] The BPS maintains a register of BPS member psychologists working as psychotherapists.^[14]

See also

• American Psychological Society
• Association of Business Psychologists
• List of psychologists
• Spearman Medal

References

External links

• Official website
• History of the British Psychological Society