British Psychological Society

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The British Psychological Society (BPS) is the representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom. The BPS is a 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 political.

Founded on 24 October 1901 at University College London 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 and following the receipt of a royal charter in 1965, the society became the keeper of the Register of Chartered Psychologists. A member of the British Psychological Society who has maintained chartered status has the right to the letters "C. Psychol." after her or his name.

Today, the BPS has approximately 45,000 members in all fields of psychology.

Contents

[edit] 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 roles, as described below.

  • Protecting the public by maintaining a Register of Chartered Psychologists and a Code of Conduct.
  • 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, a free Research Digest, and various other publications (see below).
  • Setting standards for psychological testing.
  • Maintaining a History of Psychology Centre.

[edit] Journals

The BPS currently publishes 11 journals:

[edit] The Research Digest

The BPS also publishes a free fortnightly email digest of recent psychology research, which now has over 20,000 people subscribers. The Digest also appears online as a blog where people can read and comment on recently featured research. From students to researchers, the Digest is ideal for anyone interested in psychology.

[edit] Subsystems: 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 British Psychological Society who are interested in a particular 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 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 Lesbian and Gay Psychology Section, the Psychobiology Section, the Psychotherapy Section, the Qualitative Methods Section, the Psychology of Women Section, the Social 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 people in the British Psychological Society who come from the same geographical region.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

The current (2009-2010) president of the British Psychological Society is Sue Gardner, who succeeded Dr. Elizabeth Campbell in this position. Dr. Campbell is now the Vice President.

[edit]

The British Psychological Society's logo is an image of the Greek mythical figure Psyche, personification of the soul, holding a Victorian 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.[1]

[edit] A note about psychotherapy

The BPS does not supervise the separate profession of psychotherapy (including hypnotherapy and the like), which is covered by the overarching body, the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP). As a special member of the UKCP [1] the BPS views "psychotherapy, as well as the use of hypnosis with psychotherapy, is most appropriately regarded as a post-qualification specialisation for members of one of the primary professional groups such as medical practitioners, applied psychologists or social workers". The UKCP maintains a register of psychotherapeutic counsellors who are not necessarily BPS members[2]. The BPS maintain a register of BPS member psychologists working as psychotherapists.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Steinberg, H. (2001). A brief history of the Society logo. The Psychologist, 14, 236–237.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Psychological_Society"