British Psychological Society

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 October 24 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. If, and only if, a member of the British Psychological Society has maintained chartered status, he or she may write "C. Psychol." after her or his name.

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

=What does the British Psychological Society do?= 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.

Journals
The BPS currently 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

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.

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.

It is important to note that 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.

Society offices
The Society's main office is currently in Leicester in the United Kingdom. There are over 100 staff members at the Leicester office. There are a number of separate departments within the office. For example, the Subsystems Services Team, that deals with administrative matters related to sections and divisions. There are also smaller regional offices in Belfast, Cardiff, Glasgow and London.

The current (2007) president of the British Psychological Society is Professor Pam Maras, who succeeded Ray Miller in this position.

A note about psychotherapy
The BPS does not supervise the separate profession of psychotherapy (including hypnotherapy and the like), which is covered by another body, the UK Council for Psychotherapy. The Society's view is that "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 BPS maintains a register of Psychologists working as Psychotherapists.

=External links=
 * The British Psychological Society web site