British Psychological Society

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

It was 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. The ten founder members were:^[2][3][4]

• 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

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 1965 it was a granted a Royal charter.^[4]

The Society is both a learned and a professional body. As such it provides support and advice on research and practice issues. It is also a Registered Charity which imposes certain constraints on what it can and cannot do. For example, it cannot campaign on issues which are seen as party political. The BPS is not the statutory regulation body for Practitioner Psychologists in the UK which is the Health and Care Professions Council.

The Society has a large number of specialist and regional branches throughout the United Kingdom. It holds its Annual Conference, usually in May, in a different town or city each year. In addition, each of the sub-sections hold their own conferences and there is also a range of specialist meetings convened to consider relevant issues.

The Society is also a publishing body publishing a range of specialist journals, books and reports.^[5]

In 2019 the BPS had 60,604 members and subscribers, in all fields of psychology, 20,243 of whom were Chartered Members.^[6] There are a number of grades of members:

• Members
  • Student member (no post-nominal): The grade for students of psychology.
  • Graduate Member (GMBPsS): Awarded to graduates of an undergraduate degree accredited by the society, or have completed an accredited conversion course.^[7]
  • Full Member (FMBPsS): awarded to those with qualification in psychology and working in the field of psychology
  • Associate Member (AMBPsS): awarded to wellbeing practitioners^[8]

• Fellows
  • Associate Fellow (AFBPsS): Associate Fellowship may be awarded to nominees who have satisfied one of the following conditions since first becoming eligible for graduate membership:

i) achieved eligibility for full membership of one of the society's divisions and been successfully engaged in the professional application of a specialised knowledge of psychology for an aggregate of at least two calendar years full-time (or its part-time equivalent); or

ii) possess a research qualification in psychology and been engaged in the application, discovery, development or dissemination of psychological knowledge or practice for an aggregate of at least four years full time (or its part time equivalent); or

iii) published psychological works or exercised specialised psychological knowledge of a standard not less than in 1 or 2 above.

• • Fellow (FBPsS): Fellowship may be awarded to nominees who have made an outstanding contribution to psychology (see Category:Fellows of the British Psychological Society) by satisfying the following criteria:

i) been engaged in work of a psychological nature (other than undergraduate training) for a total period of at least 10 years; and

ii) possess an advanced knowledge of psychology in at least one of its fields; and

iii) made an outstanding contribution to the advancement or dissemination of psychological knowledge or practice either by your own research, teaching, publications or public service, or by organising and developing the work of others.

• • Honorary Fellow (HonFBPsS): Honorary Fellowship is awarded for distinguished service in the field of psychology.

• CPsychol: Chartered Psychologist - 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 (MBPsS) who has achieved chartered status has the right to the letters "CPsychol" after his or her name.
• CSci: Chartered Scientist - The Society is licensed by the Science Council^[9] for the registration of Chartered Scientists.^[10]
• EuroPsy: European Psychologist^[11] - The Society is a member of the European Federation of Psychologists' Associations (EFPA), and can award this designation to Chartered Psychologists.

The Cass Review was published in April 2024, as an independent review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People, having been commissioned in 2020 by NHS England and NHS Improvement. It found, regarding medical interventions, a "lack of high-quality evidence", and it made a large number of recommendations, including those in the psychological area relevant to the BPS, including social transition, and conflicting clinical views between 'affirming care' versus 'exploratory care'.

In June 2024 the BPS issued an update to their "Guidelines for Psychologists Working with Gender, Sexuality and Relationship Diversity".^[12] Notably, two members of the six-person of the original 2019 panel resigned shortly before it was published. The new revision has been criticised for not referring to the Cass Review at all, and for being silent on key parts of the review, including the recommendation to cater for detransitioning. The Cass Review commented:

".. the majority of patient presentations were extremely complex, with a mix of trauma, abuse, mental health diagnoses, past forensic history, ASD and ADHD, and therefore this limited assessment was inadequate. These other clinical issues were not addressed or taken into account in decisions to prescribe masculinising or feminising hormones."

But the revised BPS Guidelines take little regard of the high frequency of the presence of wider mental health issues in individuals presenting with gender dysphoria. An open letter of complaint about this, and about the composition of the six-person panel and other concerns, was sent on 14 August to Professor Tony Lavender, Chair of the BPS Practice Board, by Pat Harvey, David Pilgrim and Peter Harvey, all BPS members and Clinical Psychologists.^[13] They state that the revised BPS guidelines: "represent an active barrier to much needed change in philosophy and practice for psychologists working in re-formed Gender Services in the immediate future".

In contrast to the BPS, a professional body for professionals in a related field, the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy, published in November 2023 revised guidelines that referred specifically to the Cass Review's recommendations, and supported the validity of exploratory therapy, rather than 'affirmative therapy', which includes medicalised interventions such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or reassignment surgery.^[14]

The following persons have been honorary members of the society:^[19]

• 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.

The following persons are or have been honorary fellows of the society:^[20]

The BPS publishes 11 journals:^[26]

• 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
• Counselling Psychology Review^[27]

Special Group in Coaching Psychology publications:

• International Coaching Psychology Review^[28]
• The Coaching Psychologist^[29]

The Psychologist^[30] is a members' monthly magazine that has been published since 1988, superseding the BPS Bulletin.

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 About usResearch into the mental health of prisoners, digested Archived 4 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine

The Society publishes a series of textbooks in collaboration with Wiley-Blackwell. These cover most of the core areas of psychology.^[31]

The British Psychological Society currently has ten divisions and nineteen 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:

• Division of Academics, Researchers and Teachers in Psychology
• Division of Clinical Psychology
• Division of Coaching Psychology
• Division of Counselling Psychology
• Division of Educational and Child Psychology
• Division of Forensic Psychology
• Division of Health Psychology
• Division of Neuropsychology
• Division of Occupational Psychology
• Division of Sport and Exercise Psychology
• Scottish Division of Educational Psychology

The Division of Clinical Psychology is the largest division within the BPS – it is subdivided into thirteen faculties:^[32]

• Addiction Archived 4 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• Children, Young People and their Families Archived 4 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• Clinical Health Psychology Archived 4 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• Eating Disorders Archived 4 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• Forensic Clinical Psychology Archived 4 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• HIV and Sexual Health Archived 4 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• Holistic Psychology Archived 4 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• Leadership and Management Archived 4 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• Intellectual Disabilities Archived 4 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• Oncology and Palliative Care Archived 4 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• Perinatal Psychology Archived 4 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• Psychosis and Complex Mental Health Archived 4 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine
• Psychology of Older People Archived 4 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine

The Sections Archived 4 April 2019 at the Wayback Machine currently include:

Note: 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.

BPS currently has the following special groups to provide a forum for members working in particular specialist fields, with a particular focus on training, practice, and professional development^[48]

The Society also organises regional branches throughout the United Kingdom. These include the following branches:

• East Midlands Branch
• East of England Branch
• London and Home Counties Branch
• North East of England Branch
• North West of England Branch
• Northern Ireland Branch
• Scottish Branch
• South West of England Branch
• Welsh Branch
• Wessex Branch
• West Midlands Branch

BPS has been concerned with the question of statutory registration of psychologists since the 1930s.^[50] It received its charter in 1965 and an amendment in 1987 which allowed it to maintain a register of psychologists. The UK government announced its intention to widen statutory regulation, to include inter alia psychologists, following a number of scandals arising in the 1990s in the psychotherapy field. 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 HCPC, the renamed Health and Care Professions Council.

The Society's main office is currently in Leicester in the United Kingdom. According to BPS HR department, as of April 2019 there were 113 staff members at the Leicester office, 9 in London. There are also smaller regional offices in Belfast, Cardiff, Glasgow. The archives are deposited at the Wellcome Library in the Euston Road, London.^[51]

The British Psychological Society's logo is an image of the Greek mythical figure Psyche, personification of the soul, holding an 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.^[52]

The Society has its own YouTube channel.^[53]

• Association for Psychological Science
• Association of Business Psychologists
• Presidents' Award
• List of psychologists
• Spearman Medal
• BPS Barbara Wilson Lifetime Achievement Award

• Official website
• History of the British Psychological Society
• BPS History of Psychology Centre