German Society for Psychology

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German Society for Psychology
(DGPs)
logo
legal form registered association
founding 1904
Seat Berlin
purpose Scientific Society for Psychology . Promotion and dissemination of scientific psychology.
Chair Birgit Spinath
Managing directors Bianca Vaterrodt (Scientific Advisor)
Employees 3
Members 4524 (as of May 15, 2018)
Website www.dgps.de

The German Society for Psychology (DGPs) is “an association of psychologists working in research and teaching ”. The DGPs are based in Berlin , where the office is also located. Membership and financial administration is carried out by an external provider in Münster . The legal form is that of a legally competent registered association .

Goals and Membership

The DGPs, which sees itself as a scientific society , pursues charitable purposes in particular through

  • Organization of specialist congresses usually every two years
  • Promotion of intradisciplinary communication within the entire field of psychology.
  • Stimulation of psychological and interdisciplinary research programs.
  • Promotion of specialist publications.
  • Securing and expanding the position of psychology at universities, in research institutes and other scientific institutions, in school lessons and other training areas as well as in public.
  • Promotion of young academics in psychology (support for postgraduate academic qualifications as well as early promotion of international academic exchange).
  • Participation in the regulation of psychological training and examinations.
  • Participation in continuing education and training for graduate psychologists, especially in the scientific part of such programs.
  • Appointment of experts and appraisers for research funding and other institutions.
  • Preparation of statements on scientific questions in psychology.
  • Cooperation with psychological professional associations, with neighboring disciplines and with other scientific associations. In such collaborations, the DGPs represent the scientific interests of psychology.
  • Participation in international scientific associations and associations.
  • Informing the public about the status and development of psychology.

Together with the Professional Association of German Psychologists (BDP), the DGPs form the Federation of German Psychological Associations as a representative for all questions relating to science, professional practice and international representatives (e.g. International Union of Psychological Science ).

The official organ of the DGPs today is the Psychologische Rundschau . This journal has been published quarterly by Hogrefe-Verlag (Göttingen) since 1949. The first official organ was the Zeitschrift für Psychologie until 1945.

The society currently has over 4500 members. Full members can be those who do their doctorate and who have also submitted a scientific paper. Before these conditions are met, one can become an associate member if one is scientifically active. Students in Master of Science courses in psychology or equivalent courses can become student members. Admission as a student, associate or full member requires a recommendation from two members of the DGPs and the approval of the board. A court of honor is the disciplinary body of the DGPs.

The DGPs are presided over by a seven-member board, including a representative of the young members since 2014. The DGPs have their headquarters and an office (scientific advisor, press officer) in Berlin, membership and financial issues as well as event announcements are handled by an association management company in Münster for many years.

Committees of the DGPs or with the participation of the DGPs

The following DGPs commissions currently exist:

  • Ethics Committee
  • Commission of Psychology Teacher Training Courses
  • Commission for examining applications for accreditation of further training courses in psychological psychotherapy
  • Psychology and Psychotherapy Training Commission
  • Study and Teaching Commission
  • Commission for occupational health promotion and occupational safety
  • Quality seal commission for M.Sc. degree programs (M.Sc. Business Psychology)
  • Student selection and admission committee
  • Historical commission: Instrumentalization of psychology in the GDR
  • Commission steering group guidelines (guidelines for the treatment of mental disorders in adults as well as in children and adolescents).

There are also the following federal commissions (DGPs and professional association of German psychologists ):

Other commissions with the participation of the DGPs outside the Federation of German Psychological Associations are

The DGPs representatives are organized as a working group for young scientists (young members)

Faculty Day Psychology

The Faculty Day Psychology, founded on May 18, 2015 in Frankfurt am Main , brings together 56 university institutes from Germany. He is the “contact person for discussions on a political level in order to represent the interests of the psychological institutes of German universities. It should also serve the communication between the institutes when it comes to the discussion and coordination of questions, for example the organization of studies and teaching, the content of courses or the setting of priorities ”. It has the status of a specialist group of the society, the office of the DGPs in Berlin also looks after the faculty day. The chairman of the faculty day is Conny Herbert Antoni .

Awards and honors

The DGPs are responsible for the following prizes and honors:

  • Honor for the scientific life's work for outstanding scientific achievements and merits over a long period of time;
  • Wilhelm Wundt Medal for outstanding scientific achievements in the field of psychology, awarded to active researchers who have received the highest professional recognition through significant work in empirical-psychological basic research. This is associated with honorary membership in the German Society for Psychology;
  • Charlotte and Karl Bühler Prize for younger scientists whose scientific work has achieved the rank of a research program;
  • Heinz Heckhausen Young Scientists Prize for outstanding dissertations;
  • Prize for science journalism for journalists who have made a contribution to the presentation of psychological research in the media;
  • Psychology Prize for people or institutions who have made a name for themselves in promoting or ensuring scientific quality in psychological research, teaching and / or application.
  • Franz Emanuel Weinert Prize for outstanding research, this work being successfully brought closer to the public;
  • Martin Irle Prize for mentors who have particularly qualified and motivated students, doctoral candidates or post-doctoral candidates to embark on a scientific career in psychology.

Together with the BDP , the Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists and the Leibniz Center for Psychological Information and Documentation (ZPID), it awards the German Psychology Prize , which has honored outstanding achievements in psychological research with high practical importance since 1992.

history

The DGPs go back to the "Society for Experimental Psychology" founded on April 20, 1904 in Giessen . The initiator was Georg Elias Müller (1850–1934), who formed an initiative committee with his colleagues Ebbinghaus , Külpe , Meumann , Schumann and Sommer invited to the congress in Giessen (the organizer of the first congress was summer). There the society was founded by the participants, Müller became the first president.

Experimental psychology still exists today in the Anglo-Saxon region as an independent research area in general psychology. The name of the company was changed to the current name in 1929. The experimental tradition is continued with the annual conference of experimental psychologists (TeaP), which has been held regularly since 1959 (founded by Heinrich Düker and Werner Traxel ) and is still taking place today German-speaking area, who meet there as speakers with experienced researchers. The English-language name Conference of Experimental Psychologists is also used increasingly. In 2019, it took place in London for the first time in a non-German-speaking country. However, it is not an event of the DGPs, but is passed on from institute to institute as the organizer.

In 1945 the DGPs were automatically dissolved by occupation law . The re-establishment in 1947 by Gustav Johannes von Allesch initially applied to the British zone of occupation. In the American zone of occupation, the company was re-established in Würzburg in 1948. The first chairman there was Gustav Kafka . Both parts of the society were united on October 2, 1948 and extended their scope of application "non-zonal" to all of Germany. Allesch became chairman, Kafka succeeded him in 1951. That is why Göttingen was the seat of the Society for many years .

Society for Psychology of the GDR

Until 1961, scientists from the GDR were also members of the DGPs and attended their congresses. After the Wall was built, the Society for Psychology of the GDR was founded on October 19, 1962 . The first chairman was Werner Straub from Dresden until 1968. He was followed by Friedhart Klix until 1975, Adolf Kossakowski until 1989 and Hans-Dieter Rösler , who was until the dissolution on November 3, 1990. The society had a specialist journal, Problems and Results in Psychology , replaced by Psychology for Practice . The society organized seven congresses and was both a professional association and a scientific society . The highlight was the organization of the XXII. International Congress for Psychology 1980 of the International Union of Psychological Science in Leipzig (100 years of foundation of the first institute for experimental psychologists by Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig), the congress president was Friedhart Klix. For clinical psychology , too , it was possible to establish close cooperation with the medical specialist societies and, from 1981, a postgraduate course analogous to a specialist doctor with the degree of specialist psychologist in medicine .

The psychologists of the GDR were forced to resign from the DGPs from 1962 - some officially or unofficially continued their membership. The DGPs allowed this group of people to continue membership free of charge. This never-broken connection was one of the reasons why the scientific orientation of psychology in the GDR remained international.

German or German speaking?

At least until German reunification, the DGPs saw themselves as a German-speaking specialist society. Congresses were also held in Salzburg, Vienna and Zurich, and Swiss and Austrian colleagues were board members. After that, the psychology-specific problems in Germany became the focus of the work. Independent national interest groups were also necessary in Austria and Switzerland for important political issues (representation of “national” psychology within the framework of psychology and psychotherapy legislation). Not least because of this, the Austrian Society for Psychology (ÖGP) was newly founded in Austria in 1993 . The Swiss Society for Psychology (SGP) has existed in Switzerland since 1943. Double membership in the DGPs and SGP or ÖGP is still common.

Specialist groups of the DGPs

The various sub-disciplines of psychology are organized in specialist groups. Specialist groups have named experts from among their ranks who can provide information on specific topics. In addition to the Department of Psychology, there are the following. Most of them have their own homepage with specific information:

General Psychology
Perception, attention, thinking, language, learning, memory, motivation and emotion
Work, organizational and business psychology
Interrelationships between working and organizational conditions and human experience and behavior
Biological psychology and neuropsychology
Anatomical and physiological foundations of human behavior and experience as well as physiological effects of psychological processes; Neural conditions of psychological processes
Differential psychology, personality psychology and psychological diagnostics
Individual characteristics and inter-individual differences - application of psychological knowledge to the individual case, description, explanation and prognosis of behavior
Developmental psychology
Change processes over the life span including gerontopsychology - special features of mental functions in old age
History of psychology
Historical development of psychology as an independent science
Health psychology
Personal, social and structural factors influencing physical and mental health
Engineering psychology
founded in 2018 (resolution of the general assembly of the DGPs of September 19, 2018)
Clinical psychology and psychotherapy
Conditions of illness and health as well as the development of behavioral and life-changing interventions including rehabilitation psychology: application of psychological knowledge in rehabilitation
Media psychology
Human experience and behavior in connection with the use of media
Methods & Evaluation
Methods of data collection and evaluation, study planning and scientific theory; Investigation plans and procedures for reviewing interventions against standards and criteria to be defined
educational Psychology
Competencies, skills, belief systems and values ​​that can be influenced pedagogically
Legal psychology
Application of psychological theories, methods and knowledge to issues arising from the design and application of law
Social psychology
Influence of behavior, experience and judgment through the social context
Sports psychology
Sports psychology deals with the complex relationships between body and mind
Environmental psychology
Attitudes to the environment and environmental awareness, environment-related behavior and design of an ecologically healthy living environment
Traffic psychology
Interrelationships between human experience and behavior and technical traffic systems and the traffic environment

Chairperson (President from 1974)

Both the Society for Experimental Psychology and the German Society for Psychology. New elections are currently taking place with the congresses held every two years (see below):

Scientific congresses and organizers

As a rule, scientific congresses are held every two years.

Society for Experimental Psychology (Predecessor Society)

German Society for Psychology

Web links

  • Homepage (including search of experts for certain topics)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Statutes of the DGPs of September 28, 1962 in the version of November 10, 2016, accessed on May 9, 2018
  2. ↑ What is the DGPs on dgps.de
  3. ↑ a b German Psychology Prize on psychologie-preis.de
  4. ↑ Faculty Day Psychology on fakultaetentag-psychologie.de; Members: As of August 1, 2019
  5. ↑ Awards and honors on DGPs.de
  6. ↑ Conference archive of the conference of experimentally working psychologists on teap.de at leibnitz-psychology.org, for the history see also the program for the 50th TeaP in Marburg.
  7. ^ Academy for Political Science and Law of the GDR (ed.): Handbook of social organizations in the GDR. Staatsverlag der DDR, Berlin 1985, p. 80
  8. ↑ Adolf Kossakowski on bundesstiftung-aufverarbeitung.de
  9. ↑ HD. Rösler: On the history of clinical psychology in the GDR Report Psychologist November / December 2011
  10. ↑ jump Lothar and Helga: The development of psychology ... in: The Humboldt University Unter den Linden 1945-1990, ed. by W. Girnus and Klaus Meier
  11. ↑ Schönpflug, W., Lüer, G 2011: Psychology in the GDR: Science between ideology and pragmatism.