Testimonial: Geoffrey Stephenson (1984-1987)

Addressing the General Meeting at Varna at the end of his term in 1987:

Most of you are familiar with the ‘Who am I’ task. Let the Association ask itself: ‘Who am I’, or ‘What is it?’ If the test ran true for form, then the attributes that spontaneously come to mind are those that mark the Association’s impact on the world: The largest group of social psychologists in Europe; sponsors of the European Journal; membership spanning Eastern and Western Europe and so on. Then might come a list of its regular activities, followed finally by a description of its character and ‘personality’. We like ourselves greatly; we are very powerful, but we are rather constrained or conservative.

Yet at the same time, are we not also just a little big smug, complacent and over-confident? We retain a subjective and arguably capricious requirement in the criteria for membership, i.e., substantial contribution to the discipline, thereby discouraging some potentially excellent applicants whose modesty forbids them making an application or who fear that interpretations of this membership requirement may lead to painful rejection and exclusion. I am not advocating that we immediately open up discussion of these particular issues. I would urge that we be more specific about our membership requirements. Committees have always been generous in their interpretation of the rules, but I would like either that we publicly recognize that it is our intention to interpret the membership article generously or that we try to define our requirements more objectively.