The main activities of the IUPsyS focus on fostering the development of the science and practice of psychology. These include:
- Sponsoring the flagship quadrennial International Congresses of Psychology (ICP). The 30th ICP was in Cape Town, South Africa in 2012; the 31st ICP will be in Yokohama, Japan in 2016; and the 32nd ICP will be held in Prague, Czech Republic in 2020. Click here for a complete list of the International Congresses of Psychology.
- Publishing The International Journal of Psychology; a book series, the IUPsyS Newsletter, and the monthly Bulletin, as well as Proceedings of the International Congresses; the International Handbook of Psychological Science; the History of the Union, and various occasional publications. Click here for further information on the IUPsyS’ Publications.
- Organizing or co-sponsoring Regional Conferences of Psychology, aimed at promoting psychology and addressing psychological issues and themes of special relevance to the region. Regional conferences are held in cooperation with other international organizations. The first regional conference was the Asian-Pacific Regional Conference on Psychology, held in Guangzhou, China, in 1995 (also supported by the International Association of Applied Psychology (http://www.iaapsy.org) and the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (http://www.iaccp.org). Subsequent regional conferences haven been held in South Africa, India, Dubai, Thailand, Jordan, Bulgaria, The Bahamas, and Uganda.
- Sponsoring and accomplishing projects that foster the development of the science and practice of psychology, such as the workshop on psychology education and training (2012), and that promote international and professional cooperation. These have included national and regional capacity building workshops. Notable is a series of workshops on bereavement in the Causasus region (2009-2011), and on disaster in the Asia/Pacific and Central Asia (2012, 2013) area. Other capacity-building workshops have focused on peace-building in the Middle East (2007) and the development of psychology education, training, practice and research in a particular region, such as the ASEAN region (2013). Associated with the IUPsyS’ International Congresses of Psychology and regional conferences are capacity-builging events for psychologists from low income countries, emerging psychologists and early career psychologists. For further details see Capacity Building Workshops.
- Hosting the global information source Psychological Resources Around the World.
- Developing international and regional networks to facilitate international and professional cooperation.
- Serving IUPsyS National Members through publications, information dissemination, programs of events, and development of support and guidelines.
- Serving the discipline of psychology and development of its common core by working to develop guidelines in areas of education and training, ethics and the responsible conduct of research and professional practice, as well as granting “Awards” to support the discipline by giving public appreciation to excellent scientists and their work.
- Providing access to the IUPsyS archives is another service to the discipline.
- Participating in major international organizations, including the International Council for Science (http://www.icsu.org), the International Social Science Council (http://www.worldsocialscience.org), UNESCO (http://en.unesco.org), the United Nations (http://www.un.org/en/), and the World Health Organization (http://www.who.int/en/).