The first members of the EAESP included de facto all persons who were invited to participate at the first three European Conferences on Experimental Social Psychology, held in Sorrento (1963), Frascati (1964), and Royaumont (1966). Take a look at the list of invited participants to these Conferences ( PDF 77KB)

Evolution

Membership List in 1968
From 1966 on, a standard procedure for the election of new members was adopted. Each member of the Association had the right to propose new members. Such a proposal had to have the additional support of two other members. This support had to be formally expressed in a letter written by each of them. The Planning Committee then made the final decision about admitting the person proposed, and if no objection was raised by a minimum of three members of the EAESP, the new candidate was accepted. The most important criterion for becoming a member was "active participation in qualified experimental research or quasi-experimental social psychological research of a fundamental nature." In 1967, 18 new members were accepted according to this procedure, resulting in this membership list from June 1968 ( PDF 43KB).

Later Membership Developments
In 1969 the Articles were discussed and voted upon article by article. In 1975 the Standing Orders were changed: the then prevailing limit on the extent to which membership could increase from one members' meeting to the next was doubled from 15 to 30 new members, and instead of new membership only being possible at a members' meeting, new members were now to be accepted by the Executive Committee, with the right of veto and reversal of rejections being retained by the members. In 1981 there was another vote on changes to the Articles. A new section was added: "Associate Membership of the Association" (available to social psychologists living outside Europe). In 1988 there was a further revision to the Standing Orders: a new section "Postgraduate Affiliates" was added.

The way in which membership of the Association has developed (in terms of total numbers, numbers within membership categories and numbers within countries) can be seen in the accompanying figure and table beneath.

Membership Statistics 2005

Membership Development 1968-2005