The British Journal of Psychology (BJP) publishes its 100th volume this year. Over the past 100 years, the Society’s flagship journal has helped to shape the history of psychology with influential articles written by world class researchers. To celebrate this, we are marking the publication of Volume 100 with a special issue, ‘Celebrating a century of psychological research’.

Five articles, each written by legendary figures, have been reprinted alongside commentaries by contemporary world leaders: Piaget: Children’s understanding of causality; Watson: Is thought subvocal speech?; Bartlett: The relationship between thinking and feeling; Gibson: The theory of direct perception; and Cattell: The structure and measurement of personality and individual differences.

This volume highlights the contribution of these figures and examines key historical developments offering a synthesis between the historical and the contemporary.