Psychology and What Makes It a Science Our actions, thoughts and behaviors say a lot about who we are, but who knows why we act, say and think a certain way? In an effort to help us better understand ourselves and others, psychologists have attempted to provide and provide us with the answers to these very questions for thousands of years. Their theories have been tried and tested and a large number of them have been proven. Psychology is a very complex scientific field. There are a considerable number of people with the misconception that psychology focuses only on the mind. However, it is the study of behavior and development and, in the complex sense, encompasses a wide variety of subdisciplines that work upon each other allowing us to better understand individuals as a whole. We take advantage of and experience the benefits of these areas of study every day, whether through work, school or sports. In the workplace context, psychological principles are used to develop managers, motivate workers, evaluate job satisfaction and performance, and promote productivity. We have psychologists in our school systems, as well as in colleges and universities as educators, trainers, teachers and counselors who provide skills and insights to students and sometimes their family members and in the sports arena an athlete's participation and performance can be improved when certain psychological factors are used. The history of psychology Psychology was not initially classified as a science. It was the fact that the behavior of human beings had to be studied that actually gave psychology its classification as a science. A German physiologist named Wilhelm Wundt is known for having pioneered the idea that psychology is class...... middle of paper ......ch it can be. A hypothesis is usually formed before conducting research or an experiment. When forming a hypothesis, it is usually done using background knowledge you may have about the experiment, the subject of the experiment, the research, or the subject of the research. Hypotheses generally pertain only to the specific experiment or research being evaluated or conducted. Theory A theory is a proven hypothesis. It is essentially a developed, tested, analyzed and consolidated hypothesis. Although a theory is a proven and established hypothesis, a theory is usually created by repeating an experiment or research numerous times and documenting observations and conclusions but obtaining the same result each time. Once a theory has been tested numerous times, proven, and accepted, it becomes a general statement, a statement that simply says what will happen.