Aims and hypothesis

• What is a research question


  an answerable inquiry into a specific concern, issue or theory - what you wish to answer/explore in your research, needs to refer to variables e.g. 'Will chewing gum influence concentration?'
• Sentence starters for research questions

  • Will there be a difference between...?
  • Will there be a relationship between...?
  • What behaviour will be displayed between...?
• What is an aim


  outlines what the research is going to investigate - always begins with "To investigate..." e.g. 'To investigate the effect of chewing gum on student concentration levels.'
• What is a hypothesis

  a testable statement that predicts what the researcher expects their study/investigation will find
• What is the difference between an aim and a hypothesis

  write the two definitions
• What are the 3 types of variables

  • Independent -> the variable being manipulated, must always operationalise
  • Dependent -> the behaviour being measured, must always operationalise
  • Extraneous -> anything other than your IV that could effect your DV, can distort/confound results
• What are the variables in each research method

  • experiments - the IV, DV + extraneous variables
  • observations - the behaviour we are observing + extraneous variables
  • self reports - interview or questionnaire, no variables
  • correlations - the two behaviours we are measuring (called co-variables)
• What does operationalise mean


  be specific and clear on how variables are manipulated and measured
• What are the 3 types of hypothesis

  • alternate experimental hypothesis = sometimes called experimental hypothesis - a statement of prediction that suggests there will be a difference between the 2 variables, can incl a prediction of direction (one-tailed) or no direction (2 tailed)
  • null hypothesis = a statement of prediction that suggests there will be no difference or relationship found between the 2 variables
  • correlational = a statement of prediction that suggests there will be a relationship/correlation between the two variables (only use for correlational study)
• One-tailed vs two-tailed alternate experimental hypotheses

  • one-tailed = predicts a specific direction of results e.g female participants correctly identify significantly MORE emotions in photographs than males
  • two-tailed = predict a difference will be found, but doesn't state a direction e.g there will be a significant difference between males + females in correctly identifying emotions in photos
• Tips for how to operationalise the dependent variable/tips for measurement

  • mood/emotion = use a rating scale from 1 (not very happy) to 10 (very happy)
  • skill = a test out of 20 e.g a word recall (memory) test
• Hypothesis writing:

  1. experiment or correlation? difference or relationship?
  2. identify IV and DV
  3. operationalise both variables
  4. structure: one tailed = "participants who..." with a specific direction, two tailed = "there will be a significant difference between...", null = "there will be no significant difference between..." + "any change will be due to chance"
• For 4 marks on a hypotheses Q you must

  1. give the correct type (one tailed/two tailed/null)
  2. state if its a relationship or difference
  3. refer to both variables
  4. operationalise both variable