hypothesis

• what is an aim?

  • aims are developed from theories.
  • aims are general statements of what the researcher intends to investigate
  • (purpose of the study)
  • when writing an aim, it must start with ‘to investigate‘
• what is a hypothesis?

  • a statement that is made at the start of a study and clearly describes the relationship/difference between variables as stated in the theory
  • (a prediction about the research findings)
• what are the two types of hypotheses?

  directional

  non-directional
• difference

  experiment
• relationship

  correlation in data
• what is a directional hypothesis?

  makes clear the sort of difference that is anticipated between two conditions or two groups of people.

  Also known as a one-tailed hypothesis

  • it uses words such as more or less, higher or lower, faster or slower ect
• what is a non-directional hypothesis?

  states that there is a difference between conditions or groups but the nature of the difference is not specified.

  ‘Also known as a two-tailed hypothesis

  • when writing a hypothesis, you should always start with a non-directional one
• what type of hypothesis is this: people who drink energy drinks become more talkative then people who don’t.

  directional because it uses the word ‘more’
• what type of hypothesis is this: there is a difference between people who drink energy drinks in terms of talkativeness compared with people who don’t drink energy drinks

  non-directional because its not specific on the difference
• how do you decide which hypothesis to use?

  directional:

  • when a theory or the findings of previous research studies suggest a particular outcome

  non-directional

  • when there is no theory or previous research, or the findings from earlier studies are contradictory
• what is a null hypothesis ?

  this suggests that statistically significant effect or relationship will not be found