Hypotheses

• Hypothesis


  A formal and testable statement of the relationship between two variables that is to be tested through experimentation
• Types of hypotheses used in psychology

  • Directional hypotheses
  • Non-directional hypotheses
  • Null hypotheses
  • Alternative hypotheses
• Null hypothesis


  A general statement that the observed variables will have no impact as there is no relationship between them
• The null hypothesis assumes that any difference observed is due to sampling or experimentation errors
• Alternative hypothesis


  A prediction that one variable will affect the other
• If the experiment finds a significant difference or relationship between the 2 variables then we reject the null hypothesis
• Directional hypothesis


  Also called a one-tailed hypothesis, states a direction of the relationship between the variables
• Non-directional hypothesis


  Also called a two-tailed hypothesis, does not state a direction between the variables