Aims and Hypotheses

Question 1

What is an Aim?

Answer 1

An aim is a general statement about the purpose of an investigation. For example, “the purpose of this study is to investigate the difference in intelligence across genders”.

Question 2

What is a Hypothesis?

Answer 2

A hypothesis is a testable prediction about the relationship between variables in a study

Question 3

What is the difference between Aim and Hypothesis?

Answer 3

Aim: what you are looking for.
Hypothesis: what you expect to find.

They are both statements, not questions.

Question 4

What are the 2 types of Hypotheses?

Answer 4

1. Null hypothesis
2. Alternative hypothesis

Question 5

What is a Null Hypothesis?

Answer 5

There is no difference or relationship between variables (e.g., men and women are equally intelligent).

Question 6

What is an Alternative Hypothesis?

Answer 6

There is a difference or relationship between variables (e.g., men and women are not equally intelligent or women are more intelligent than men).

An alternative hypothesis is sometimes referred to as the experimental hypothesis. However, this is only the case when using an experiment as a research method.

An alternative hypothesis is sometimes referred to as the correlational hypothesis. However, this is only the case when using a correlation as a research method.

Question 7

What are the 2 types of alternative/experimental hypotheses?

Answer 7

1. Non-directional hypothesis
2. Directional hypothesis

Question 8

What is a Non-directional Hypothesis?

Answer 8

A prediction about a general difference between variables (e.g., men and women are not equally intelligent).

Question 9

What is a Directional Hypothesis?

Answer 9

A prediction about a difference between variables in a particular direction (e.g., woman are more intelligent than men).