Aims and Hypothesis Flashcards
Research Aim
RA of the study refers to the intentions (or the purpose) of the study.
For example… An aim might be to ‘investigate gender differences in the ability to recognise emotions’
Research Questions
RQ is similar to an aim but is written as a question
For example.. Do males recognise emotions differently to females?
The hypothesis
is a testable statement that essentially predicts what the study will find. It must always include the IV and DV which are fully operationalised.
All experiments need to have 2 hypotheses-an experimental hypothesis and a null hypothesis
Experimental/Alternative/Research hypothesis
Predicts some sort of difference between the variables
For example… ‘females will identify significantly more emotions correctly than males from 10 photographs of faces’.
These can be directional (one-tailed) and therefore predict the direction the results will go in OR non-directional (two-tailed) predicting a difference but not which direction, for example, not who will do better or worse.
Ex/Alt/Res hyp
One-tailed
predict a specific direction of results
e.g. female participants will correctly identify significantly more emotions in the 10 photographs of faces than male participants.
Two-tailed
predict a difference/relationship will be found, but are non-directional in terms of what will be specifically found.
E.g. ‘there will be a significant gender difference between males and females in the number of correct emotions identified out of the 10 photographs of faces.’
Null hypothesis
No difference/relationship will be found. (this is needed when it comes to stat testing to determine which hypothesis should be accepted).
E.g. ‘there will be no significant difference between males and females in the number of correct emotions identified out of 10 in the photographs of faces. Any differences in recognition of emotion will be due to chance’.
