Hypothesis’

Question 1

What is a hypothesis?

Answer 1

• a statement of what the researcher believes to be true
• at the end of the study the researcher decides whether the evidence collected supports the hypothesis or not

Question 2

Directional hypothesis

Answer 2

• states the direction of the predicted difference between two conditions or two groups of partcipants
  e.g people who have plentiful sleep have better marks than people with a lower sleep average
  
  • this is stating the expected direction of the results

Question 3

Non directional hypothesis

Answer 3

• predicts simply that there is a difference between two conditions or two groups of participants without stating the direction of the direction
  e.g people who have plentiful sleep have different marks on class tests than people with a lower sleep average
  
  • does not say if it has a positive or negative effect

Question 4

Which hypothesis should be used?

Answer 4

• a directional hypothesis when there is no past research suggests that findings will go in a particular direction
• non directional hypothesis is used when there is no past research or past research is contradictory - may be more appropriate if the study is exploring a new area

Question 5

Alternative hypothesis

Answer 5

• a hypothesis that is not the null hypothesis
• can be either directional or non directional but NOT null hypothesis
• can be called experimental hypothesis

Question 6

Null hypothesis

Answer 6

• the assumption of no relationship between the variables being studied
• statement of no effect
  e.g there is no difference in the marks on class tests between people who sleep an average of 8 hours or more per night and those with a lower sleep average

Question 7

Pilot study

Answer 7

• a small scale trial of a study to test any aspects of the design, with a view to making improvements

Question 8

Why is a pilot study done?

Answer 8

• it is done in order to find out if the aspects of the design do or do not work
  e.g participants may not understand the instructions or they may guess what an experiment is about

-researcher can see what needs to be adjusted without having invested a large amount of time and money into a full scale study
- results of a pilot study is irrelevant but just to what needs fine tuning