1 / 11

Hypotheses and Research Questions

Explore the significance of hypotheses in research, from defining problems to testing theories. Learn about types, classifications, and criteria for formulating effective hypotheses.

mccreery
Download Presentation

Hypotheses and Research Questions

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Hypotheses and Research Questions

  2. Hypotheses • Hypotheses are intelligent guesses that assist the researcher in seeking the solution to a problem. • A problem statement presents the question that is asked in the study, the hypothesis presents the answer to the question. • A hypothesis link the independent (cause) and the dependent (effect) variables. • Hypotheses are written before the study is conducted and should never be changed after the study results are examined.

  3. Definitions: • A statement of the predicted relationship between two or more variables (Nieswiadomy, 2002) • A conjectural statement of the relations between two or more variables (Kerlinger, 1986).

  4. Purposes of hypotheses 1. Test a theory by using hypotheses. It lends objectivity to scientific research to support or reject the hypothesis. 2. Guide the research design and the statistical analysis to be used with the data. 3. Provides the reader with an understanding of the researcher’s expectations about the study.

  5. Sources of research hypotheses • Personal experiences or observations from which we can make induction of generalizations. • Findings from other studies/ test the hypothesis based on the findings of another study. • Theoretical or conceptual frameworks (deductive reasoning).

  6. Classification of hypotheses • Simple and complex hypotheses: • Simple hypothesis: Relationship between one independent and one dependent variable, (univariate). • Complex hypothesis: Relationship between two or more independent variables, two or more dependent variables, or both (multivariate).

  7. In complex hypotheses it is better to divide a complex hypothesis in to two or more simple variables, example : • There is a positive relationship between patients’ perception of pain control and (a) complaints of pain and (b) requests for pain medications. • Can be used only if the researcher wants to investigate the Interaction effect: the action of two variables in conjunction with each other.

  8. Null and research hypotheses • Null hypothesis predicts that NO relationship exists between variables. • A research hypothesis (alternate hypothesis) states the expected relationship between variables (scientific, substantive, and theoretical).

  9. Nondirectional and Directional research hypotheses • Non directional: no prediction of the relationship. • Directional: predicts the type of the relationship. • Advantages of directional hypotheses: a. clarify the researchers’ expectations. b. allow more precise testing of theoretical propositions. c. Allow the use of one tailed statistical tests.

  10. Hypothesis criteria • Is written is declarative form • Is written in the present tense • Contains the population • Contains the variables • Reflects the problem statement • Is empirically testable

  11. Hypotheses and theory testing • Hypotheses are never proved or disproved • If the null hypothesis is rejected, the research hypothesis is supported. If the research hypothesis is supported, the theory from which the hypothesis was derived will also be supported.

More Related