Hypothesis Testing in Research
Hypothesis testing can be referred to as a methodology which the researcher utilizes for Testing claims related to a specific topic.
Hypothesis testing: Definition
Hypothesis Testing is a Statistical test which the researcher performs for determining whether the hypothesis which is expected for the sample of data is true about population. Scientific generally utilizes hypothesis testing techniques for testing assumptions which are known as theories or hypotheses. The main purpose of testing a hypothesis is to determine if a pattern which the researcher is measuring has occurred by chance.
Procedure for Hypothesis Testing in Research
The 5 steps which you need to follow for testing hypotheses in research are:
Step 1: State Research hypothesis as null and alternative
Firstly, you need to design a hypothesis, it means that you are required to predict the issue or subject on which you want to perform an investigation. After that you should clearly state your null and alternative hypothesis so that it could be tested using the mathematical formulas or techniques.
An alternative hypothesis is an initial hypothesis that helps you in determining the relationship between different variables of the study. The Null hypothesis in research depicts several relationships between the variables.
For example:
If the researcher intends to identify the relationship between height and gender. On the basis of their knowledge about human physiology they can easily design a hypothesis. It means that an investigator can develop a hypothesis on the basis of the assumption that men are taller than women. You for setting this hypothesis in research can write it like this such as:
H0 Men does not have a taller height than women.
Ha: Men on an average have taller height than women.
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Step 2: Collection of information
At this step of hypothesis testing, it is very much essential for you to perform sampling and do a collection of facts. It is the tactic that will help you in ensuring the validity of the test. In case the information which you have gathered is not representative then in such a situation you will not able to make statistical inferences about the population using which you intend to perform research.
For example: You in order to test the variations in the average height of men and women need to select a few people as a sample for research. At the time of selecting a few people as participants in your study you need to ensure that in the sample the numbers of men and women participants are equal. During the selection of the sample, you also need to consider the other facts which might influence the average height of men and woman. It is also very essential for you to determine the scope of your study and the source of data collection. You can utilize census data as a source of gathering information about the difference in the average height of men and women.
Step 3: Execution of statistical test
There are several Statistical tests which you can execute for testing of hypothesis in research. You need to make a selection of the specific type of statistical test based on the difference within and between-group variance.
In the case between groups variance is large and there is no overlapping in groups then in such case your statistical test will indicate low p-value. It represents that the variations between different groups have taken place by chance.
Note: You should make a decision related to the selection of statistical tests considering the type of information you intend to collect.
Example: On the basis of data collection, you can execute a T-test for testing whether the average height of men s are taller than women. The test will provide you
Estimation of variation in an average height of two different genders.
A p-value demonstrates how likely the researcher can observe the variations if there is a null hypothesis which states that no difference between the height of men and women is true.
The t-test represents an average difference if 10.2 cm between the average height of men and men. From the test it has been found that, average heights of men are 175.4 cm and that of women is 161.2 cm. Here, the p-value is 0.02.
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Step 4: Decide whether to support or refute Null hypothesis
Based on the result of the statistical test, you need to determine whether you should support or refute the null hypothesis.
In many cases, you can utilize p-value which is produced from a statistical test for guiding your decision. There might be few cases that were cut off for refuting the null hypothesis would be 0.05. It means that there is less than five percent of chances that you can observe such outcomes in case the null hypothesis is true.
For example, In case of analysis of the average height of men and women, the p-value which you have derived from the statistical test was 0.002 that is less than 5 %, now on the basis of findings that there is no difference between on average height of men and woman you can make the decision to reject the null hypothesis.
Step 5: Presentation of findings in the Research Result and Discussion section
You need to present the outcomes of hypothesis testing in the result and discussion section of the research paper.
In the context of the result section of your research paper, you need to summarise the information and results of the statistical test. You can have a discussion related to whether to accept or refute the initial hypothesis in the discussion section of your research paper.
Example of stating outcomes in statistics assignment
In context of Hypothesis in Statistics, when the comparison is made been on average height of men and women, the researcher has analyse that average variation is 14.3 cm and the p-value is 0.002. On the basis of analysis, an investigator can refute or reject the null hypothesis as men are not taller than women.
At the time of presentation of research results in an academic paper, you need to first review your alternative hypothesis and you need to clearly state that the outcome of the research is consistent or inconsistent with an alternative hypothesis. In case your null hypothesis is rejected it means that result interpreted is consistent with alternative hypothesis.
Stating results in a research paper
It has been found from the statistical test that the variations in the average height of men and women are 14.3 cm along with a p-value of 0.002 that is consistent with the alternative hypothesis.
Conclusion
It has been concluded from the above that the main purpose of hypothesis testing is to test whether the specific theory is true or not. Another fact which has been discovered from the above is that the statistical test is selected by researchers based on data they intend to collect for performing research.
