HLTHAGE 2A03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Null Hypothesis, Alternative Hypothesis, Test Statistic
19 Jan 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Elements to consider in research design: purpose of the research. Follows from a research problem: quantitative and qualitative orientations, write a hypothesis (quantitative) or a statement of proposition from a causal explanation. A hypothesis is a prediction of what will be found at the outcome of a research project and is typically focused on the relationship between two different variables studied in the research. It is based on both theoretical expectations about how things work, and already existing scientific evidence. A good hypothesis is, one that is easily tested. The ease of testing contributes to a second key aspect of the scientific method: reproducibility of testing. A clearly worded hypothesis can be tested repeatedly by a scientist, and, maybe more important, by other scientists. It can predict that there is no relationship between two variables (null hypothesis) It can predict the existence of a relationship between variables (alternative hypothesis) Hypothesis is the central tool of scientific observation.
