COMST 404 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Null Hypothesis, Statistical Hypothesis Testing

• School: Iowa State University
• Department: Communication Studies
• Course: COMST 404
• Professor: kellyodenweller

Document Summary

Purpose of hs and rqs: provides focus and direction for the study, two types of research questions and hypotheses. Hypotheses: create at least 1 original hypothesis for current project, purpose of hypothesis. Forward/offer/assert some educated guess about the relationship between two or more variables under study, expected outcomes, and population of interest. Independent variable: thing changed for the study/test/experiment (e. g. give a different test to similar people) Dependent variable: expected outcome: hypothesis testing (methods) confirms the statement by demonstrating that the observed findings did not occur by chance alone, but rather because there is empirical evidence of its existence (significant results) Null hypothesis: must be stated first. There is no difference between gender and online relationship status disclosure: form an alternative hypothesis stating the nature of the difference. Females are more likely than males to disclose personal information about their relationship status on facebook. Alternate hypotheses may be directional or non-directional.