Aims and Hypotheses

Question 1

What is an aim?

Answer 1

A statement of the study’s purpose - for example, Asch’s aim might have been: ‘to study majority influence in an umambiguous task’.

Research should state its aim beforehand so that it is clear what the study intends to investigate.

Question 2

What is a null hypothesis?

Answer 2

1. What you are going to assume is true during the study,
2. Very often, the null hypothesis is a prediction that there is no relation between the key variables in the study, or that there is no difference between the scores from various conditions of an experiment.

Question 2

What is an alternative hypothesis?

Answer 2

1. If the data force you to reject your null hypothesis, then you accept your alternative hypothesis instead,
2. If your null hypothesis was that two variables aren’t linked, then your alternative hypothesis would be that they are linked.

Question 3

What is a directional hypothesis?

Answer 3

1. A hypothesis might predict a difference between results obtained by two different groups of people,
2. If the hypothesis states which group will do better, it is making a directional hypothesis,
3. Directional hypotheses are often used when previous research findings suggest which way the results will go.

Question 4

What is a non-directional hypothesis?

Answer 4

1. Would predict a difference, but wouldn’t say which group would do better,
2. In example, might say that one group will significantly outperform the other without indicating which,
3. Can be used when there is little previous research in the area under investigation, or when previous research findings are mixed and inconclusive.

Question 5

What is the independent variable?

Answer 5

1. An independent variable is a variable directly manipulated by the researcher,
2. In example, in a test on student exam results, the independent variable could be whether they used a revision guide; it is under direct control of the researcher.

Question 6

What is the dependent variable?

Answer 6

1. Is the variable that will be affected by changes in the independent variable,
2. In the example of exam performance, the grade is dependent on whether a revision guide is being used,
3. Ideally in a study the only thing that influences the DV is the IV.

Question 7

What are extraneous variables and confounding variables?

Answer 7

1. Extraneous variables are any variable that could affect what you are trying to measure,
2. If these actually are influencing the DV then they are called confounding variables.

Question 8

What is operationalisation?

Answer 8

1. Variables must be operationalised, meaning that the process through which the variables are measured must be described,
2. Operationalisation allows others to see exactly how you are going to define and measure your variables.