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There is no research without a proper aim and hypotheses – aims and hypotheses in research are the supporting frameworks on a path to new scientific discoveries. To better understand their importance, let us first analyse the difference between aims and hypotheses in psychology, examine their purpose, and give some examples.
The aim is a summary of the goal or purpose of the research.
The hypothesis is a predictive, testable statement about what the researcher expects to find in the study.
When you write a research report, you should state the aim first and then the hypothesis. So, in a sense, the hypothesis narrows down the aim and states specifically and precisely what the expected outcome is.
The purpose of research aims are as follows:
Provide an overview of the research objective.
Describe why the research is needed and how it complements existing research in the field.
Readers can then identify the research topic and whether it is of interest to them.
The research aimed to examine the effects of sleep deprivation on test performance.
What information do hypotheses provide?
They identify the variables to be studied.
They describe what results are expected in terms of the effect of the independent variable on the dependent variable.
The hypothesis was that the less sleep a student gets (independent variable), the worse grades a student will achieve (dependent variable).
The purpose of research hypotheses are:
Typically, researchers use hypotheses for statistical tests such as hypothesis testing, which allows them to determine if the original predictions are correct.
The reader can then quickly identify the variables, the expected results based on previous research, and how the experiment should measure these variables.
Hypotheses usually influence the research design and analysis used in conducting the research.
As mentioned earlier, hypotheses are predictive, testable statements about what the researcher expects to find in their results. Psychological research must meet a standard for the psychological research community to accept it. An essential component of research is the hypothesis, which must also meet the requirements of the scientific community.
When writing research hypotheses, there are several essential things to consider, including:
Hypotheses must be clear and concise.
A hypothesis must be easy to understand and not contain irrelevant details.
The researcher must predict what they expect to find based on reading previous research findings.
The researcher must explain how they arrived at their predictions, citing evidence from prior research.
The researcher must identify all variables they study.
One study examined how sleep deprivation affects performance on cognitive tests. The hypothesis was to identify a sleeping time as the independent variable and cognitive test scores as the dependent variable.
The research must operationalise the hypotheses.
The researcher must describe how they will measure the variables.
When assessing cognitive abilities, the researcher should indicate how they will assess the cognitive skills. They could do so with a cognitive test, such as the Mini-Mental Status Examination scores.
There are two types of hypotheses: null and alternative hypotheses.
Null hypothesis: The independent variable does not influence the dependent variable.
Research scenario: Investigation of how test results affect sleep.
Alternative hypothesis: The independent variable has an effect on the dependent variable.
Research scenario: Investigating how sleep deprivation affects performance on cognitive tests.
The alternative hypothesis could be:
Directional: One-tailed (predicts exactly the independent variable's effect on the dependent variable) as in the example above.
Non-directional: Two-sided hypothesis (predicts that the independent variable will have an effect on the dependent variable, but not sure how large that effect will be).
Two-sided hypothesis: There will be a significant difference in sleep deprivation on cognitive tests.
Note that it only predicts that there will be a significant difference, but not exactly what that difference will be.
Researchers should summarise the research goal and purpose in a straightforward statement when writing aims. Moreover, researchers need to ensure that it is a predictive and testable statement when writing a hypothesis. This process should summarise the expected results of the study.
Researchers should write the aims first and then the hypothesis when writing research.
The three types of hypotheses are:
An aim in psychology is a summary statement of the research's goal or purpose.
Hypotheses differ from aims and objectives because aims are a general statement of the research's goals and purposes. In contrast, hypotheses explain precisely the predicted findings in terms of the independent and dependent variables.
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