RESEARCH HYPOTHESES AND QUESTIONS

A research hypothesis is a prediction of the outcome of a study. The prediction may be based on an educated guess or a formal theory. Example 1 is a hypothesis for a nonexperimental study.

Example 1
It is hypothesized that first grade girls will show better reading comprehension than first grade boys.

In Example 1, the author is predicting that he or she will find higher comprehension among girls than boys. To test it, a nonexperimental study would be appropriate because nothing in the hy-pothesis suggests that treatments will be given.

A simple research hypothesis predicts a rela-tionship between two variables. From your study of variables, it should be clear that the two variables in Example 1 are (1) gender and (2) reading comprehension. The hy-pothesis states that reading comprehension is re-lated to gender.

Example 2 is a hypothesis for an experimen-tal study.

Example 2
It is hypothesized that children who arc shown a video with mild violence will be more aggressive on the playground than those who are shown a similar video without the violence.

In Example 2, the independent variable is vio-lence (mild vs. none), and the dependent variable is aggressiveness on the playground.

The hypotheses in Examples 1 and 2 are ex-amples of directional hypotheses. In a direc-tional hypothesis, we predict which group will be higher or have more of something.

Sometimes we have a nondirectional hy-pothesis. Consider Example 3.

Example 3
It is hypothesized that the child-rearing practices of Tribe A are different from those of Tribe B.

The author of Example 3 is saying that there will be a difference but does not predict the direction of the difference. This is perfectly acceptable when there is no basis for making an educated guess.

Instead of a nondirectional hypothesis, we might state a research purpose.