4/7/24, 11:28 AM Introduction to Hypothesis Testing - Statology

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Introduction to Hypothesis
Testing
BY ZACH BOBBITT  OCTOBER 11, 2018

A statistical hypothesis is an assumption about

a population parameter.

For example, we may assume that the mean

height of a male in the U.S. is 70 inches.

The assumption about the height is the

statistical hypothesis and the true mean height
of a male in the U.S. is the population
parameter.

A hypothesis test is a formal statistical test we

use to reject or fail to reject a statistical
hypothesis.

The Two Types of Statistical

Hypotheses

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To test whether a statistical hypothesis about a

population parameter is true, we obtain a random
sample from the population and perform a
hypothesis test on the sample data.

There are two types of statistical hypotheses:

The null hypothesis, denoted as H0, is the

hypothesis that the sample data occurs purely
from chance.

The alternative hypothesis, denoted as H1 or

Ha, is the hypothesis that the sample data is
influenced by some non-random cause.

Hypothesis Tests
A hypothesis test consists of five steps:

1. State the hypotheses.

State the null and alternative hypotheses. These

two hypotheses need to be mutually exclusive,
so if one is true then the other must be false.

2. Determine a significance level to use for

the hypothesis.

Decide on a significance level. Common choices

are .01, .05, and .1.
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3. Find the test statistic.

Find the test statistic and the corresponding p-

value. Often we are analyzing a population mean
or proportion and the general formula to find the
test statistic is: (sample statistic – population
parameter) / (standard deviation of statistic)

4. Reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis.

Using the test statistic or the p-value, determine

if you can reject or fail to reject the null
hypothesis based on the significance level.

The p-value tells us the strength of evidence in

support of a null hypothesis. If the p-value is less
than the significance level, we reject the null
hypothesis.

5. Interpret the results.

Interpret the results of the hypothesis test in the

context of the question being asked.

The Two Types of Decision Errors

There are two types of decision errors that one
can make when doing a hypothesis test:

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Type I error: You reject the null hypothesis when

it is actually true. The probability of committing a
Type I error is equal to the significance level,
often called alpha, and denoted as α.

Type II error: You fail to reject the null

hypothesis when it is actually false. The
probability of committing a Type II error is called
the Power of the test or Beta, denoted as β.

One-Tailed and Two-Tailed Tests

A statistical hypothesis can be one-tailed or two-
tailed.

A one-tailed hypothesis involves making a

“greater than” or “less than ” statement.

For example, suppose we assume the mean

height of a male in the U.S. is greater than or
equal to 70 inches. The null hypothesis would be
H0: µ ≥ 70 inches and the alternative hypothesis
would be Ha: µ < 70 inches.

A two-tailed hypothesis involves making an

“equal to” or “not equal to” statement.

For example, suppose we assume the mean

height of a male in the U.S. is equal to 70 inches.

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The null hypothesis would be H0: µ = 70 inches

and the alternative hypothesis would be Ha: µ ≠
70 inches.

Note: The “equal” sign is always included in the

null hypothesis, whether it is =, ≥, or ≤.

Related: What is a Directional Hypothesis?

Types of Hypothesis Tests

There are many different types of hypothesis
tests you can perform depending on the type of
data you’re working with and the goal of your
analysis.

The following tutorials provide an explanation of

the most common types of hypothesis tests:

Introduction to the One Sample t-test

Introduction to the Two Sample t-test
Introduction to the Paired Samples t-test
Introduction to the One Proportion Z-Test
Introduction to the Two Proportion Z-Test

Published by Zach

View all posts by Zach

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