Hypotheses/Research Questions

Muhammad Rafiq Awan

 Hypotheses
 About Hypothesis
 It is most important after research problem
 You can complete your thesis without it
 You can made as many hypotheses as you desire
 It primarily arises from “hunch, assumption, suspicion,
assertion, or idea about phenomenon to see relationship,
cause or association
 It brings direction and focuses specificity
 What information to collect
 Relation among variables
 Eliminate redundancy
 Help to formulate or test theory
 Explains difference in independent and dependent variable
 How hypotheses Are Build
 From observation
 From experience
 From current theories
 From literature
 From some logic
 From generating questions in existing phenomenon
 From refutal of existing phenomenon
 Formulating Your Hypothesis
 Determine your variables
 Generate a general hypothesis
 Make it directional if possible
 Narrow down to specific
 Confirm the topic is testable
 State the formal hypothesis
 Write the null hypothesis
 Find significant difference or relationship
 Implies the population that you are going to study.
 Relevant to the topic
 Must have three components (variable/s/ population/ relationship)
 Appropriate terminology
 Limited in scope (focused)
 Definition of Hypothesis
 “a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of
limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation”
 “a proposition made as a basis for reasoning, without any
assumption of its truth”
 A supposition or explanation (theory) that is provisionally
accepted in order to interpret certain events or phenomena, and
to provide guidance for further investigation
 an ​idea or ​explanation for something that is ​based on ​known ​
facts but has not ​yet been ​proved
 A working statement is a provisionally accepted as proposed
hypothesis for further research.
 Types of Hypotheses
 Simple hypothesis - this predicts the
relationship between a single independent
variable (IV) and a single dependent variable
(DV) 
 Complex hypothesis
 This predicts the relationship between two or more independent
variables and two or more dependent variables.
 Directional hypotheses
 These are usually derived from theory.
 They may imply that the researcher is intellectually committed
to a particular outcome
 They specify the expected direction of the relationship
between variables i.e. the researcher predicts not only the
existence of a relationship but also its nature
 It is two tailed
 Example: scores for trained students are greater than the
national average. (H0: μ = 850 vs. H1: μ > 850)
 Group differences exist; one group expected to perform better
than the other group(s).
Example: Group A will do better than group B.
 Examples of Directional Hypothesis
 Hypothesis 1: State-owned firms will have a greater share of
the domestic market than publicly traded or privately held
firms.
 Hypothesis 2: Publicly traded firms will have broader product
lines than state-owned and privately held firms.
 Hypothesis 3: State-owned firms are more likely to have
state-owned enterprises as customers overseas.
 Hypothesis 4: State-owned firms will have a higher customer-
base stability than privately held firms.
 Hypothesis 5: In less visible contexts, publicly traded firms
will employ more advanced technology than state-owned and
privately held firms
 Non-directional hypotheses
 Used when there is little or no theory, or when findings of
previous studies are contradictory.
 They may imply impartiality.
 Do not stipulate the direction of the relationship.
 It is one tailed
 Example: There is a relation between a student's level of
intelligence and his or her score on a test designed to measure
mental abilities.
 Example: There will be a difference in achievement between
students exposed to cooperative learning and students exposed
to lecture
 Example: Gender identity of religious and secular Arab and
Jewish women are related to different sociopolitical social
orders that reflect the different value systems they embrace.
 Associative and causal hypotheses
 Associative hypotheses: Propose relationships between variables -
when one variable changes, the other changes.
 Do not indicate cause and effect.
 Example: An increase in purchase is associated with an increase in
income
 Example: An increase in variable X is associated with a decrease in
variable Y in a specified population
 Causal hypotheses: Propose a cause and effect interaction between
two or more variables.
 The independent variable is manipulated to cause effect on the
dependent variable.
  The dependent variable is measured to examine the effect created by
the independent variable.

Example: Food patterns are the major cause of high blood pressure
 Null hypotheses /Alternate / Testable Hypotheses
 These are used when the researcher believes there is no
relationship between two variables or when there is inadequate
theoretical or empirical information to state a research
hypothesis    (It may be simple or complex;   associative or
causal. )
 Testable hypotheses
 Contain variables that are measurable or able
to be manipulated.
 They need to predict a relationship that can be
'supported' or 'not supported' based on data
collection and analysis.  
 Hypotheses of Difference and
Prevalence
 Hypothesis of Difference: Give difference but
not magnitude
 Example: There is difference in quality of
education among state owned and private
institution
 Hypotheses of Prevalence: How situation
prevail
 Example: A lot of uncertainty exists in
economic development of Pakistan
Characteristics of Good Hypothesis
 Simple, specific and conceptually clear
 Capable of verification
 Relating to existing body of knowledge
 Operationalizable, measureable, testable
 Guide for data collection
 Tells specific aspects of problem
 Help to formulate theory
 Eliminate redundancy
 Errors in Testing Hypothesis
 Study design may be faulty
 Sampling procedure may be faulty
 Method of data collection may be faulty
 Data analysis may be wrong
 Statistical procedure may be wrong
 Questions coding may be wrong
 Hypothesis may be illogical
 Conclusion drawn may be incorrect
 Research Questions
 How do you refine this topic into a question
that is answerable within the scope of the
dissertation?
 Ask yourself what questions need to be
answered in order to fill the gaps in the
literature
 What Research Questions Do
“Well-crafted questions guide the systematic
planning of research. Formulating your
questions precisely enables you to design a
study with a good chance of answering them.”
-- Light, Singer, Willett, By Design (1990)
 Choosing Research Questions
Interesting:-
-find someone interested in the topic
Important/Relevant/Worthwhile/Sensible
- important enough to be worth answering
- related to experiences that are alive
- important to individuals/groups
- the scope of the research & the sophistication of
the design depends on the uses to which the
results will be put
Answerable/Feasible/Fundable/Ethical
 What to Do

 read a lot
 be prepared
 discover your area
 to change your mind
of interest
research


narrow down
question

 discuss
 don’t panic

 assess resources
(data, methods
 Good Research Questions
 Significant: contribution to knowledge
 Non-trivial: (i.e., not speculative, not self-evident)
 Efficient: Neither too limited nor too narrow
 Researchable: you are able to collect evidence that
would answer the question.
 Doable: given your time and material constraints.
 Inspiring: potential to hold your interest
 Systematic: A good question is situated in the
discourse of science
 Good Research Questions….
 Reachable: be clearly linked to overall project goal
 Representative: allow the target population to be
identified
 Aggregator: guide the appropriate level of
aggregation (e.g. class, course, curriculum,
institution)
 Predictor: identify the outcome variables and key
predictors of those variables
 Guide: determine what type of study is needed (e.g.
descriptive, relational, experimental)
 Traceable: identify background characteristics that
might influence outcomes
 Not so good Research Questions
 Questions that have already be answered

 Questions not empirically testable

 Start with “What are…” (invites listing, not analysis)

 Start with “How can I…

 Are rhetorical (Suggest a “yes” or “no” answer)

 Are unimportant (answer does not interest anybody)

 Lack clarity (Include vague or ambiguous language)

 Are no questions (general topics, no claim of analyzing

anything)
Question your Research Question
 Are you trying to find out rather than prove
something?
 Do you expect to get surprised by what you find in
your data?
 Can you imagine that you decide – based on your
data – that your previous ideas were wrong?
 What will you do with the answer if you get it?
 Do you know how an answer would look like ?
 Who will benefit from an answer?
 raise questions about how to best collect data
 influence the number of participants in the study
 Guiding Principles for
Research Questions
1. Question: pose significant question that
can be investigated empirically
2. Theory: link research to relevant theory
3. Methods: use methods that permit direct
investigation of the question
4. Reasoning: provide coherent, explicit chain
of reasoning
5. Replicate and generalize across studies
6. Disclose research to encourage professional
scrutiny and critique (National Research Council, 2002)
 Eight Tips for Writing a good
Research Questions
 1.  When a relationship is expected among a certain type of subject, reference the
population.
Example: Among young children, there is a positive relationship between level of
psychomotor coordination and degree of self-esteem.

2.  Make Research Questions as specific and succinct as possible.

OK: Administrators who provide wellness programs for their employees project receive
positive effectiveness.
Better: Administrators who provide wellness programs for their employees receive
higher employee ratings on selected leadership qualities than administrators who do
not provide wellness programs.
 3. Avoid words or terms that do not add to the meaning of RQs and Hs.
 Rather than: Among elementary school teachers, those who are teaching in year-
round schools will report having higher morale than those who are teaching in
elementary schools that follow a more traditional school-year schedule.
 Try: Among elementary school teachers, those who teach in year-round schools
have higher morale than those who teach on a traditional schedule.
 Eight Tips…….
 4. Stick to what will be studied, not implications or your value
judgments.
Rather than: Religion is good for society.
Try: Regular attendance at religious services is inversely associated
with cheating behavior while taking classroom tests.
 5. Name the variables in the order in which they occur or will be

measured.
 Example. There is a positive relationship between College Board

Scholastic Aptitude Test scores and first-semester grades earned in

college.
 6. Avoid the words significant or significance.

 7. Avoid using the word “prove.”

 8. Avoid using two different terms to refer to the same variable.