Hypothesis Testing

Methods that use sample data to evaluate

a hypothesis about a population
Steps of Hypothesis testing
• Step 1
• State a hypothesis
• Step 2
• Set the criteria for decision
• Step 3
• Compute statistics
• Step 4
• Make a decision
Stating the hypothesis

• Directional &
• Non Directional Hypotheses
Example
• Males are likely to have higher self esteem
than females
• Older people are likely to have stronger
religious beliefs than adolescents
• Clinical psychologists are likely to have better
analytic reasoning than social psychologists
• With more leisure time available women are
less likely to be happy
• Males are likely to be different in their level of
self esteem from females females
• Older people are likely to be different in the
strength of religious beliefs from adolescents
• Clinical psychologists are likely to be different
in their level analytic reasoning than social
psychologists
• Leisure time is related with happiness of
women
Setting the criteria for
decision
• Alpha level or level of significance or (α)
• In some cases Degree of Freedom
• Level of significance or alpha level

Small probability that is used to identify the low probability

samples
• Degree of freedom

Number of scores in a sample free to vary

Errors in Hypothesis Testing

• Type I Error
• To find the difference or
relationship when actually it is not
present (α)
• Type II Error
• Unable to find the difference or
relationship when it is there(β)
 Power of the test

probability that the test will

correctly find the difference or
relationship stated in the
hypothesis (1 – β)

Effected by size of effect, alpha level

and sample size
 Types of hypotheses testing
procedures
Parametric tests Non-Parametric tests
Normal distribution Distribution free
Interval or ratio scale Nominal or ordinal scale
More sensitive to Less sensitive to detect the
detect the real real difference between two
difference between two treatments
treatments
 Z test (Single sample)

Assumptions
1. Random sampling
2. Independent observations
3. Normal sampling distribution
Problem
Under the regular circumstances the population of 2 year
old children has an average weight of 26 pounds. The
distribution of weights is normal with SD of 4. The
researcher selects a random sample of 4 new born infants
and instructs parents to provide each child with extra
handling. The researcher predicts that the extra handling
will stimulate the infant’s growth and produce an increase
in their weight at age 2.He records the weight of each
child at age 2 and obtains a sample mean of 29.5 pounds.
 M 
2. Test statistic: Z =
M