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Bella edwards
Chapter3DevelopingtheHypothesis.pptxDeveloping the Hypothesis
Developing the Hypothesis
First you need an Idea
Develop a hypothesis
Educated guess
Statement that describes the relationship between two or more variables.
Identify relevant variables
Variable: any measurable condition, event, characteristic or behavior that is controlled in a study.
Operationally define the relevant variables
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I was just reading online information about Beethoven one day and ran across this bit of information. One source of ideas is your everyday life. Some people keep a small notebook and pencil with them and write down their ideas during the course of a normal day.
Developing the Hypothesis
Sources of Ideas
Everyday life
Television news stories
Psychology textbooks
Research journals from library
Professors
Developing the Hypothesis
Inductive and Deductive Reasoning
Inductive = observe, generalize, theorize
Deductive = theory, predict, observe
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You can get an idea for research from your observations in your life and from these make some generalizations and thus a theory or hypothesis - Induction. You can also start with a Theory and from that consider various predictions the theory makes, and now do a test of those predictions (observations and measurements) – Deduction. For example you may notice that your male friends drive faster and like to run over trash in the road. You make the generalization that men are more aggressive drivers than women. Now you set up your theory, Men are more aggressive than Women. This leads you to hypothesis that men will steer a car to purposefully hit a cup placed in the middle of the road (on the double yellow lines) whereas women will steer avoid a cup placed directly in their path.
Developing the Hypothesis
A simple scheme showing hypothesis testing in everyday life.
Testable Hypotheses Make Testable Predictions.
Developing the Hypothesis
Making it Testable
Hypothesis: Human memory is accurate.
Not a Testable Hypothesis
Hypothesis: Recall for personal events is highly accurate.
Not a Testable Hypothesis
Hypothesis: A person will recall more items from a personal experience than they will from a verbal description of the experience.
Testable Hypothesis!
Developing the Hypothesis
Hypothesis: A person will recall more items from a personal experience than they will from a verbal description of the experience.
Prediction: A group that undergoes a personal experience will recall more items on average than a group that is read a description of the experience.
Developing the Hypothesis
Operational Definitions are the plans of how to measure or manipulate the variables.
How do you define hunger?
How do you define aggression?
How do you define pain?
How do you define memory?
Hypothetical constructs
Ideas or concepts that are useful for understanding behavior, thought and attitude but that are complex and not directly measurable
intelligence, satiation, attraction, status, motivation, learning, memory
Operational definitions
A precise description of how the variables in a study will be manipulated and measured.
Developing the Hypothesis
Hypothesis: A person will recall more items from a personal experience than they will from a verbal description of the experience.
Operationally Define: Independent and Dependent Variables.
In our example, the independent variable is the experience (personal vs. verbal).
The dependent variable is memory.
How do we define these?
Developing the Hypothesis
Hypothesis: A person will recall more items from a personal experience than they will from a verbal description of the experience.
Operational Definition of IV:
Personal Experience will be a student entering class fighting with her boyfriend (loud angry accusations).
Verbal Description will be a student standing in front of the class reading an essay about an argument with her boyfriend.
Developing the Hypothesis
Hypothesis: A person will recall more items from a personal experience than they will from a verbal description of the experience.
Operational Definition of DV (memory):
Number of questions about the fight answered correctly.
Developing the Hypothesis
Construct Validity
How well do the operational definitions actually define what we are trying to measure?
Yawning is a sign of being tired, but it also seems to be a sign that someone is anxious or nervous about something.
Are yawns a valid operational definition of anxiety?
To validate, when I worked at Zoo Atlanta we included yawns on our behavior chart. We found that in primates there were more yawns in the 30 minutes before food was to arrive than at other times of the day. They are anxious before feeding.
Humans also tend to yawn more before important meetings or speaking in public.
Developing the Hypothesis
Final Thought:
Hypotheses must be stated in way that can be tested and shown to be true AND false.
At least you must be able to generate predictions about the outcome that says if X happens, then the hypothesis is true, if Y happens, then the hypothesis is false.
