PSYC 354
HYPOTHESIS T AESTING SSIGNMENT NSTRUCTIONS I
OVERVIEW
This assignment is designed to increase your statistical literacy and proficiency in forming
hypotheses and interpreting the outcomes of hypothesis tests. Testing hypotheses is central to
understanding and performing research in the behavioral sciences, including psychology, social
work, and counseling.
INSTRUCTIONS
This assignment includes two problem sets that contain research scenarios and related
questions.
Answer each question in the “ANSWER” space below the question.
This assignment is worth 60 points.
Please review the Watch: Key Concept: Hypothesis Testing and Statistical Significance
presentation in this module’s section before you complete this assignment. The scenarios Learn
begin on the next page.
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PSYC 354
Research Question 1:
Is Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) more effective in treating PTSD than Prolonged
Exposure therapy (PE)?
1. Does this question represent a correlational or experimental research design? Why?
ANSWER: (4 pts) This question represents an experimental research design because it is
interested in the difference between CPT and PE regarding effectiveness in treating
PTSD.
2. Which of the two models you learned about in the presentation would state that there
is nothing interesting going on between CPT and PE in treating PTSD?
ANSWER: (4 pts) The Null Model would state that there is nothing going on between
CPT and PE.
3. State the alternative hypothesis for this study.
ANSWER: (4 pts) H1: “Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) will be significantly more
effective in treating PTSD than Prolonged Exposure therapy (PE).”
4. State the null hypothesis for this study
ANSWER: (4 pts) H0: “Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) will not be significantly
more effective in treating PTSD than Prolonged Exposure therapy (PE).”
5. Are your hypotheses directional or non-directional? How do you know this?
ANSWER: (4 pts) The hypotheses are directional because the research question seeks to
find if one treatment method is more effective than the other. The word “more” signifies
that the test is a one-tailed and right tailed test.
6. Suppose you run the study, and the results come out with a p value of .23. What can
you conclude about the difference between the treatments?
ANSWER: (5 pts) The p value of .23 leads me to conclude that the difference between
CPT and PE is not significant.
7. In this case, would you decide to reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis? Why?
ANSWER: (5 pts) The decision is to fail to reject the null hypothesis. This is because p = .
23 means that there is 23% chance that there is no difference between CTE and PE.
0.23 > 0.05 means that the p-value is too large, results are not significant and fit the null
model.
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PSYC 354
Research Question 2:
Is there a relationship between scores on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the
Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI) in a sample of 350 fourth-grade students?
1. Does this question represent a correlational or experimental research design? Why?
ANSWER: (4 pts) This question represents a correlational research design because it’s
focus is on the relationship between scores on two variables (CBCL and ECBI).
2. Which of the two models you learned about in the presentation would state that there
is some kind of relationship between the scores on the CBCL and ECBI?
ANSWER: (4 pts) The Alternative Model would state that there is a relationship between
the scores on the CBCL and ECBI.
3. State the alternative hypothesis for this study.
ANSWER: (4 pts) H1: “There is a relationship between scores on the CBCL and scores
on the ECBI.”
4. State the null hypothesis for this study
ANSWER: (4 pts) H0: “There is no relationship between scores on the CBCL and scores
on the ECBI.”
5. Are your hypotheses directional or non-directional? How do you know this?
ANSWER: (4 pts) Because the research question talks primarily about relationship, they
are non-directional hypotheses.
6. Suppose you run the study, and the results come out with a p value of .001. What can
you conclude about the relationship between the scores on these two measures?
ANSWER: (5 pts) A p value of .001 is a small p value which indicates that there is some
kind of relationship between the CBCL and the ECBI. These results do not fit well under
the null model.
7. In this case, would you decide to reject or fail to reject the null hypothesis? Why?
ANSWER: (5 pts) The decision would be to reject the null hypothesis because .001 < .05
means that results are significant and support the alternative hypothesis.
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