Stating Testable Hypotheses

Provided that one has a properly framed research question, the next step is to rephrase it in a manner that can generate an answer. The question is permitted to be vague; however, the hypotheses must be concrete. We must bring the question down from the realm of ideas and settle it on solid earth.

The research question communicates your "Hmmm, I wonder..." as "Hmmmm, I think..." So, in that sense, the hypothesis does remain a bit vague but only because aren't making any judgments of knowing. It is the words that we choose in our hypothesis that must be concrete.

Here is an example of the research question:

Research Question: Are children are more resilient than we think they are?

See how vague that is? What do we mean by resilient? How would we know if they are more resilient than 'we think' they are?

Now, here's a hypothesis

Hypothesis: Childrens' scores on the Resilience Scale will negatively correlate with their parents' scores on the Perceptions of Child Resilience Scale.

We have declared a way to measure resilience and a way to measure parents' perceptions of childrens' resilience via the two Scales (i.e., surveys). We have also declared a way to compare the two via "negatively correlate"

This hypothesis would suggest that lower scores for parents' perception are associated with higher scores for childrens' perception. Parents with low belief in their childrens' perception <--> Children with high resilience.


Note that this only an example of how to state a hypothesis. There are many other concerns not addressed here (e.g., what is meant by children?). Note also that this only one of many ways that the hypothesis could have been stated.

Strictly speaking, the hypothesis should be stated to the contrary as a "null hypothesis" symbolized H0:

H0: Childrens' scores on the Resilience Scale will NOT be negatively correlate with their parents' scores on the Perceptions of Child Resilience Scale.

We accept the null as the truth. Our results can then tell us how much we can trust "our" hypothesis, often called the "alternative hypothesis" symbolized H1: or Ha:

Given a stated testable hypothesis, we can then more efficiently gather data, conduct trials, analyze the data, and interpret results.

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