PSY 223 Milestone Three Worksheet 

Review the critical elements that must be addressed in the final project. Use this worksheet to create Milestone Three. A hypothesis is a position about research outcomes. In this assignment, you will describe two hypotheses associated with your research scenario.

Points to consider:

A researcher acts like the coach of a sports team. In a pregame meeting, a coach describes the possible scenarios associated with outcomes of a game. “If we win, it means we go to the playoffs; if we lose it means our season is over.” The coach’s specificity helps ensure everyone is clear on what the team is up against and what is at stake.

Before doing an analysis, researchers do something similar. They acknowledge potential outcomes of the upcoming analysis. “We can find either: (a) variation in the data reflects chance, or (b) variation in the data is due to a systematic law.”

Researchers call position (a) null hypothesis (symbolized H0). Researchers call position (b) alternative hypothesis (symbolized Ha). A researcher customizes the hypotheses to a study, using symbols and information about the specific study.

1. Indicate your research hypotheses (null and alternative), incorporating the appropriate symbols. [To answer this question, you need, in part, to look at the research scenario.
2. State what the hypotheses mean. [Some overlap may exist with your answer to # 1. These are related rather than mutually exclusive questions.]

Additional information is in the course textbook (Statistical Reasoning for Everyday Life) and in this video.