Experimental 06: Formulating the Hypothesis

Explain the value of a meta-analysis.

- can provide helpful information about your topic - not an experiment, but rather a statistical analysis of many similar studies - measures average effect size

What is falsifiability and why is it important?

- "there are pink elephants" - if the statement is wrong, you will only find absense of evidence - a falsifiable statement: "There are no pink elephants" (one pink elephant disproves it)

Why should hypothesis be parsimonious?

- KISS (keep it simple, stupid) - a simple hypothesis allows us to focus our attention on the main factors that influence our dependent variable

What is testability and why is it important?

- an experimental hypothesis is testable when it can be assessed by manipulating an IV and measuring the results on the DV - without testability, we cannot evaluate the validity of a hypothesis

What is a hypothesis?

- educated guess - will be about what we expect the manipulation of the IV to cause in our DV

How does a review of prior experiments help us develop a hypothesis?

- identifies questions that have not been conclusively answered or addressed at all - suggests new hypotheses - identifies additional variables that could mediate an effect - identifies problems other researchers have experienced - helps avoid duplication of prior research when replication is not intended

Explain the inductive model of formulating a hypothesis.

- induction is reasoning from specific cases to general principles to form a hypothesis - observations/specifics --> theories/general

What is the purpose of the Introduction section?

- provides a selective review of research findings related to the research hypothesis

What are helpful strategies for developing an experimental hypothesis?

- read an issue of a psychology journal - observe how people behave in public places - choose a real-world problem and try to identify its cause

What is the most useful way to develop a hypothesis?

- review research that has already been published - think back to interesting studies in other classes and find recent research done on that theory

Why should hypotheses be fruitful?

- should lead to new studies - can you think of new hypotheses if your results support your hypothesis?

Why must a hypothesis be a synthetic statement?

- when we state a hypothesis, we then father data that either support or contradict it - a hypothesis must be capable of being true or false, which is a property of synthetic statements - if...then statements