Aims and Hypotheses

About the lecture

In this lecture, we think about aims and hypotheses, focusing in particular on: (i) the importance of following the scientific process when investigating in psychology; (ii) Albert Bandura’s ‘Bobo Doll study’ as a demonstration of the function and importance of a study’s aim; (iii) the general aim developing into the hypothesis, described as a clear and specific statement about what you predict from your research design, to help you achieve and understand your aim; (iv) the distinction between the experimental hypothesis and the null hypothesis; (v) the relationship between hypotheses and statistics, elaborating on the importance of differentiating between one- and two-tailed hypotheses.

Hypothesis – A hypothesis is a clear and specific statement about some fact, behaviour, or relationship. It states an expected outcome resulting from specific conditions or assumptions, often in the context of independent and dependent variables.

Experimental Hypothesis – An experimental hypothesis (also known as an alternative hypothesis) posits that a study will find meaningful differences between the groups or conditions under investigation.

Null Hypothesis – A null hypothesis posits that a study will find no meaningful differences between the groups or conditions under investigation.

Two-Tailed Hypothesis – A two-tailed hypothesis (non-directional hypothesis) posits that one experimental group will differ from another, but without specifying the expected direction of the difference.

One-Tailed Hypothesis – A one-tailed hypothesis (directional hypothesis) posits that one experimental group will differ from another and specifies the expected direction of the difference.

About the lecturer

Dr Eoin O’Sullivan is an associate lecturer in the School of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of St Andrews. Dr O’Sullivan teaches the first-year undergraduate research methods course and is interested in uncovering novel teaching techniques in the field of research methods and statistics, within psychology. Some of Dr O’Sullivan’s recent publications include ‘Automatic imitation effects are influenced by experience of synchronous action in children’ (2018) and ‘Understanding imitation in Papio papio: the role of experience and the presence of a conspecific demonstrator’ (2022).