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The basic logic of hypothesis testing is to prove or disprove the research question. By
only allowing an error of 5% or 1% and making correct decisions based on statistical
principles, the researcher can conclude that the result must be real if chance alone could
produce the same result only 5% of the time or less. These five steps consists of all the
decisions a researcher needs to make in order to answer any research question using an
inferntial statistical test.
Example:
5. STATE CONCLUSIONS.
The fifth and final step is to describe the results and state correct statistical conclusions in
an understandable way. The conclusions consists of two statments-one describing the
results of the null hypothesis and the other describing the results of the alternative
hypothesis. The first statement should state as to whether we accepted or rejected the null
hypothesis and for what value of alpha or p-value for our test statistic. The second
statement should answer the research question proposed in step 1 stating the sample
statistic collected which estimated the parameter we hypothesized.
Example:
Accept the null hypothesis at alpha=.05 or p-value of .096. Based on a sample mean of
$25,000, the mean salary of a newly graduated student does not equal $30,000.