STATISTICAL HYPOTHESIS

An assertion or conjecture concerning one or more populations

Hypothesis testing is the method of testing whether claims or hypotheses regarding a
population are likely to be true.
2 TYPES OF STATISTICAL HYPOTHESIS
1. NULL HYPOTHESIS (H )
O
hypothesis of no difference
- Ordinarily formulated with the purpose of being accepted or rejected
2.
ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESIS (H )
1
- The hypothesis which is accepted if the null hypothesis is rejected
Classifications of Alternative Hypothesis
1. NONDIRECTIONAL HYPOTHESIS
- Asserts that one value is different from another
- It is an assertion that there is a significant difference between two statistical
measures
- Makes use of sign and considered as two sided
2. DIRECTIONAL HYPOTHESIS
- An assertion that one measure is less than ( or greater than) another
measure of similar nature
- Uses > or < signs and considered as one sided

Examples of Statistical Hypothesis

1. Ho: The average annual income of all the families of Calabanga District is P 36,
000. ( = Php 36, 000)
H1: The average annual income of all the families of Calabanga District is not P
36, 000. ( P 36, 000)
2. Ho: There is no significant difference between the average life of brand A light
bulbs and that of
brand B light bulbs. ( = )
A
B
H1: There is significant difference between the average life of brand A light
bulbs and that of brand B
light bulbs. ( )
A
B

3. Ho: The proportion of TV viewers who watch talk shows from 9:00 to 10:00 in the
evening is the same
on Wednesdays and Fridays. (p1 = p2)
H1: The proportion of TV viewers who watch talk shows from 9:00 to 10:00 in
the evening is greater
on Wednesdays than on Fridays.

(p1 > p2)

Four possibilities exist in connection with the acceptance or rejection of a null

hypothesis. These are:
1.
2.
3.
4.

The
The
The
The

null
null
null
null

hypothesis
hypothesis
hypothesis
hypothesis

is
is
is
is

accepted when, in fact, it is true. (perfect decision)

accepted when, in fact, it is false. ( Type II error)
rejected when, in fact, it is true. (Type I error)
rejected when, in fact, it is false. (perfect decision)

*The probability of committing a type I error is denoted by

type II error is

and that of committing a

There are no convenient ways of finding whether or not the hypothesis that we
accept is the true hypothesis. Thus, we cannot tell whether we made the correct
decision or committed an error whenever we accept or reject a hypothesis. In nearly all
cases, the most that we can do is to assume some degree of confidence with our
decision by specifying the probability of committing a type I error,

, which is more

popularly known as the level of significance.

By using the level of significance, we can determine the critical value which
defines a region of rejection (or critical region) and a region of acceptance.
In effect, this critical value serves as a basis for either accepting or rejecting a
hypothesis.
The area of rejection is given by the level of significance.
When

= .05 the rejection region will have an area of 0.05, thus the acceptance

region is 0.95.
When

= .01, the rejection region will have an area of 0.01, thus the acceptance

region is 0.99.
*The choice of a level of significance is arbitrary and that statisticians use .01 and .05
merely for convenience.

Types of Tests
1. One tailed test
- a test where H1 is directional
-

If H1 is formulated with a greater than sign ( > ), it is right-tailed

If H1 is formulated with less than sign ( < ), it is left tailed

2. Two tailed test

A test where H1 is nondirectional

STEPS IN HYPOTHESIS TESTING

1. Formulate the null hypothesis and the alternative hypothesis
2. Specify the level of significance
3. Choose the appropriate test statistic
4. Establish the critical region
5. Compute for the value of the statistical test
6. Make a decision, if possible, draw a conclusion.
TESTING A HYPOTHESIZED VALUE OF THE MEAN
1. Z statistic

Used when we hypothesized that the mean of a normal population with known
population standard deviation or the population SD is unknown but the
sample size n is greater than or equal to 30
Formula
x

z=

x o
x

is the computed mean

is the hypothesized mean

The denominator represents the standard error of the mean (or the standard deviation of
the sampling distribution of the mean) and is computed by the formula
x

= n

T statistic

Used when the population standard deviation is unknown and the sample size n is
less than 30.

Formula

t=

s x

x o
sx

s
n

With degree of freedom df = n - 1

Examples:
1. An electrical company claims that the lives of the light bulbs it manufactures are
normally distributed with a mean of 1, 000 hours and a standard deviation of 150
hours. What can you say about this claim if a random sample of 100 bulbs
produced by this company has a mean life of 980 hours? Use = .05 level of
significance.
2. An instructor gives his class an achievement test which, as he knows from years f
experience, yields a mean of 80. His present class of 40 obtains a mean of 85 and
a standard deviation of 8. Can he claim that his present class is a superior class?
Employ = .01
3. A new production process is being considered to replace the old process presently
used. This new process was tested for 8 consecutive hours with the following
result:
118, 122, 120, 124, 126, 125, 125, 124
If the average output per hour using the old process is 120 units, is
the management justified in stating that the output per hour can be
increased with the new process. Use

= .01.