Question

Identify each of the following research hypotheses as directional or nondirectional. Provide a reason for each of your responses.

1. Workers who are better paid will express more positive attitudes to authority than workers who are less well paid.

2. People will behave in a more extravert way in groups of ten than in groups of three.

3. There is a positive relationship between intelligence and income level (Hint…check your understanding of correlation!).

4. Test-taking experience affects test performance.

Answer 1

Directional Hypothesis: In this type of hypothesis we specify the direction of relationship between the parameters under test in alternative hypothesis. It may be of "more than" type, "less than" type. These are also called one tailed test or more specifically left tailed or right tailed.

Non- Directional Hypothesis: In this type of hypothesis we do not specify the direction of relationship between the parameters under test in alternative hypothesis. It is of "not equal to" type. These are also called two tailed test.

1. Workers who are better paid will express more positive attitudes to authority than workers who are less well paid:- It is directional hypothesis(right tailed) as it specifies the direction towards the positive attitudes to authority of better paid workers than less paid workers.

it would have been left tailed it specifies the direction towards the negative attitudes to authority of better paid workers than less paid workers.

2. People will behave in a more extravert way in groups of ten than in groups of three:- It is directional hypothesis(right tailed) as it specifies the direction towards the more extravertness of groups of ten than in groups of three.

it would have been left tailed it specifies the direction towards the less extravertness of groups of ten than in groups of three.

3. There is a positive relationship between intelligence and income level:- It is directional hypothesis(right tailed) as it specifies the direction towards the positive relationship between intelligence and income level.

it would have been left tailed it specifies the direction towards the negative relationship between intelligence and income level.

4. Test-taking experience affects test performance:- It is a non directional hypothesis as it does specify the direction of affect of test taking experience on test performance.

It would have be directional if the statement would have been like test-taking experience betters test performance (right tailed) or test-taking experience lowers test performance (left tailed).