Introduction to the Hypothesis Testing Research Paper

Introduction to the Hypothesis Testing - Research Paper Example A hypothesis is a claim that is made about a population parameter such as the mean ( µ), proportion (?), or standard deviation (?) (Triola, p. 392). Hypothesis testing therefore involves testing claims, statements or assumptions about various properties of a population which is developed for testing purposes. It is one of the two main activities of inferential statistics (Triola, p. 392). During the process of hypothesis testing systematic procedures are utilized. These procedures involve the use of standard terms such as null hypothesis, alternative hypothesis, level of significance, test statistic; and conditions such as accept the null hypothesis if the statement is true or reject the null hypothesis if the statement is not true. When the rare event rule is used to test a hypothesis, an attempt is made to make a distinction between those results that happen by chance and those which are very unlikely to happen by chance. The explanation for a very unlikely result is that the fun damental assumption is incorrect or that a rare event has taken place. This type of reasoning can be applied to various statements or claims made about a population such as the proportion of males and females. The stages involved in hypothesis testing are shown in the diagram labeled - below. .. Five Step Hypothesis Testing Procedure (Extracted from: Mason and Lind 1996) The diagram shows the steps involved in carrying out a hypothesis test. NULL AND ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESIS Morgan State University School of Engineering (Morgan.edu) indicates that in order to test a hypothesis data from a sample of a population is taken in order to form a conclusion about the population parameter or about its probability distribution. It involves making a claim about the parameter or distribution. This is a tentative assumption which is dependent on the results obtained from tests carried out on the sample. This assumption is described as the null hypothesis. In the book Elementary Statistics Triola i ndicates that the term null is an indication that there is no change, effect or difference (p. 395). It is a statement that the value of the population parameter is equal to a specific value.