Social Statistics
Learning Material No. 1
Title Page: Null Hypothesis Significance Testing
Book and Author:
Field, A. (2013). Discovering Statistics using SPSS (3 rd Edition). SAGE Publications Ltd
Hanneman, R.A., Kpsowa, A.J, & Riddle, M.D. (2013). Basic Statistics for Social
Research. Jossey-Bass A Wiley Print.
Objectives: After the lesson, the student will be able to:
1. Explain and apply the key ideas of Null Hypothesis Significance Testing
2. Differentiate types of Hypothesis.
3. Explain what we can conclude from statistical significance testing.
Instruction to the Learners:
Statistics play a role in connecting empirical observation to theory in two ways. First, statistics are
used to summarized pattern in data, which aids in forming empirical generalization. Empirical
generalizations, in turn lead to efforts at explanation or proposed theories. Second, statistics play
a role in the verification or validation of theories, through aiding us in assessing whether empirical
observations are consistent with the theoretical explanations.
Ex. 1. One explanation could be that people with narcissistic personality disorder are more likely
to audition for Big Brother rather those without.
2. Producers of Big Brother are more likely to select people who have narcissist personalities.
When the statistics are used as tools for testing the utility or validity of theories, the process is
called hypothesis testing.
The hypothesis or prediction that comes from your theory is usually saying that an effect will be
present. This hypothesis is called the alternative hypothesis and is denoted by H1. (It is
sometimes also called the experimental hypothesis but because this term relates to a specific
type of methodology it’s probably best to use ‘alternative hypothesis.)
There is another type of hypothesis, though, and this is called the null hypothesis and is denoted
by H0 . This hypothesis is the opposite of the alternative hypothesis and so would usually state
that an effect is absent.
Taking our Big Brother example from earlier in the chapter we might generate the following
hypotheses:
Alternative hypothesis: Big Brother contestants will score higher on personality disorder
questionnaires than members of the public.
Null hypothesis: Big Brother contestants and members of the public will not differ in their scores
on personality disorder questionnaires.
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Social Statistics
Learning Material No. 1
A statistical model that tests a directional hypothesis is called a one-tailed test, whereas
one testing a non-directional hypothesis is known as a two-tailed test.
Tabular Value for Z in Z-test
Test / Level of
0.005 0.01 0.05 0.10
Significance
One-tailed test +/- 2.58 +/- 2.33 +/- 1.645 +/- 1.28
Two-tailed Test +/- 2.81 +/- 2.575 +/- 1.96 +/- 1.645
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