Question

Example of null hypothesis in descriptive research

Answer 1

A hypothesis is a speculation or theory based on insufficient evidence that lends itself to further testing and experimentation. With further testing, a hypothesis can usually be proven true or false. Let's look at an example. Little Susie speculates, or hypothesizes, that the flowers she waters with club soda will grow faster than flowers she waters with plain water. She waters each plant daily for a month (experiment) and proves her hypothesis true!

A null hypothesis is a hypothesis that says there is no statistical significance between the two variables in the hypothesis. It is the hypothesis that the researcher is trying to disprove. In the example, Susie's null hypothesis would be something like this: There is no statistically significant relationship between the type of water I feed the flowers and growth of the flowers. A researcher is challenged by the null hypothesis and usually wants to disprove it, to demonstrate that there is a statistically-significant relationship between the two variables in the hypothesis.