Hypothesis Testing
A hypothesis test is a statistical procedure that’s designed to use data to validate or invalidate a claim or test a claim or a question. The claim is usually being made about a population or a parameter (one number that characterizes the whole population). Every hypothesis test contains a set of two opposing statements or hypotheses, about a population. The first is the null hypothesis, which states that the population parameter is equal to the claimed value. If the null hypothesis is rejected, we must have an alternative hypothesis which is one you would believe if the null hypothesis is concluded untrue. More simply stated, the null hypothesis is the position you take before you examine the evidence, what you believe to be true. The alternative hypothesis is the position you are willing to move to if the evidence is strong enough. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
An example would be, I think this therapy will work better than the placebo. You then use data to support this. You test whether this is true by collecting a random sample of the effectiveness of the therapy and the placebo. If I do not find enough evidence to support that this therapy is better than the placebo then I fail to reject the null hypothesis and the conclusion would be that the therapy does work better than the placebo. If the evidence was strong enough to reject the null hypothesis, the alternative hypothesis would be that the placebo worked better.
Another example would be the null hypothesis is X medication ad Y medication have the same benefits. If we fail to reject the null hypothesis the alternative hypothesis would be that X medication is better or worse than Y medication.
Quantitative research is important if we strive to practice by evidence-based practice the statistical process mentioned above must take place to realize when something needs to be change or adjusted and have the evidence to back it up.
References
Popper, K. (2015, November). Discuss why this is important in your practice and with patient interactions. Retrieved from Quora: https://www.quora.com/In-hypothesis-testing-why-do-we-try-to-falsify-the-null-hypothesis-instead-of-research-hypothesis-alternate-hypothesis
Rumsey, D. J. (2011). Statistics for Dummies . Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing .