Dissertation Hypothesis

What’s In a Dissertation Hypothesis

How should we understand a dissertation hypothesis? A hypothesis functions as a potential answer to the problem statement in a dissertation. A curious thing about it is that you need to conduct research before the formulation of hypothesis and afterward: before - to substantiate a rationale behind your hypothesis, and after - to prove or disprove the hypothesis. How many hypotheses should a dissertation have? It’s not uncommon to have a few problem statements in one paper and develop a hypothesis for each one or come up with a few hypotheses for one problem statement. However, too many paths to examine can ruin the paper, making its author and their reading audience get lost among several weak research points instead of keeping a good focus on one or just a couple strong points.

A thesis statement is generally used in the humanities, while a hypothesis is characteristic of scientific dissertations. The difference between the two in this hypothesis vs thesis statement issue is that a thesis statement is not something that you test out - it’s a statement that is logically concluded to be true for you as a scholar, and defend that point of view in your paper. But a hypothesis does have to be tested, for you as the author of the dissertation do not claim that the hypothesis statement is true - you intend to find out whether it’s true or not, and this is the hypothesis meaning in research.

It’s almost like the question of to be or not to be: your hypothesis will either help you get closer to the truth or be discarded as another failed attempt to see the light. You make a thorough, usually empirical examination of your hypothesis. The outcome of this examination states that your hypothesis is either confirmed or rejected if you show that it proved to be true or false respectively. However, the actual words to prove, proven are not really welcome in an academic paper of the kind. The standard words for the connotation implied are to support or supported. You need to estimate your chances to test out your hypothesis and make correct measurement or evaluation of results before you write the hypothesis for a dissertation.

Sometimes, a hypothesis can express an innovative idea far ahead from the present achievements in the field. Although, most often, hypotheses stand much more near the known theories and concepts. Either way, hypotheses should be based on clearly logical assumptions coming from solid scholarly knowledge, and they must have proofs of probability. For this purpose we have literature review. By looking into relevant resources, you provide your research with references that indicate the links between your hypothesis and the scientific truth. Or, maybe you’ve found works in which authors examined the same or similar research question and hypothesis before but didn't have enough tools and methods to test it out properly in their time, or they simply overlooked something in the data. You may reveal new results of old studies and make an unexpected turn in the course of scientific advancements.

How to Write a Hypothesis APA Style

How to write a hypothesis APA style? A hypothesis shows probable dependency of one variable from another - the correlation between a hypothetical cause and its assumed effect. Thus, a hypothesis statement consists of the actual hypothesis and a prediction that stems from it. Hypotheses and predictions work together, but to ensure this cooperation is successfully applied in a paper, we need to learn the question of hypothesis vs prediction. It’s a common mistake to confuse the two. And end up substituting one of them with another.  in fact hypothesis and predictions together with the methods to prove the hypothesis constitutes the hypothesis statement.

If a soil fertilizer facilitates the growth of plants, and we use the fertilizer for the garden patch A and don’t use it for the garden patch B, then on the garden patch A the plants will grow faster.

This very simple example of a hypothesis statement comprises:

• the hypothesis itself: If a soil fertilizer facilitates the growth of plants;
• the method of hypothesis testing in dissertation: we use the fertilizer for the garden patch A and don’t use it for the garden patch B;
• the prediction - expected outcome of the testing: on the garden patch A the plants will grow faster.

In this case, the time required for the plant growth is the dependent variable, because this time depends on the use of the fertilizer, and the use of the fertilizer is the independent variable.

There are different types of hypothesis. Among them are empirical and logical hypotheses, associative, attributive and causal, directional and non-directional theses, and statistical. A pair of hypotheses commonly used together is null and alternative hypotheses. A null hypothesis suggests that there is no dependency between the variables,  while the alternative hypothesis suggests the opposite. In APA, the hypothesis is symbolized by H (italicized). A null hypothesis is indicated by H0 an alternative hypothesis is indicated either by H1 or Ha .

Hypotheses must be formulated transparently, without any confusing twists or unclear sentence structure. They should be concise and short, with enough word space to simply make a statement that clearly shows what hypothetical fact is expected to get confirmation and explain the grounds on which you’ve built your hypothesis. How many pages is a hypothesis for a dissertation chapter? It’s actually just one or two paragraphs, presented at the end of the introduction to your dissertation after the problem statement. For more information, consult the APA manual.

Difference Between Hypothesis and Theory

The difference between a theory and a hypothesis is that theory functions as an explanation for some phenomenon that is generally agreed upon among scholars, even if it doesn't have enough proofs to be a fact. But a hypothesis is an explanation merely assumed, not officially accepted as true or fairly possible yet. You propose this explanation in your dissertation, and it connected with present theory, which makes the hypothesis vs theory deal seem more puzzling than it really is.