Hypothesis Testing

(Simple Test of Hypothesis)

Hypothesis testing
 Is the process of making an inference or generalization on a
population based on the results of the study on samples.
 Statistical testing – is a guess or prediction made by a researcher
regarding the possible outcome of the study.
 2 types of Statistical hypothesis:
a. Null hypothesis (HO) : It is the hypothesis to be tested which one
hopes to reject. It shows equality (=) or no significant difference or
relationship between variables.
b. Alternative hypothesis (Ha) : It generally represents the idea
which the researcher wants to prove.
two types of statistical hypothesis

 Null hypothesis (Ho – statement of no effect,

no relationship, no difference)
 Alternative hypothesis (Ha – statement that
one is greater or lower than the other).
Example:
“Effect of tutoring to academic performance of
students”
Ho : Tutoring have no significant effect in the
academic performance of student.
Ha: Students with tutors perform better than those
with no tutors.
Five steps in hypothesis testing

1. State the null and alternative

hypothesis.
2. Decide your level of significance (α)
and the critical value.
3. Criteria
4. Decision
5. Conclusion
Example. Compare the performance in Mathematics
of two groups, namely: (a) the first-born and (b)
the last-born children. Give the Ho and Ha.
1. Types of Hypothesis Testing
1.1. One tailed test: It is a directional test with the region of rejection
lying on either left or right tail of the normal curve.
a. Right directional test: The region of rejection is on the right tail. It is
used when the alternative hypothesis uses comparatives such as
greater than, higher than, better than, superior to, exceeds, etc.
(Illustrate showing the acceptance and rejection regions)
b. Left directional test: The region of rejection is on the left tail. It is used
when alternative hypothesis uses comparatives such as less than, smaller
than, inferior to, lower than, below, etc.
( illustrate showing the acceptance and rejection regions)
1.2. Two-tailed test: It is a non-directional test with the region of
rejection lying on both tails of the normal curve. It is used when the
alternative hypothesis uses words such as not equal to, significantly
different, etc.
Examples:
Research Problem 1:
It is known that in our school canteen, the average waiting time for a
customer to receive and pay for his order is 20 minutes. Additional
personnel has been added and now the management wants to know if
the average waiting time had been reduced.

Ho: The average waiting time had not been reduced or the average
waiting time is equal to 20 minutes.

Ha: The average waiting time had been reduced, or the average waiting
time is less than 20 minutes

This kind of alternative hypothesis shows a one tailed, left directional

hypothesis test.
Research Problem 2:
A teacher wants to know if there is a significant difference in
the performance in Statistics between his morning and
afternoon classes.
Ho : There is no significant difference in the performance in Statistics
between the morning and that of the afternoon classes.

Ha: There is a significant difference in the performance in Statistics

between the morning and afternoon classes.

This kind of alternative hypothesis required a two-tailed or non-

directional hypothesis testing since the teacher only wants to know if
there is a significant difference between the performance of the two
groups.
Research Problem 3
The average score in the qualifying examination in the College of
Accountancy at PUP is 80 with a standard deviation of 10. A random
sample of 40 students was taken from this year’s examinees and it was
to have a mean score of 84.
Ho: There is no significant difference between the hypothesized and
sample mean.
Ha: There is a significant difference between the hypothesized and
sample mean.

What type of test will be used?

Two-tailed test
Research Problem 4
A bath soap company claims that the best selling soap contains at most
25% moisturizer. Twenty packs were selected and found to have a mean
of 29.7% and standard deviation of 4%. Test the claim of the soap
company at the 0.05 level of significance.

Ho: The best selling soap contains at least 25% moisturizer above.
Ha: The best selling soap contains at least 25% moisturizer below.

What type of test will be used?

One-tailed.
2. Statistical Errors in Hypothesis Testing
a. Type I error is the error committed when the null
hypothesis is rejected when in fact it is true and the
alternative hypothesis is false.
b.Type II error is the error committed when the null
hypothesis is accepted when in fact it is false and the
alternative hypothesis is true.
Decision

Facts Accept Ho Reject Ho

Ho is true Correct decision Type I error

Ha is false Type II error Correct decision

3. Level Of Significance of a Test
 The probability of committing a Type I error is designated by alpha
(α).
 The probability of committing a type II error is designated by beta (β).
 Alpha is the size of the rejection region, while beta is the size of the
acceptance region.
 The most popular level of significance of alpha are the 0.01 and the 0.05
levels.
 If we want a smaller probability of committing a Type I error, we can set
alpha at values smaller than 0.01.
 An alpha = 0.05, means that when a different set of samples was taken from
the same population, the probability of getting a result which is the same as
the one presently under study is 95% and the probability of getting a
different result is 5%.
 A 5% significance level means that we can accept about 5 chances in
100 that we could reject the null hypothesis when it should be
accepted.
 A 5% significance level implies that we are 95% confident that we have
made the right decision. The same argument follows for alpha = 0.01
 When Ho is rejected at alpha = 0.05, the result is said to be
significant. When it rejected at alpha = 0.01, the result is said to be
highly significant.
 α = 0.01 is more significant than α = 0.05 since the chance that the
researcher of committing an error or will be wrong is 1 out of 100.
 The level of significance is set at the beginning of the test so that the
researcher will not be tempted to change it when the result does not
conform with his desired outcome.
Region of Rejection / Critical Region
 The alternative hypothesis Ha affects the region of rejection. If Ha
indicates the predicted direction of the difference (greater than or
less than), then a one-tailed test is used.
 If the direction is not indicated in Ha (no equal to) then a two-tailed
test is used.
 The level of significance gives us the region of rejection in the
entire sampling distribution.
 If the test is one-tailed, then the region of rejection is either to the
right end or to the left end of the sampling distribution. If the test is
two-tailed, then the region of rejection occurs at both ends of the
sampling distribution.
 When making decisions, whether to accept or reject
the null hypothesis, the researcher compares the
computed statistic with the critical values
corresponding to the rejection region.
 Ifthe computed statistic falls within the rejection
region, the Ho is rejected and Ha is accepted. On
the other hand, if the computed statistic is within
the acceptance region, then Ho is accepted.
Degrees of Freedom
 The degrees of freedom of a statistic is denoted by df, is the
number of observations in the sample n minus the number k of
estimated population parameters. Hence, in general df = n – k.
Critical Values of z and t
 When testing a hypothesis, the researcher usually chooses
between a z-score and a t-score, depending upon the parameters/
limits made available to him.
 This is computed and compared with the corresponding critical
values z’ and t’ as the case maybe.
 The critical/ tabular values z’ depends upon the value of alpha (α)
and the kind of test being used, whether one tailed or two tailed.
These are obtained from the table of areas under the normal curve
or for some values of α.
LEVEL OF SIGNIFICANCE FOR TWO-TAILED TEST