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Hypothesis Testing

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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

Synonyms

Significance testing

Definition

A hypothesis test involves the specification of one, or a number of competing, mathematically precise statements (statistical hypotheses), which can be tested using measured data. Hypothesis testing is one of the core elements of statistical inference, and one of the key activities in science. The activity of hypothesis testing is not standalone. Statistical hypotheses derive from research questions. Study designs develop from these questions and provide the data by which the statistical hypotheses can be tested. Thus, hypothesis testing is one step in an integrated process of scientific investigation. However, it is a critical step, and as such, there is much debate about the most appropriate way to go about it.

Overview

Hypothesis testing is one of the major strands of statistical inference, alongside parameter estimation and prediction (Diggle and Chetwynd 2014). A primary function of hypothesis testing is to provide a system by which to...

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References

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Correspondence to Tom Booth .

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Booth, T., Doumas, A., Murray, A.L. (2017). Hypothesis Testing. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1310-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1310-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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