ASSUMPTION, HYPOTHESIS, LEVEL OF SIGNIFICANCE

In conducting a research, at first, we should identify the research objective, the research
variables and the research problem/question. All those three drives to an assumption. It is a
belief of the researcher that there must be a relationship between the variables. Why do
researchers have the assumption? Because everything in this world works under a certain
system. Then, it is called the basic assumption in research.

The researcher must discover the certain system at the end of his/her research as the
research objective, but it can be predicted in advance as well. How? It can be done based on a
theory or logical sense. The prediction then is called a research hypothesis. It is broken down
into three; theoretical hypothesis, statistical hypothesis, and empirical hypothesis.

Theoretical hypothesis is a hypothesis/prediction of the relationship between research

variables based on theory or logical common sense. For example, there is an assumption that
there is correlation between students’ IQ and their achievement in learning English. So, the
theoretical hypothesis says, “the higher IQ the students have, the better they achieve in learning
English.”

Unlike the theoretical hypothesis which is used to predict the outcome of the research,
the statistical hypothesis is a statement/prediction that the researcher makes (while computing
data) to allow the data analysis to show the research finding. It tests whether there is enough
(significant) evidence or not enough (not significant) evidence to reject the Null hypothesis.
Then, how do we know that the hypothesis matches the research finding (drawing conclusion)
or not? We have to determine a level of significance, which means a risk to have a wrong
hypothesis. If the researcher is confident or not confident enough to continue the research, the
level of confidence will make the difference significant or not.

When the level of significance is less than .05 and the level of confidence is more than .
95, it means the difference is significant. Then, the statistical/null hypothesis is rejected. It
means the theoretical hypothesis is supported by the empiric evidence. But when the level of
significance is more than 0.05 and the level of confidence is less than .95, we can say that the
difference is not significant. Then, the statistical/null hypothesis is not rejected. It means the
theoretical hypothesis is not supported by the empiric evidence. If it is not supported, the
researcher can withdraw or cancel his/her hypothesis. Then, the statistical/Null hypothesis will
be “there is no correlation between students’ IQ and their achievement in learning English.”

Now, the question is, how do we determine that more than 0.05 the difference is
significant or not? We can use one of the three research conventions; .05 level of significance
range, .08 level of significance, or .010 level of significance. If we conduct educational research,
we will use the .05 level of significance range. While, the medical researchers use .01 level of
significance, because it will be very risky to decide a conclusion to his/her patients.

Third, the empirical hypothesis (in qualitative study) uses the first data to be analyzed.
Then, it should be validated with more data. This hypothesis after going through several
modifications to fit several cases becomes the conclusion of the study.