Research Hypothesis

Research Hypothesis A research hypothesis is the statement created by researchers when they speculate upon the outcome of a research or experiment. Every true experimental design [1] must have this statement at the core of its structure, as the ultimate aim of any experiment. The hypothesis is generated via a number of means, but is usually the result of a process of inductive reasoning [2] where observations lead to the formation of a theory. Scientists then use a large battery of deductive methods [3] to arrive at a hypothesis that is testable [4], falsifiable [5] and realistic. The precursor to a hypothesis is a research problem [6], usually framed as a question [7]. It might ask what, or why, something is happening. For example, to use a topical subject, we might wonder why the stocks of cod in the North Atlantic are declining. The problem question might be 'Why are the numbers of Cod in the North Atlantic declining?' This is too broad as a statement and is not testable by any reasonable scientific [8] means. It is merely a tentative question arising from literature reviews [9] and intuition. Many people would think that instinct and intuition are unscientific, but many of the greatest scientific leaps were a result of 'hunches'. The research hypothesis is a paring down of the problem into something testable and The precursor to a hypothesis is a problem, usually framed as a question.