The Scientific Status of Psychology

There are some basic steps that you might follow when writing your research/scientific hypothesis:

1. Background research - review the research and information available - think about what is important in the information you read and how it can help you develop a hypothesis, and narrow down the topic/area of interest to something specific.

2. Write the hypothesis.
a) It should be a statement and not a question.
b) It should be clear and concise.
c) It should predict a relationship between different variables.
d) In order to test the hypothesis, research would need to be carried out.

3. Start with a general hypothesis and then narrow it down into a hypothesis that can be measured.

4. It can be directional (one-tailed) or non-directional (two-tailed).

5. A hypothesis should be objective, so avoid using ‘I' or personal, vague or general words (e.g. think, believe, all, never and sometimes).