Proposition vs Hypothesis: What's the Difference? | Research Basics

You have an idea about how two things are connected. How do you turn it into something you can test? In lesson 4 of Research Basics, we use a made-up workplace example to move from a relationship between ideas to a hypothesis about questionnaire scores. We also look at why association isn't enough to claim causation, and why stating a prediction isn't the same as explaining a relationship. The definitions follow the framework used by Bhattacherjee and Bacharach. The technostress example and its possible explanation are for practice, not findings from a study. Try it with your own idea: write one proposition, then a matching hypothesis using the measures you plan to collect. Add a sentence explaining why you expect that relationship. If you use causal wording, ask whether your design can support it. Watch the previous lesson: Concepts, Constructs and Variables    • Concepts, Constructs and Variables Explain...   Research Basics playlist    • Research Basics   Chapters 0:00 Introduction 0:47 A practice example 1:04 What is a proposition? 1:33 From ideas to a hypothesis 1:59 Theoretical and empirical levels 2:27 Directional and nondirectional hypotheses 2:58 A hypothesis about one mean 3:21 Association and causation 4:19 Why hypotheses need an argument 4:36 What Sutton and Staw explain 5:00 A possible explanation 5:29 Different goals for theory 5:59 Check your research model 6:21 Recap 6:49 Try it with your own idea Sources Anol Bhattacherjee (2012). Social Science Research: Principles, Methods, and Practices. Chapters 2, 4 and 5. https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/oa_tex... Textbook excerpts: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0. The excerpts are cropped, enlarged and highlighted; these excerpt adaptations are shared under the same license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Samuel B. Bacharach (1989). Organizational Theories: Some Criteria for Evaluation. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1989.4308374 Robert I. Sutton and Barry M. Staw (1995). What Theory Is Not. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2393788 Shirley Gregor (2006). The Nature of Theory in Information Systems. https://aisel.aisnet.org/misq/vol30/i... NIST/SEMATECH e-Handbook of Statistical Methods, section 7.2.2: testing a mean against a specified value. https://www.itl.nist.gov/div898/handb... Illustrative footage from Pexels, not footage of a study: ANTONI SHKRABA production, https://www.pexels.com/video/man-high... Yaroslav Shuraev, https://www.pexels.com/video/people-u... Karola G, https://www.pexels.com/video/woman-lo... ArtHouse Studio, https://www.pexels.com/video/person-t... utopia 36, https://www.pexels.com/video/overhead... https://www.pexels.com/license/