Hypothesis Hypothesis is a principal instrument in research. Most research is carried out with the deliberate intention of testing hypothesis.

Decision makers need to test hypothesis to take decisions regarding alternate courses of action.

In Social Sciences, hypothesis testing is often used for deciding whether a sample data offers support for certain generalizations

Directional & non-directional hypothesis Directional hypothesis: It specifies not only the existence, but also the expected direction of the relationship between variables. Directional hypothesis states the nature of the relationship between two or more variables such as positive, negative, or no relationship. To express the direction of relationship between variables, the directional terms are used to state the hypothesis such as positive, negative, less, more, increased, decreased, greater, higher, lower, etc. For examples, there is a positive relationship between years of nursing experience & job satisfaction among nurses. Directional hypothesis explains and predicts the direction and existence of a specific relationship. The predicted relationship will be either positive or negative. A directional hypothesis is more specific than the non-directional hypothesis. It is also known as the causeand-effect hypothesis. For example: It is hypothesized that the co-educated students are more interactive and smarter than the non co-educated students.

Non-directional hypothesis and Directional hypothesis A nondirectional hypothesis is a type of alternative hypothesis used in statistical significance testing. For a research question, two rival hypotheses are formed. The null hypothesis states that there is no difference between the variables being compared or that any difference that does exist can be explained by chance. The alternative hypothesis states that an observed difference is likely to be genuine and not likely to have occurred by chance alone. Sometimes called a two-tailed test, a test of a nondirectional alternative hypothesis does not state the direction of the difference, it indicates only that a difference exists. In contrast, a directional alternative hypothesis specifies the direction of the tested relationship, stating that one variable is predicted to be larger or smaller than null value, but not both.

Nondirectional Hypotheses If the hypothesis simply predicts that there will be a difference between the two groups, then it is a nondirectional hypothesis (Marczyk, DeMatteo and Festinger, 2005). It is nondirectional because it predicts that there will be a difference but does not specify how the groups will differ.

Directional Hypotheses If, the hypothesis uses so-called comparison terms, such as greater, less, better, or worse, then it is a directional hypothesis. It is directional because it predicts that there will be a difference between the two groups and it specifies how the two groups will differ (Marczyk, DeMatteo and Festinger, 2005).