The Student Room Group

Hypothetico-deductive model & Inductive model

Can someone explain these models simply, having a hard time making simple revision notes on them.
Inductive:

Choose sample to study. Observe. Gain data.
Choose a different sample of similar phenomena observe. Gain data.
Notice a pattern in the data. Come up with a hypothesis to explain the pattern. See if it corroborates with what else we agree is going on and if so pop that hypothesis into our theory.

Hypothetico-deductive:
Observe a phenomenon. Try to explain it with a hypothesis. Perform experiments to gather data to either prove the hypothesis wrong, or to try to 'prove' it is right. If it doesn't prove the hypothesis false then we've made progress - we know the hypothesis is more likely to be true than before. If not, we know it must be false. If the former happens test again and again to further increase the likelihood of it being true. If it is false start again with a new hypothesis.

The difference essentially is wherein the data comes. In the inductive method the data comes first before the hypothesis. In the hypothetico-deductive method it comes after. But a phenomenon does still have to be observed in order for a hypothesis to be made in the first place...
Reply 2
Original post by TorpidPhil
Inductive:

Choose sample to study. Observe. Gain data.
Choose a different sample of similar phenomena observe. Gain data.
Notice a pattern in the data. Come up with a hypothesis to explain the pattern. See if it corroborates with what else we agree is going on and if so pop that hypothesis into our theory.

Hypothetico-deductive:
Observe a phenomenon. Try to explain it with a hypothesis. Perform experiments to gather data to either prove the hypothesis wrong, or to try to 'prove' it is right. If it doesn't prove the hypothesis false then we've made progress - we know the hypothesis is more likely to be true than before. If not, we know it must be false. If the former happens test again and again to further increase the likelihood of it being true. If it is false start again with a new hypothesis.

The difference essentially is wherein the data comes. In the inductive method the data comes first before the hypothesis. In the hypothetico-deductive method it comes after. But a phenomenon does still have to be observed in order for a hypothesis to be made in the first place...


Thank you so much!

Quick Reply

Latest