The Student Room Group

operationalised hypothesis

What is an operationalised hypothesis for :

Do men forget more than women?

thanks :smile:
Operationalising a hypothesis makes it testable, meaning it can also be repeated by others, increasing the reliability (or lack of) of your findings. You need to operationalise the variables (IV and DV).

So, you need a method of MEASURING memory (for example, a memory test - you can be even more specific but I imagine just this phrase will do, you could go into further detail regarding what TYPE of memory, such as short-term or long-term). And you need to define groups within your categories of 'men' and 'women', which are very broad at the moment. For example, you could use a group of 10 males aged 16-24, and a group of 10 females aged 16-24. The relationship you are predicting is directional; you are predicting that women have a better memory than men, so your hypothesis will be directional.

A non-directional hypothesis could be 'There is a difference between the scores obtained on a memory test by a group 10 males and
a group of 10 females aged 16-24'

A directional hypothesis could be 'The scores obtained on a memory test by a group of 10 females aged 16-24 will be higher than the scores obtained by a group of 10 males aged 16-24'

This is the way I've been taught it at A-level, so I'm assuming this is the kind of detail you're expected to go in. Good luck. :smile:
Original post by Retrospect
Operationalising a hypothesis makes it testable, meaning it can also be repeated by others, increasing the reliability (or lack of) of your findings. You need to operationalise the variables (IV and DV).

So, you need a method of MEASURING memory (for example, a memory test - you can be even more specific but I imagine just this phrase will do, you could go into further detail regarding what TYPE of memory, such as short-term or long-term). And you need to define groups within your categories of 'men' and 'women', which are very broad at the moment. For example, you could use a group of 10 males aged 16-24, and a group of 10 females aged 16-24. The relationship you are predicting is directional; you are predicting that women have a better memory than men, so your hypothesis will be directional.

A non-directional hypothesis could be 'There is a difference between the scores obtained on a memory test by a group 10 males and
a group of 10 females aged 16-24'

A directional hypothesis could be 'The scores obtained on a memory test by a group of 10 females aged 16-24 will be higher than the scores obtained by a group of 10 males aged 16-24'

This is the way I've been taught it at A-level, so I'm assuming this is the kind of detail you're expected to go in. Good luck. :smile:

fair enough
fair enough
Directional:

Men will forget more than women, as tested by a memory assessment carried out to compare

Non directional:

There will be a difference in forgetfulness between men and women, as tested by a memory assessment carried out

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