A central component of the research process is the hypothesis. Ask yourself these questions when you read or hear about psychological research to evaluate the researcher's hypothesis:

• Does the researcher present a theory about the behavior or mental process that is investigated?
• Does the theory define and describe events, predict when specific phenomena or events should occur, and explain the causes of events described in the theory?
• Is a research hypothesis presented?
• Is the hypothesis testable? That is, are the concepts clearly defined and measurable; does the hypothesis avoid circularity; does the hypothesis refer to concepts that are scientific?
• Is the hypothesis very general or very specific? (Specific hypotheses provide better tests of theories.)