After choosing a research question, the next step is to formulate a research hypothesis (plural: hypotheses). A research hypothesis is a tentative answer to the research question. That is, after reading reports of psychological research, researchers predict in advance what they think the outcome of a research study will be. This may seem silly at first-why try to answer the question beforehand? Why not simply conduct the study to learn the answer to the research question?

Researchers form hypotheses "tentative answers for a research question" because the hypothesis will influence how the research study is conducted. As you'll see in later sections of Student as Researcher, there are many methods psychologists use to answer research questions. Which method a researcher chooses will depend on the hypothesis.

Psychologists use theories as they develop their research hypotheses. Therefore, in this section, we first address theories, and then focus on how to develop a hypothesis.

What are psychological theories?

What is a research hypothesis?

How can I come up with a research hypothesis?