What is the difference between a hypothesis and a theory? In your answer please define each and explain the role each would play in a research project.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A theory is a body of statements that systematize knowledge of, and explain, phenomena. Stated differently, theories help “organize, systematize, and coordinate existing knowledge” in a unified explanatory framework. Two crucial aspects of empirical theory are that (1) it leads to specific, testable predictions and (2) the more observations there are to support these predictions, the more the theory is confirmed. A hypothesis is an explicit statement that indicates how a researcher thinks the phenomena of interest are related. A hypothesis is a guess (but of an educated nature) that represents the proposed explanation for some phenomenon and that indicates how an independent variable is thought to affect, influence, or alter a dependent variable. Since hypotheses are proposed relationships, they may turn out to be incorrect. A good hypothesis has six characteristics: (1) it is an empirical statement, (2) it is stated as a generality, (3) it is plausible, (4) it is specific (includes direction), (5) it is stated in a manner that corresponds to the way in which the researcher intends to test it, and (6) it is testable. Ideally, you could generate multiple hypotheses from a theory and test each of them. Finding support for more hypotheses leads to support for the theory, which cannot itself be tested directly.