There are 5 main stages in hypothesis-

Stages 1: State your null and alternate hypothesis.

Example: You want to test whether there is a relationship between gender and height. Based on your knowledge of human physiology, you formulate a hypothesis that men are, on average, taller than women. To test this hypothesis, you restate it as:

1. H0: Men are, on average, not taller than women.

Stages 2: Collect data.

Example: To test differences in average height between men and women, your sample should have an equal proportion of men and women, and cover a variety of socio-economic classes and any other control variables that might influence average height.

Stages 3: Perform a statistical test.

Example: Based on the type of data you collected, you perform a one-tailed t-test to test whether men are in fact taller than women. This test gives you:

1. an estimate of the difference in average height between the two groups.

Stages 4: Decide whether to reject or fail to reject your null hypothesis.

Example: In your analysis of the difference in average height between men and women, you find that the p-value of 0.002 is below your cutoff of 0.05, so you decide to reject your null hypothesis of no difference.

Stages 5: Present your findings Frequently asked questions about hypothesis testing.

Example: In our comparison of mean height between men and women we found an average difference of 13.7 cm and a p-value of 0.002; therefore, we can reject the null hypothesis that men are not taller than women and conclude that there is likely a difference in height between men and women.