Chapter 2
Hypotheses: The Why of Your Research
All who drink of this treatment recover in a short time,Except those whom it does not help, who all die,It is obvious therefore, that it only fails in incurable cases.
—Galen (129–199)
IN THIS CHAPTER, AIMED AT BOTH RESEARCHERS WHO will analyze their own data as well as those researchers who will rely on others to assist them in the analysis, we review how to formulate a hypothesis that is testable by statistical means, the appropriate use of the null hypothesis, Neyman–Pearson theory, the two types of error, and the more general theory of decisions and losses.
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