RESEARCH METHODS HANDBOOK

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Contents	Introduction	Descriptive	Hypothesis	Tables	Appendix

Hypothesis Testing for Pearson r

Assumptions

Data originated from a random sample

Data are interval/ratio

Both variables are distributed normally

Linear relationship and homoscedasticity

State the Hypothesis Null Hypothesis (Ho): There is no association between the two variables in the population.

where p (rho) is the correlation coefficient (r) for the population

Alternative Hypothesis (Ha): There is an association between the two variables in the population.

Set the Rejection Criteria Determine the degrees of freedom n - 2

Determine the confidence level, alpha (1-tailed or 2-tailed)

Use the critical values from the t distribution

Compute the Test Statistic Convert (r) into

Decide Results of Null Hypothesis Reject if the t-observed is equal to or greater than the critical value. The variables are/are not related in the population. In other words, the association displayed from the sample data can/cannot be inferred to the population.

Example