Question

In BSN students taking a research & EBP course, will level of stress be lower in those who exercise three times weekly and participate in at least one social outing per week?

1) Write the hypothesis to go with this research question.

2) What type(s) of hypothesis is this (associative/causal, simple/complex, nondirectional/directional, null/research)?

3) What are the independent and dependent variables?

4) What might confounding/extraneous variables be associated with this hypothesis?

Answer 1

For above scenario we can formulate research statement as follow:

A study to assess effectiveness of exercise and social outing on level of stress among BSN students taking research and EBP course.

1) Hypothesis:

There will be a positive relationship between exercise & social outing with level of stress among BSN students taking research and EBP.

2) There are two types of hypothesis that can be related with above statement:

• Complex hypothesis as it include two independent variables.
• Directional hypothesis as it shows positive association between independent and dependent variables.

(A directional hypothesis is a prediction made by a researcher regarding a positive or negative change, relationship, or difference between two variables of a population)

3) Independent variables: There are two independent variable in study : Exercise three times a week and social outing per week.

Dependent variable: Level of stress among BSN students taking research and EBP course.

4) A confounding/extraneous variable is an outside influence that changes the effect of a dependent and independent variable.

some extraneous/confounding variable that might affect above study:

• demographic data of sample such as age, gender, family back ground, economic back ground.
• type of nature such as introvert or extrovert.
• adjustment capacity and adaptive capacity.