{"id":13985,"date":"2021-04-13T12:35:18","date_gmt":"2021-04-13T03:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/?p=13985"},"modified":"2021-04-16T03:57:09","modified_gmt":"2021-04-15T18:57:09","slug":"two-tailed-or-one-tailed-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2021\/04\/13\/two-tailed-or-one-tailed-test\/","title":{"rendered":"Two-tailed or one-tailed test?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_13989\" style=\"width: 242px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/store.themantic-education.com\/collections\/bundles\/products\/ib-psychology-a-students-guide-the-ia-ebook-tsp-bundle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13989\" class=\"wp-image-13989 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/C7Bundle.png?resize=232%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"232\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/C7Bundle.png?resize=232%2C300&amp;ssl=1 232w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/C7Bundle.png?resize=790%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 790w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/C7Bundle.png?resize=768%2C995&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/C7Bundle.png?resize=1186%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 1186w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/C7Bundle.png?resize=1581%2C2048&amp;ssl=1 1581w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/C7Bundle.png?resize=100%2C130&amp;ssl=1 100w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/C7Bundle.png?resize=906%2C1174&amp;ssl=1 906w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/C7Bundle.png?resize=1200%2C1555&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/C7Bundle.png?w=2358&amp;ssl=1 2358w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 232px) 100vw, 232px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-13989\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Everything you need for the IA in an instant download. Available <a href=\"https:\/\/store.themantic-education.com\/collections\/bundles\/products\/ib-psychology-a-students-guide-the-ia-ebook-tsp-bundle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>I can almost guarantee you&#8217;ll need a one-tailed test for your inferential statistics in the IB Psychology IA. Let&#8217;s see why. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s one of the most common mistakes made in the analysis, but it&#8217;s so easy to avoid. Do you need a one or two-tailed inferential statistics test (e.g. MWU or Wilcoxon)?<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">The Easy Answer<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>If you have a one-tailed hypothesis, you must do a one-tailed inferential test.<\/li>\n<li>If you have a two-tailed hypothesis, you must do a two-tailed test.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Many students do a two-tailed test for a one-tailed hypothesis. If you do this it limits the maximum marks you can score in the analysis to 4\/6. Even if you do everything else perfect but you make this one little mistake, you lose two marks.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The one vs two tailed debate still continues in Psychology (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0148296312000550\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">read more<\/a>). The IB ignores this and makes it simple: one tailed hypotheses = one tailed test. No ifs, ands, or buts!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Learn more:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Blog:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2016\/10\/24\/hypotheses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hypotheses &#8211; How to write hypotheses<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Blog:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2017\/02\/21\/lesson-idea-inferential-statistics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lesson Idea: Inferential Statistics<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Video: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=RLjlCP9jThQ&amp;list=PL8QtAUy8cD-LJAaAtbUT_7CKO90nsgQX_&amp;index=7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How to do the Mann Whitney U test online<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Video: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yLD01BECXFA&amp;list=PL8QtAUy8cD-LJAaAtbUT_7CKO90nsgQX_\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Internal Assessment Playlist<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">One vs two-tailed hypothesis: What&#8217;s the difference?<\/h2>\n<p>If you are predicting that one of your conditions in your experiment will have a higher value than the other, it\u2019s one-tailed (because you know the direction of the effect \u2013 the IV is increasing the DV). Similarly, your hypothesis is one-tailed if you are predicting that manipulating the IV will cause a <em>decrease<\/em> in the DV.<\/p>\n<p>However, if you think your IV will have an effect, but you\u2019re not sure if it will increase\u00a0<em>or\u00a0<\/em>decrease it, this is two-tailed. You can see some example hypotheses <a href=\"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2016\/10\/24\/hypotheses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_13987\" style=\"width: 293px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13987\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-13987\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-13-at-12.19.50.png?resize=283%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"283\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-13-at-12.19.50.png?resize=283%2C300&amp;ssl=1 283w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-13-at-12.19.50.png?resize=965%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 965w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-13-at-12.19.50.png?resize=768%2C815&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-13-at-12.19.50.png?resize=100%2C106&amp;ssl=1 100w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-13-at-12.19.50.png?resize=906%2C962&amp;ssl=1 906w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2021\/04\/Screen-Shot-2021-04-13-at-12.19.50.png?w=1174&amp;ssl=1 1174w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 283px) 100vw, 283px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-13987\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The default on the SocSci MWU calculator is two-tailed. Be sure to change it if you have a one-tailed hypothesis.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>I&#8217;m almost 99% certain your hypothesis is one-tailed, but please double-check (and if it&#8217;s two-tailed leave a comment). The reason it&#8217;s probably one-tailed is because you have to be able to link your investigation to a theory. This invariably means explaining the results of an original study using a background theory. If you can use a theory to explain the results you know what direction to expect the results of\u00a0<em>your\u00a0<\/em>study.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><div  class=\"x-video embed with-container\" ><div class=\"x-video-inner\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gcRMuvOOjIE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div><\/div>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">The best online calculator?<\/h2>\n<p>The two most popular choices are VassarStats and Socscistatistics. I prefer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.socscistatistics.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.socscistatistics.com\/<\/a> because they provide a more clear summary of results which I find easier to interpret. For example, for the MWU test vassarstats provides two p values and two U values. The interface and reports are more confusing for vassarstats, I find.<\/p>\n<p>Doing well on the IB Psych IA is about paying attention to detail. If you got this far in this post, I think you&#8217;re on track to do just great!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I can almost guarantee you&#8217;ll need a one-tailed test for your inferential statistics in the IB Psychology IA. Let&#8217;s see why. It&#8217;s one of the most common mistakes made in the analysis, but it&#8217;s so easy to avoid. Do you need a one or two-tailed inferential statistics test (e.g. MWU or Wilcoxon)? The Easy Answer If you have a one-tailed &#8230; <\/p>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2021\/04\/13\/two-tailed-or-one-tailed-test\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":13988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-internal-assessment-ib"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Two-tailed or one-tailed test? | The IB Psychology Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Avoid common mistakes in your IB Psychology IA analysis by understanding the 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