A General procedure for Testing Inequality Constrained Hypotheses in SEM
Researchers in the social and behavioral sciences often have clear expectations about the order and/or the sign of the parameters in their statistical model. For example, a researcher might expect that regression coefficient β1 is larger than β2 and β3.
Constrained statistical inference: sample-size tables for ANOVA and regression
Researchers in the social and behavioral sciences often have clear expectations about the order/direction of the parameters in their statistical model. For example, a researcher might expect that regression coefficient β1 is larger than β2 and β3.
Bayesian evaluation of informative hypotheses in SEM using Mplus: A black bear story
Half in jest we use a story about a black bear to illustrate that there are some discrepancies between the formal use of the p-value and the way it is often used in practice. We argue that more can be...
“Is the Hypothesis Correct” or “Is it Not”: Bayesian Evaluation of One Informative Hypothesis for ANOVA
Researchers in the behavioral and social sciences often have one informative hypothesis with respect to the state of affairs in the population from which they sampled their data. The question they would like an answer to is “Is the Hypothesis...
Bayesian Evaluation of Inequality-Constrained Hypotheses in SEM Models using Mplus
Researchers in the behavioral and social sciences often have expectations that can be expressed in the form of inequality constraints among the parameters of a structural equation model resulting in an informative hypothesis. The questions they would like an answer...
Do Delinquent Young Adults have a High or a Low Level of Self-concept?
This study explored the levels of self-concept of delinquent young adults (n = 873). This question is of theoretical and practical importance, as therapeutic programs addressing the self-concept must be based on clear evidence.
A prior predictive loss function for the evaluation of inequality constrained hypotheses
In many types of statistical modeling, inequality constraints are imposed between the parameters of interest. As we will show in this paper, the DIC (i.e., posterior Deviance Information Criterium as proposed as a Bayesian model selection tool by Spiegelhalter, Best,...
Illustrating Bayesian evaluation of informative hypotheses for regression models
In the present article we illustrate a Bayesian method of evaluating informative hypotheses for regression models. Our main aim is to make this method accessible to psychological researchers without a mathematical or Bayesian background.
An introduction to Bayesian model selection for evaluating informative hypotheses
Most researchers have specific expectations concerning their research questions. These may be derived from theory, empirical evidence, or both. Yet despite these expectations, most investigators still use null hypothesis testing to evaluate their data, that is, when analysing their data...
Directly evaluating expectations or testing the null hypothesis? Null hypothesis testing versus Bayesian model selection
Researchers in psychology have specific expectations about their theories. These are called informative hypothesis because they contain information about reality. Note that these hypotheses are not necessarily the same as the traditional null and alternative hypothesis.
Testing informative hypotheses in SEM increases power: An illustration contrasting classical hypothesis testing with a parametric bootstrap approach
In the present paper, the application of a parametric bootstrap procedure, as described by van de Schoot, Hoijtink, and Deković (2010), will be applied to demonstrate that a direct test of an informative hypothesis offers more informative results compared to...
Moving beyond traditional null hypothesis testing: evaluating expectations directly
This mini-review illustrates that testing the traditional null hypothesis is not always the appropriate strategy. Half in jest, we discuss Aristotle’s scientific investigations into the shape of the earth in the context of evaluating the traditional null hypothesis.