ABSTRACT
A common misconception among beginning researchers is the notion that if an individual rejects a null hypothesis, then he/she has proven his/her research hypothesis. Unfortunately, many researchers have the misconception that alpha and beta are inversely related, and believe that if they set alpha at a low level, beta would automatically become high. This chapter deals with alpha and type I error risk, the null hypothesis, the p-value, and the relationship between alpha and beta errors. For each topic, the misconception as well as the way for undoing the misconception is presented. One can never prove the null hypothesis. However, it can be proved that there is a relationship or effect (H1) between two or more variables. A nondirectional alternative hypothesis always leads to a two-tailed test, whereas a directional Ha always brings about a one-tailed test.
