Question

1. A scholar tests the following hypothesis:  Females have a greater number of delinquent peers than males.  In her test, she calculates a t value is -2.349.  Why would it be unnecessary to compare this test statistic to a critical t value?

Answer 1

Given that

test statistic is t = -2.349

Claim is that Females have a greater number of delinquent peers than males

This means that we must have a positive test statistic in order to support the claim because females have greater mean according to the claim

Since the test statistic obtained is negative, then this means that we cant reject the negative null hypothesis

t critical value must be a positive number for females to have a greater mean, so there is no point in comparing the t critical with test statistic as test statistic is negative value and negative value will always be less than any positive value.

So, result is insignificant and we dont reject null hypothesis.