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Power Analysis

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Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research

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Synonyms

Probability of a true positive decision; Sensitivity

Definition

The power of a statistical hypothesis test is the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis given that the null hypothesis is in fact false.

Description

There are four possible outcomes of a statistical hypothesis test: (1) the null hypothesis is maintained given that it is in fact true (a true negative decision); (2) the null hypothesis is rejected even though it is true (a false positive decision or type I error); (3) the null hypothesis is maintained even though it is false (a false negative decision or type II error); and (4) the null hypothesis is rejected given that it is in fact false (a true positive decision). The probabilities of type I and type II errors are often denoted by the Greek letters α and β, respectively. Accordingly, the power (i.e., the probability of a true positive decision, also referred to as the sensitivityof a test) is (1-β), whereas (1-α) denotes the probability of a true...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Manuel C. Voelkle

  2. Lehrstuhl für Kognitive Psychologie und Differentielle Psychologie, Universität Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

    Edgar Erdfelder

Authors
  1. Manuel C. Voelkle
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  2. Edgar Erdfelder
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Manuel C. Voelkle .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Statistiche, Sapienza Università di Roma, Roma, Italy

    Filomena Maggino

Section Editor information

  1. Social Statistics, Italian National Institute of Statistics – Istat, Rome, Italy

    Leonardo Salvatore Alaimo

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Voelkle, M.C., Erdfelder, E. (2021). Power Analysis. In: Maggino, F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69909-7_2230-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69909-7_2230-2

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69909-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69909-7

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