A population is the entire group being studied, while a sample is a subset of the population that is selected for analysis. A hypothesis is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon that can be tested through research. There are two main types of hypotheses: the null hypothesis proposes there is no relationship between variables, while the alternative hypothesis proposes there is a relationship. Hypotheses can also be directional, predicting the nature of a relationship, or nondirectional, simply predicting a difference but not the direction.