What is the origin of hypothesis is another problem connected with its study. There are various sources of the origin of hypothesis. The general culture in which a science develops furnishes May of its basic hypothesis e.g. America’s stress upon personal happiness has had considerable effect upon social science in that country. Happiness has been correlated with income, education, occupation and even marriage, etc.
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In this way cultural emphasis upon happiness has been productive of an almost limitless range of hypothesis for American social scientists. In Western societies race is thought to be an important determinant of human behaviour and it will not be very difficult to think of any number of commonsense propositions which can serve as the source of hypothesis.
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While discussing the origin of hypothesis Goode and Hatt say that, Thus the doctrines of both liberalism and progressivism have played important roles in social science. The latter by embracing change, challenges to the old assumption, and the former by emphasising the importance of the individual, insists that he not be pre-judged. In either case there is present some kind of scepticism which is productive of hypotheses.” The role of new thought pattern and social changes help in the generation of new hypothesis.
The hypothesis originates in the science itself as well. As already pointed out firstly that theory gives direction to research, logical deductions of which lead to creation of new problems. Secondly, science is a social relation and that the scientist must acquire the folkways of his discipline.
In actual practice there are many deviant cases which result in the origins of new hypothesis. Socialisation also helps in giving birth to new hypothesis. Since before socialisation, the range of thinking is very limited and there are certain assumptions which are taken for granted, after socialisation new ranges, ideas and assumptions come to light and new hypotheses are developed for research.
Analogies are often sources of useful hypothesis. Julian Huxley makes us believe that casual observations in nature or in the framework of another science may be fertile source of hypothesis. The hypothesis that similar human types or activities maybe found occupying the same territory came from the plant ecology and was an analogy.
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The observation that the behaviour of human groups seems to exhibit some of the same patterns as found in gravitational and electrical fields led to the basic hypothesis of what is called social physics and is again based on an analogy.
But the use of analogy as a source of hypothesis needs some care. It will be dangerous to assume that natural areas in human society are a product of symbiosis as in true biology. There is also no empirical method of applying the concept to human beings. Goode and Hatt have rather rightly pointed out that, In short, analogy may be very suggestive, but care must be taken not to accept models of sociology or form other disciplines without careful examination of the concepts which make up the methods.”
Hypothesis are also the consequence of personal, idiosyncratic experience. The individual experience of the scientist contributes to the type and form of the question he asks. Some persons may perceive from what may merely seem a jumble of facts to another. History is a witness that many important discoveries were made because right individuals could make right observations at appropriate times. Discoveries of Newton and Darwin can safely be placed in this category and so is the work of Thorstein Veblen.
Folk wisdom can be one important source of hypothesis. Current popular beliefs and practices suggest both the problems as well as the hypothesis to be studied and developed. Thus, many a time with the help of folk wisdom it becomes possible to develop hypothesis without taking recourse to highly advanced scientific knowledge and terminology.
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In fact, all these sources combined together provide the basis for hypothesis; Larrabee has said in this regard that. The ideal source of fruitful and relevant hypothesis is a fusion of two elements: past experience and imagination in the disciplined imagination of the scientist.