We wish to test the hypothesis that the population mean for conservatism in college students is 70. The population variance is unknown. We need to go through the same 7 steps as we did for the Z test. The sample mean is 3 estimated standard errors below the hypothesized population mean. We reject the theory that the mean level of conservatism in college students is 70.
College students appear to be less conservative than the hypothesis predicts.
The t test yields accurate results only if the independence assumption holds. However, even if the normality assumption is false, the t test is still pretty accurate. The t test is said to be robust against violations of this assumption.