The Scientific Method
The scientific method is a form of inquiry that was originally developed to answer questions in the natural sciences. The scientific method uses systematic observation and measurement to confirm or disconfirm hypotheses that most often are derived from underlying theories.
When a hypothesis is confirmed, it lends support to the underlying theory. When it is not confirmed, researchers must reformulate the theory and come up with other explanations. Scientists share their findings by presenting at conferences or publishing in peer-reviewed journals. Sharing results with the research world is an important part of the scientific method because science is an iterative activity.
As social scientists, we have a great challenge. Because we cannot exert complete control over human behavior, it is not possible to conduct true experiments. Real life cannot be captured in a lab, and human behavior cannot be explained by one or even two causes. This makes it difficult to determine "cause and effect." For example, if we are interested in knowing why poor people have compromised health outcomes, we would need to account for an impossibly large number of factors or variables such as race, ethnicity, genetic markers, income, education level, access to health care services, and living conditions.