They include seeking conceptual (theoretical) understanding, posing empirically testable and refutable hypotheses, designing studies that test and can rule out competing counterhypotheses, using observational methods linked to theory that enable other scientists to verify their accuracy, and recognizing the importance of both independent replication and generalization.

When conducting research, the scientific method steps to follow are: Observe what you want to investigate Ask a research question and make predictions Test the hypothesis and collect data Examine the results and draw conclusions Report and share the results

There are five main steps involved in the scientific method: stating the problem, forming the hypothesis, collecting the data by observing and experimenting, interpreting these data, and drawing conclusions.