The scientific method is a linear investigation tool that begins when you define a question, also known as a hypothesis. Your hypothesis should be a testable statement or question that guides your research. You investigate your hypothesis, test it for validity, provide research supporting your claim and conclude your research with a simple claim that your evidence supports or fails to support your hypothesis. Additional research helps validate your theory. Unfortunately, the burden of proving your hypothesis is not possible under the scientific method. Your research is only capable of supporting or not supporting your claim. As a result, researchers use statistical analysis to determine if a single hypothesis can be considered true, but only after multiple tests.
The hypothetico-deductive model is a circular approach to the scientific method, providing an evolving perspective of the scientific process. The process begins by defining a hypothesis that is testable and falsifiable and from your hypothesis, you develop a number of predictions through a process of deductive reasoning. You focus your research on providing evidence to support or not support each prediction, evaluate the information you gain and use a process of inductive reasoning to make changes or updates to your original hypothesis. This process never proves or disproves a hypothesis; it only refines it, which makes it more accurate over time.
You can use several methods to disprove the hypothesis of a scientific method. These include questioning the scientific analysis that the original experiment used, questioning the test and how the original researcher carried it out or retesting the hypothesis under alternate conditions. As a result, scientific theories fall under regular attack as new research calls these methods into question. For instance, a researcher who wanted to disprove climate change could arrange a test to analyze climate data over a short period in a specific region. The researcher could reduce the selection of data until he supplies proof of climate stability, thereby suggesting that climate change is not occurring. However, his data is based on faulty data selection methodology.
The hypothetico-deductive model uses an evolving process, where new information changes the initial hypothesis for accuracy, without providing the weaknesses of the scientific method. As an example, a hypothetico-deductive scientist would look at the climate change experiment and suggest that the experiment tested a prediction about short-term climate change in one region. For the hypothetico-deductive scientist, this experiment would prove that climate change is a long-term process, or that its effects are different in different regions. This evolutionary view of science protects the field of science from poor scientific claims.