PSYC1040 explores various ways to acquire knowledge, including personal experience, authority, rationalism, empiricism, and science. Although personal experience is susceptible to biases such as the availability heuristic, it can offer insights based on feelings or interpretations. Authority is often relied upon for knowledge but may not always be verifiable or accurate. Rationalism involves logical thinking, while empiricism focuses on observations and sensory data. Science combines rationalism and empiricism through the scientific method, requiring systematic observation, critical analysis, and falsifiable hypotheses. Key principles of science include empiricism, scepticism, openness, tentativeness, and independence of authority. Experiments and statistics are essential tools in psychological research. Experiments involve formal observations and may follow the method of agreement or disagreement, while statistics help evaluate claims and draw conclusions. Descriptive statistics organize and summarize data, while inferential statistics extrapolate sample results to the population. Science aims to describe, explain, predict, and control phenomena. Stages in psychological research include theory, hypothesis, study design, data collection, and conclusions. Ethical considerations include respect for rights and dignity, propriety, and integrity. Research can be basic or applied, qualitative or quantitative, and conducted in the laboratory or the field. Variables must be clearly defined and measured, considering factors like reliability and validity. Organizing and exploring data involves tools like frequency tables, percentiles, relative and cumulative frequencies, and measures of central tendency, including mode, median, and mean.