Chapter 10 - Existing Data Analysis

Question 1

vital statistics

Answer 1

data collected from the registration of ‘vital’ life events, such as births, deaths, marriages, and divorces

Question 2

sources/examples of existing data

Answer 2

public documents, official records, private documents, mass media, physical (non-verbal) evidence, social science data archives

Question 3

data archives

Answer 3

repositories of survey, ethnographic, or qualitative interview data collected by various agencies and researchers that are accessible to the public

Question 4

demography

Answer 4

the study of the structure of and changes in human populations

Question 5

process of analyzing existing statistics

Answer 5

search for + obtain data –> measure variables/evaluate + adjust data –> analyze data

Question 6

content analysis

Answer 6

systematic analysis of the symbolic content of communications in which the content is reduced to a set of coded variables or categories

Question 7

process of content analysis

Answer 7

select recorded comm. –> define unit of analysis/develop coding scheme –> sample units/train coders + pilot test reliability –> code variables –> carry out analysis

Question 8

recording (coding) units

Answer 8

units of analysis in content analysis (words, sentences, paragraphs, whole articles)

Question 9

codebook

Answer 9

guide for coding w/ list of variables with definitions, codes, and instructions for applying the codes

Question 10

comparative historical analysis

Answer 10

development of causal explanations of social change by describing and comparing historical processes within and across cases

Question 11

process of comparative historical analysis

Answer 11

specify analytic framework –> select/compile cases, case studies/cross-case analysis/within-case analysis –> develop causal explanation –> apply to case studies

Question 12

process analysis

Answer 12

within-case method of CHA that examines possible intervening mechanisms that link an observed or theoretical association between events

Question 13

truth table

Answer 13

a table that presents all possible combinations of values (0 = absent; 1 = present) for a set of causal variables

Question 14

narrative comparison

Answer 14

method of causal inference in which historical narratives of cases are analyzed to develop a general cross-case causal pattern and to validate it within each case

Question 15

selective survival

Answer 15

incompleteness of existing historical data due to the fact that some objects survive longer than others

Question 16

selective deposit

Answer 16

systematic biases in the content of existing historical data due to actions such as selective destruction or editing of written records