The present project concerns research strategies of analysis and conceptual integration of three large scale interrelated research projects conducted between 1974 and 1984. Two of these deal with rodent populations subjected to increase in population density over successive generations. The third concerns the interrelationship between the evolution of human populations and the evolution of knowledge. Theory developed from the latter effort influenced the design of the rodent studies. These studies with rodents are intended to serve as animal models for how health and well-being of humans are influenced by living in complex physical and social environments. Therefore, the settings and time course to which rodent subjects were exposed similarly challenged them to adjust to progressively increasing complexities. Large data bases, involving many variables, were developed. Analyses of each variable leads to first order conclusions and restructuring the data bases into new kinds of data. These permit second order analyses and conclusions. Gradually different kinds of second and third order analyses are brought into interrelationship to form even higher order integrative analyses. Such strategy gradually culminates in a relatively small set of principles of process. For example, analyses of places of residence of each subject enabled categorization of life course into episodes of residential stability or instability. Across generations, residential stability of the population declined exponentially. Similarly, analyses of age at death revealed that mortality rate of females exceeded that for males, and that this difference between sexes increased with crowding as more females developed mammary tumors. Further, examination of residential stability revealed that after inception of crowding, rate of increase in mortality with age increased much faster among female mice.
