User Guide for the GSS Dataset to accompany Nolan & Heinzen s Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, 2e and Essentials of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences, 2e Welcome to our sample dataset from the General Social Survey (GSS). This document is intended to support your use and understanding of this dataset and the GSS in general. Table of Contents: I. What is the General Social Survey (GSS)? 2. Instructions for viewing the data in SPSS 3. Detailed descriptions of GSS items contained in this dataset I. What is the General Social Survey (GSS)? You can learn detailed information about the GSS, its history and its uses, from several websites. The University of Chicago s National Data Program for the Sciences maintains the GSS and offers user-support at: http://www.norc.org/gss http://www.norc.org/gss+website/ http://www.norc.org/projects/general+social+survey.htm The GSS Cumulative Codebook that is available through these websites is 2,684 pages long, so we have created this brief User Guide to assist you. For your benefit, we have copied some of the general descriptions they provide here, with appropriate links so that you can track the original sources: The General Social Survey (GSS) conducts basic scientific research on the structure and development of American society with a data-collection program designed to both monitor social change within the United States and to compare the United States to other nations. The GSS contains a standard 'core' of demographic, behavioral, and attitudinal questions, plus topics of special interest. Many of the core questions have remained unchanged since 1972 to facilitate time-trend studies as well as replication of earlier findings. The GSS takes the pulse of America, and is a unique and valuable resource. It has tracked the opinions of Americans over the last four decades. From http://www.norc.org/gss+website/ General Social Survey The General Social Survey (GSS) is one of NORC s flagship surveys and our longest running project. The GSS started in 1972 and completed its 27th round in 2008. For the last third of a century the GSS has been monitoring societal change and the growing complexity of American society. The GSS is the largest project funded by the Sociology Program of the National Science Foundation. Except for the U.S. Census, the GSS is the most frequently analyzed source of information in the social sciences. The GSS contains a standard core of demographic and attitudinal questions, plus topics of special interest. Many of the core questions have remained unchanged since 1972 to facilitate time trend studies as well as replication of earlier findings. The GSS takes the pulse of America, and is a unique and valuable resource. It is the only survey that has tracked the opinions of
Americans over an extended period of time. The GSS is also a major teaching tool. We know of over 15,000 research uses such as articles in academic journals, books, and Ph.D. dissertations based on the GSS and about 400,000 students annually who use it in their classes. Topical Modules In addition to the core questionnaire, a variety of different individual researchers purchase time in the GSS. Each of these researchers develops a specific series of questions, or topical modules, to include in the GSS. In 2008, the topical modules included questions about attitudes towards science and technology, self-employment, terrorism preparation, global economics, sports & leisure, social inequality, sexual behaviors, and religion. From http://www.norc.org/projects/general+social+survey.htm National Data Program for Social Sciences The National Data Program for the Social Sciences has been conducted since 1972 by NORC, A Social Science Research Center at the University of Chicago, with the support of the National Science Foundation. This program has had two main goals: To conduct basic scientific research on the structure and development of American society. To distribute up-to-date, important, high-quality data to social scientists, students, policy makers, and others. This research is carried out by a data collection program designed to both monitor social change within the United States and to compare the United States to other nations. Data on social change in the United States is collected as part of the General Social Survey (GSS). The GSS has been conducted almost annually since 1972. It is the only full-probability, personal-interview survey designed to monitor changes in both social characteristics and attitudes currently being conducted in the United States. Hundreds of trends have been tracked since 1972. In addition, since the GSS adopted questions from earlier surveys, trends can be followed for up to 70 years. Among the topics covered are civil liberties, crime and violence, intergroup tolerance, morality, national spending priorities, psychological well-being, social mobility, and stress and traumatic events. Altogether the GSS is the single best source for sociological and attitudinal trend data covering the United States. Cross-national data are collected as part of the International Social Survey Program (ISSP). ISSP was established in 1984 by NORC and other social science institutes in the United States, Australia, Great Britain, and West Germany. The ISSP collaboration has now grown to include 46 nations The ISSP is the largest program of cross-national research in the social sciences. For more information on the ISSP, visit its Web site: www.issp.org The GSS and ISSP data sets are distributed to interested scholars and applied researchers as soon as the surveys are processed through the major survey archives in the United States and Europe. It is widely utilized by academia, government, and the private sector: Over 15,000 scholarly publications have used the GSS. In the social sciences only the US Census is used as a data source more frequently than the GSS. Each year over 400,000 college students utilize the GSS in classes. Several innovative programs to teach sociology through hands-on analysis of real data have been developed around the GSS. Governmental users include the Library of Congress, the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Education, and Justice, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the White House. Corporate users include AT&T, General Electric, Hallmark, IBM, Procter and Gamble, Prudential Insurance, and Sears. Newspapers, magazines, and broadcast media in North America, Asia, and Europe frequently cite the GSS. From http://www.norc.org/gss+website/about+gss/national+data+program+for+social+sciences/
2. Instructions for viewing the data in SPSS While the full collection of GSS data is extremely large, your Student Version of SPSS can only view up to 50 variables and 1500 cases. As described in the GSS information provided above, data was collected in 2008, and data limited to just that year are available on the GSS website at: www.norc.org/gss+website/download/spss+format/ The 2008 dataset is rather large itself, containing 841 variables and 2023 respondents. We have taken that data and reduced it to 1400 respondents and 49 variables. This subset of data contains some very interesting variables, including demographic items (i.e., general characteristics of individuals) and opinion items. In the next section, we have included the survey items that lead to each of these variables, so you can get more familiar with the data. Now that we have a dataset that is reasonable in size, you can begin by opening the file. You will want to save the data and open it using your Student Version of SPSS (or PAWS the new name for SPSS). Once the data are open, you can view the list of variables, including their names and labels. Remember that variable names are short and it is often difficult to remember their meaning. The label assigned to each variable gives you more information. That label is viewable under the variable tab (bottom left of your data screen) and if you hang your cursor over the variable name (the label will appear in a shaded window). Here is a sample of the variable view in SPSS for this dataset: In the GSS dataset, you will see several codes for data beyond just the response categories. These codes include no response, don t know, and IAP which means inapplicable. (The question was not asked to or did not apply to the respondent.) Skills in combining variables and using the Select Cases feature in SPSS are useful when processing such data. Once you have opened the dataset provided, you can begin generating descriptive statistics, creating graphs, and running analyses. Enjoy!
3. Detailed descriptions of GSS items contained in this dataset There are 49 variables contained in this dataset. Below, we have presented the variables, in the order they appear within the dataset, accompanied by the survey question that was administered in 2008. NOTE: the variables are ordered alphabetically by variable names. The frequency table (or grouped frequency table in some cases) that accompanies each variable shows data for the years in which each item was administered, while the dataset provided to you only includes responses from 2008. #1 Variable Name: afterlif Variable Label: BELIEF IN LIFE AFTER DEATH #2 Variable Name: age Variable Label: AGE OF RESPONDENT
#3 Variable Name: attend Variable Label: HOW OFTEN R ATTENDS RELIGIOUS SERVICES #4 Variable Name: cantrust Variable Label: PEOPLE CAN BE TRUSTED OR CANT BE TOO CAREFUL #5 Variable Name: childs Variable Label: NUMBER OF CHILDREN
#6 Variable Name: chldidel Variable Label: IDEAL NUMBER OF CHILDREN #7 Variable Name: confinan Variable Label: CONFID IN BANKS & FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
#8 Variable Name: educ Variable Label: HIGHEST YEAR OF SCHOOL COMPLETED #9 Variable Name: egomeans Variable Label: LIFE MEANINGFUL ONLY IF YOU PROVIDE MEANING #10 Variable Name: evstray Variable Label: HAVE SEX OTHER THAN SPOUSE WHILE MARRIED
#11 Variable Name: fair Variable Label: PEOPLE FAIR OR TRY TO TAKE ADVANTAGE #12 Variable Name: fefam Variable Label: BETTER FOR MAN TO WORK, WOMAN TEND HOME #13 Variable Name: fepres Variable Label: VOTE FOR WOMAN PRESIDENT * Note: while this table shows no data for 2008, data do appear in the dataset. #14 Variable Name: finrela Variable Label: OPINION OF FAMILY INCOME
#15 Variable Name: goodlife Variable Label: STANDARD OF LIVING OF R WILL IMPROVE #16 Variable Name: hapmar Variable Label: HAPPINESS OF MARRIAGE #17 Variable Name: happy Variable Label: GENERAL HAPPINESS
#18 Variable Name: hapunhap Variable Label: HAPPY OR UNHAPPY WITH LIFE TODAY * Note: while this table shows no data for 2008, data do appear in the dataset. #19 Variable Name: health Variable Label: CONDITION OF HEALTH #20 Variable Name: heaven Variable Label: BELIEF IN HEAVEN Do you believe in
#21 Variable Name: hell Variable Label: BELIEF IN HELL Do you believe in #22 Variable Name: homosex1 Variable Label: IS HOMOSEXUAL SEX WRONG? Do you think it is wrong or not wrong if [this was the question stem before items A and B which are not shown] #23 Variable Name: id Variable Label: RESPONDNT ID NUMBER #24 Variable Name: intrhome Variable Label: INTERNET ACCESS IN R'S HOME
#25 Variable Name: letin1 Variable Label: NUMBER OF IMMIGRANTS TO AMERICA NOWADAYS SHOULD BE #26 Variable Name: life Variable Label: IS LIFE EXCITING OR DULL #27 Variable Name: nummen Variable Label: NUMBER OF MALE SEX PARTNERS SINCE 18
#28 Variable Name: numwomen Variable Label: NUMBER OF FEMALE SEX PARTNERS SINCE 18 #29 Variable Name: othlang Variable Label: CAN R SPEAK LANGUAGE OTHER THAN ENGLISH #30 Variable Name: parsol Variable Label: RS LIVING STANDARD COMPARED TO PARENTS
#31 Variable Name: partyid Variable Label: POLITICAL PARTY AFFILIATION #32 Variable Name: PAXHAPPY Variable Label: RELIGION HELPS PEOPLE TO FIND INNER PEACE AND HAPPINESS #33 Variable Name: polviews Variable Label: THINK OF SELF AS LIBERAL OR CONSERVATIVE
#34 Variable Name: pray Variable Label: HOW OFTEN DOES R PRAY #35 Variable Name: race Variable Label: RACE OF RESPONDENT #36 Variable Name: racpres Variable Label: WOULD VOTE FOR BLACK PRESIDENT
#37 Variable Name: region Variable Label: REGION OF INTERVIEW #38 Variable Name: relig Variable Label: RS RELIGIOUS PREFERENCE #39 Variable Name: relpersn Variable Label: R CONSIDER SELF A RELIGIOUS PERSON
#40 Variable Name: rincom06 Variable Label: RESPONDENTS INCOME #41 Variable Name: satfin Variable Label: SATISFACTION WITH FINANCIAL SITUATION #42 Variable Name: satjob Variable Label: JOB OR HOUSEWORK
#43 Variable Name: sex Variable Label: RESPONDENTS SEX #44 Variable Name: SEXORNT Variable Label: SEXUAL ORIENTATION #45 Variable Name: spanking Variable Label: FAVOR SPANKING TO DISCIPLINE CHILD #46 Variable Name: sprtprsn Variable Label: R CONSIDER SELF A SPIRITUAL PERSON
#47 Variable Name: tvhours Variable Label: HOURS PER DAY WATCHING TV #48 Variable Name: wordsum Variable Label: NUMBER WORDS CORRECT IN VOCABULARY TEST Note, the GSS survey does not reveal the words tested, but there are 10 total.
#49 Variable Name: xmarsex1 Variable Label: IS EXTRAMARITAL SEX WRONG? Do you think it is wrong or not wrong if