General Social Survey, 1972-2012 [Cumulative File] (ICPSR 34802)
Version Date: Sep 11, 2013 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Tom W. Smith, National Opinion Research Center;
Michael Hout, National Opinion Research Center;
Peter V. Marsden, National Opinion Research Center
Series:
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34802.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
The General Social Surveys (GSS) were designed as part of a data diffusion project in 1972. The GSS replicated questionnaire items and wording in order to facilitate time-trend studies. The latest survey, GSS 2012, includes a cumulative file that merges all 29 General Social Surveys into a single file containing data from 1972 to 2012. The items appearing in the surveys are one of three types: Permanent questions that occur on each survey, rotating questions that appear on two out of every three surveys (1973, 1974, and 1976, or 1973, 1975, and 1976), and a few occasional questions such as split ballot experiments that occur in a single survey. The 2012 surveys included seven topic modules: Jewish identity, generosity, workplace violence, science, skin tone, and modules for experimental and miscellaneous questions. The International Social Survey Program (ISSP) module included in the 2012 survey was gender. The data also contain several variables describing the demographic characteristics of the respondents.
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Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Smallest Geographic Unit View help for Smallest Geographic Unit
census region
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
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Date of Collection View help for Date of Collection
Data Collection Notes View help for Data Collection Notes
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Please note that NORC may have updated the General Social Survey data files. Additional information regarding the General Social Surveys can be found at the General Social Survey (GSS) Web site.
Sample View help for Sample
For sampling information, please see Appendix A of the ICPSR Codebook.
Universe View help for Universe
All noninstitutionalized, English and Spanish speaking persons 18 years of age or older, living in the United States.
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HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2013-09-11
Version History View help for Version History
2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
- Smith, Tom W., Michael Hout, and Peter V. Marsden. General Social Survey, 1972-2012 [Cumulative File]. ICPSR34802-v1. Storrs, CT: Roper Center for Public Opinion Research, University of Connecticut/Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributors], 2013-09-11. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR34802.v1
2013-09-11 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Created online analysis version with question text.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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Due to the number of weights and various uses for them, users should refer to Appendix A of the ICPSR Codebook.
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These data are freely available to data users at ICPSR member institutions. The curation and dissemination of this study are provided by the institutional members of ICPSR. How do I access ICPSR data if I am not at a member institution?