DataSet

National Opinion Research Center

GSS

The National Data Program for the Social Sciences (General Social Survey) is both a data diffusion project and a program of social indicator research. Its data collection instrument, the General Social Survey (GSS), is being fielded for the 26th time this year. Previously an annual survey, the GSS became biennial in 1994. The questionnaire contains a standard core of demographic and attitudinal variables, plus certain topics of special interest selected for rotation (called "topical modules"). Items that appeared on national surveys between 1973 and 1975 are replicated. The exact wording of these questions is retained to facilitate time trend studies as well as replications of earlier findings. NORC also incorporates methodological experiments into each year of the GSS data collection. These have involved question wording, context effects, use of different types of response scales, as well as random probes and other assessments of validity and reliability.

Education; Health Status; Health Surveys; Income; Social Class; Social Conditions

This study, begun in 1972, was supported in its first year by grants from the Russell Sage Foundation and the National Science Foundation. NSF provided support for 1973 through 1991, with surveys in 1973-1978, 1980, 1982, 1983-1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006.

The basic purposes of the GSS are to gather data on contemporary American society in order to monitor and explain trends and constants in attitudes, behaviors, and attributes; to examine the structure and functioning of society in general as well as the role played by relevant subgroups; to compare the United States to other societies in order to place American society in comparative perspective and develop cross-national models of human society; and to make high-quality data easily accessible to scholars, students, policy makers, and others, with minimal cost and waiting. Since 1988, the GSS has also collected data on number of sex partners, frequency of intercourse, extramarital relationships, and sex with prostitutes.

Sheps Center, UNC-CH

1744