The General Social Survey: A National Data Resource for the Social Sciences

Research examining the consequences of the public’s confidence in the scientific community has primarily focused on the natural or medical sciences. It is not clear whether the public’s confidence in the scientific community has implications for research and practice in the social sciences. To begin examining this question, this study assesses whether survey respondents’ confidence in the scientific community is associated with their demeanor during the survey interview. This is consequential because respondent demeanor itself has been associated with survey refusal and nonresponse to items within surveys. Analysis of the 2004–2016 General Social Survey finds that individuals expressing more confidence in the scientific community are rated as having more positive demeanors by interviewers. Respondents’ confidence in other types of institutions does not show the same association, suggesting that confidence in the scientific community is uniquely associated with respondents’ demeanor during the interview. These findings suggest that the public’s confidence in science could have implications for at least survey-based social science research.

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Panel Conditioning in the General Social Survey

Sociological Methods & Research ◽

10.1177/0049124114532445 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 46 (1) ◽

pp. 103-124 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Andrew Halpern-Manners ◽

John Robert Warren ◽

Florencia Torche

Keyword(s):

Social Sciences ◽

Unobserved Heterogeneity ◽

General Social Survey ◽

Convincing Evidence ◽

Data Sets ◽

Social Survey ◽

Design Elements ◽

The Social ◽

Panel Conditioning ◽

Rule Out

Does participation in one wave of a survey have an effect on respondents’ answers to questions in subsequent waves? In this article, we investigate the presence and magnitude of “panel conditioning” effects in one of the most frequently used data sets in the social sciences: the General Social Survey (GSS). Using longitudinal records from the 2006, 2008, and 2010 surveys, we find convincing evidence that at least some GSS items suffer from this form of bias. To rule out the possibility of contamination due to selective attrition and/or unobserved heterogeneity, we strategically exploit a series of between-person comparisons across time-in-survey groups. This methodology, which can be implemented whenever researchers have access to at least three waves of rotating panel data, is described in some detail so as to facilitate future applications in data sets with similar design elements.

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Social Networks and Patterns of Social Interaction among Ever-Single and Separated/Divorced Elderly Canadians

Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement ◽

10.1017/s0714980800014513 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 31-53 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Laurel A. Strain ◽

Barbara J. Payne

Keyword(s):

Social Networks ◽

Social Interactions ◽

Living Arrangements ◽

General Social Survey ◽

Social Survey ◽

Family Networks ◽

Education And Health ◽

The Social ◽

Gender Education ◽

Statistics Canada

AbstractThis paper examines the social networks and patterns of social interactions of two relatively neglected marital status groups of elders, namely the ever-single and the separated/divorced. Drawing on data from the 1985 General Social Survey conducted by Statistics Canada, comparisons are made both between and among the 224 ever-single and 126 separated/divorced Canadians aged 65 and over. When controlling for age, gender, education and health status, ever-single individuals tend to have smaller family networks, a similar number of friends, and similar living arrangements as the separated/divorced. In-person contact with siblings is significantly associated with being ever-single while no differences emerge for contact with other relatives or with friends. Differences among the ever-single and among the separated/divorced are also assessed.

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Methods for Classification of Text Data: Can the Potential of Quantitative Analysis Be Applied to Qualitative Research?

Inter ◽

10.19181/inter.2021.13.2.5 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 81-96

Author(s):

Marina Aleksandrova

Keyword(s):

Social Sciences ◽

European Social Survey ◽

Research Field ◽

Item Nonresponse ◽

Text Data ◽

Social Survey ◽

The Social ◽

Textual Data ◽

Analysis Of Results

Text mining has developed rapidly in recent years. In this article we compare classification methods that are suitable for solving problems of predicting item nonresponse. The author builds reasoning about how the analysis of textual data can be implemented in a wider research field based on this material. The author considers a number of metrics adapted for textual analysis in the social sciences: accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, and gives examples that can help a sociologist figure out which of them is worth paying attention depending on the task at hand (classify text data with equal accuracy, or more fully describe one of the classes of interest). The article proposes an analysis of results obtained by analyzing texts based on the materials of the European Social Survey (ESS).

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Social data and society

Impact ◽

10.21820/23987073.2020.9.46 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 (9) ◽

pp. 46-47

Author(s):

Lucy Annette

Keyword(s):

Social Sciences ◽

Professional Development ◽

Social Research ◽

Tertiary Education ◽

Social Survey ◽

Current Form ◽

Educational Sociology ◽

The Social ◽

Seminar Series ◽

Education Courses

The Japanese Association for Social Research (JASR) works to advance and promote the social sciences, furthering the discipline while also highlighting its importance. It was formed in 2003 as the Japanese Certification Board for Social Researchers with a view to administering accreditation on behalf of its three founding societies: the Japan Sociological Society, the Japan Society of Educational Sociology and the Behaviormetric Society of Japan. Five years later, it was reorganised into its current form and operates independently of its founding societies. JASR's focus on social research involves ensuring continuous improvement in social survey research and instilling public trust in this area. It operates a qualification called the Program of Certified Social Researcher, which is designed to certify social researchers. Further activities for the JASR relate to: granting certification; accreditation of tertiary education courses; seminars; grants; symposia and lecture meetings; awards; consulting; and publications. The ultimate goal of these activities is to support and promote practitioner and researcher professional development, thereby assisting in the development of social research. Its efforts to further the continuation of education for social researchers also involve the JASR hosting relevant seminars, symposia and lecture meetings. As part of these events, leading experts share their knowledge with attendees, helping foster the professional development of practitioners and researchers. The JASR's seminar series covers the Standard Curriculum and primarily targets graduate students. It's completion contributes to the requirements for the Certificate of Advanced Social Research.

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National identity, a blessing or a curse? The divergent links from national attachment, pride, and chauvinism to social and political trust

European Political Science Review ◽

10.1017/s1755773920000211 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (4) ◽

pp. 449-468 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Gina Gustavsson ◽

Ludvig Stendahl

Keyword(s):

National Identity ◽

Social Identity Theory ◽

Current Knowledge ◽

General Social Survey ◽

Political Trust ◽

Social Survey ◽

Internet Studies ◽

The Social ◽

The Us ◽

National Attachment

AbstractIs it true that national identity increases trust, as liberal nationalists assume? Recent research has studied this side of the ‘national identity argument’ by focusing on conceptions of the content of national identity (often civic or ethnic) and their links to social, rather than political, trust. This paper argues that if we take social identity theory seriously, however, we need to complement this picture by asking how varying the strength – rather than the content – of a person’s sense of their national identity affects both their social and political trust. We break down the different dimensions of national identity, hypothesizing and empirically verifying that there are divergent links from national attachment, national pride, and national chauvinism to social and political trust. We do so with data from the US (General Social Survey) and the Netherlands (Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences ), thus expanding current knowledge of national identity and trust to a highly relevant yet neglected European case.

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The Effect of Parental Demographics on Parental Assessment of Adolescent Internet Addiction

International Journal of Cyber Behavior Psychology and Learning ◽

10.4018/ijcbpl.2017100105 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

pp. 56-67 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Chiho Ok ◽

Jisun Lim

Keyword(s):

Internet Addiction ◽

Internet Use ◽

General Social Survey ◽

Demographic Characteristics ◽

Social Survey ◽

Demographic Groups ◽

Parental Assessment ◽

The Social ◽

Nationally Representative ◽

Policies And Programs

This article investigates how adolescent Internet addiction is assessed by parents based on children's Internet use time and parental demographic characteristics. The authors measured children's level of Internet addiction based on Young's scale evaluated by their parents to mitigate the social desirability bias in self-reported surveys when children evaluate themselves. Based on Korean General Social Survey data, which is nationally representative in South Korea, they analyzed 219 individuals and found that as the time of Internet use of children increased, the level of Internet addiction evaluated by parents increased. In addition, this relationship was moderated by parental demographic characteristics such that higher age, lower educational attainment, and higher Internet use time tend to decrease the parental evaluation of their children's Internet addiction. Results suggest that policies and programs related to children's Internet addiction should be focused more on parents from specific demographic groups.

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Determinants and Consequences of Survey Respondents' Social Desirability Beliefs about Racial Attitudes

Methodology ◽

10.1027/1614-2241.3.3.125 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 3 (3) ◽

pp. 125-138 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

Author(s):

Volker Stocké

Keyword(s):

Social Desirability ◽

Racial Attitudes ◽

General Social Survey ◽

Racial Attitude ◽

Social Survey ◽

German Sample ◽

The Social ◽

Attitude Reports

Abstract. In this article, we first analyze the respondents' beliefs about the social desirability of ten racial attitude items from the German General Social Survey (ALLBUS). We found these beliefs, which serve as the basis for the incentives for social desirability (SD) bias, to differ according to the respondents' sex, age, and education, as well as for the analyzed attitude items. Second, we found that these incentive differences, observed in our urban West-German sample, predicted the attitude answers of respondents from the nationwide ALLBUS survey in 1996. This effect was, furthermore, stronger for respondents with congruent characteristics. Our results suggest (1) that the ALLBUS data about the analyzed topic are susceptible to SD bias, (2) that particular items are more strongly affected in this respect, and (3) that differences in the racial attitude reports between certain groups of respondents may only be the result of differently strong SD bias.

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