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The German General Social Survey (ALLBUS/GGSS - Die Allgemeine Bevölkerungsumfrage der Sozialwissenschaften) is a national
data In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpret ...
generation program in
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...
, which is similar to the American General Social Survey (GSS). Its mission is to collect and disseminate high quality
statistical survey Survey methodology is "the study of survey methods". As a field of applied statistics concentrating on human-research surveys, survey methodology studies the sampling of individual units from a population and associated techniques of survey da ...
s on attitudes, behavior, and social structure in Germany.


Funding and Organizational Background

With the foundation of GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (formerly: "German Social Sciences Infrastructure Services" (Gesellschaft sozialwissenschaftlicher Infrastruktureinrichtungen)) in 1986, ALLBUS/GGSS has been included into the state-federal funding of this grouping. It is institutionalized as a joint-venture of GESIS at
Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...
(formerly: Centre for Survey Research and Methodology (ZUMA - Zentrum für Umfragen, Methoden und Analysen)) and GESIS at
Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
(formerly: Central Archive for Empirical Social Research (ZA - Zentralarchiv für Empirische Sozialforschung)). Since 2010 ALLBUS is an officially accredited Research Data Center o
The German Data Forum (RatSWD)


The Surveys

Standardly, the representative cross-sectional studies are conducted biennially since 1980. A large part of the items included consists of replications, while others are specifically varied according to particular topics. Until 1990, the individual surveys were conducted using a random sample of ca. 3000 German citizens from the old Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin who were residing in private households and were at least 18 years old at the time of the interview. In 1991 the universe sampled was extended to cover the former East Germany, and foreign residents are included in the samples. Since 1986, the German part of the
International Social Survey Programme The International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) is a collaboration between different nations conducting surveys covering topics which are useful for social science research. The ISSP researchers develop questions which are meaningful and relevant ...
(ISSP) is regularly conducted as part of the ALLBUS/GGSS survey. As in GSS both national surveys can be analysed in a common data set.


Cumulative Data File

The cumulative ALLBUS/GGSS 1980-2010 comprises
opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinion ...
data from all of the 18 currently available ALLBUS/GGSS surveys, with a total of 54,243 respondents. It comprises all items that have been surveyed at least two times within the regular ALLBUS/GGSS program (replications).


Topical Modules in the ALLBUS/GGSS program

* Assessments of economic situations * Political attitudes and political participation * Attitudes relating to the process of German unification * Attitudes towards social inequality and the welfare state * Confidence in public institutions and organizations * Pride in being a German * Attitudes towards migrants and minorities * Attachment to various political regions * Family and child raising * Attitudes towards abortion * Questions on health * Importance of life aspects and job characteristics * Free time activities * Use of media * Religiousness, cosmology and church attachment * Environmental concerns and pollution * Attitudes towards administration * Anomia and fear of crime * Deviant behavior and sanctioning * ALLBUS-
Demography Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as ed ...
(
demographics Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as ed ...
) * Details about the interview and the interviewer * Weights and indices.(cf. Terwey and Baumann 2013: p. x-xvii)


See also

Besides, there is another major German data generation program for the collection of panel data called the
Socio-Economic Panel The ''German'' Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP [], for ''Sozio-oekonomisches Panel'') is a Longitudinal study, longitudinal panel dataset of the population in Germany. It is a household based study which started in 1984 and which reinterviews adul ...

SOEP
. This is similar to the American
Panel Study of Income Dynamics The Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) is a longitudinal panel survey of American families, conducted by the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan. The PSID measures economic, social, and health factors over the life course of f ...

PSID
.


Notes


External links


GESIS

Research Data Center ALLBUS at GESIS
(documentation and data download for free)


International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) at GESIS


Literature

*Richard Alba, Peter Schmidt, and Martina Wasmer (eds.): ''Germans or Foreigners? Attitudes Towards Ethnic Minorities in Post-Reunification Germany''. Palgrave Macmillan, New York and Houndmills 2003. *James Allen Davis, Peter Ph. Mohler, and Tom W. Smith: ''Nationwide General Social Surveys''. In: Ingwer Borg and Peter Ph. Mohler (eds.): ''Trends and Perspectives in Empirical Social Research''. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 1994: 17–25. *Tom W. Smith, Jibum Kim, Achim Koch and Alison Park: ''Social-Science Research and the General Social Surveys''. In: ''ZUMA-Nachrichten''. Nr. 56, 2005: 68–77. *Michael Terwey: ''ALLBUS: A German General Social Survey''. In: ''Schmollers Jahrbuch. Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften. Journal of Applied Social Science Studies''. Nr. 120, 2000: 151–158. {{ISSN, 0342-1783 *Michael Terwey and Horst Baumann (eds.): ''Variable Report ALLBUS / German General Social Survey Cumulation 1980-2010''. ZA-No. 4576. Cologne: GESIS. GESIS - Variable Reports; No. 2013/2 *Michael Terwey, Horst Baumann and Michael Blohm: ''Forschungsdatenzentrum ALLBUS Jahresbericht 2010, Berichtszeitraum 01.01.2010-31.12.2010''. GESIS-Technical Reports 2011/03, Bonn: GESIS - Leibniz-Institut für Sozialwissenschaften 2011
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