The German General Social Survey (ALLBUS/GGSS - Die Allgemeine Bevölkerungsumfrage der Sozialwissenschaften) is a national

data Data ( , ) are a collection of discrete or continuous values that convey information, describing the quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted for ...

generation program in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, which is similar to the American

General Social Survey The General Social Survey (GSS) is a sociological survey created in 1972 by James A. Davis of the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago and funded by the National Science Foundation. The GSS collects information ...

(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 d ...

s on attitudes, behavior, and social structure in Germany.

Funding and Organizational Background

With the foundation of

GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences The GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences is the largest German infrastructure institute for the social sciences. It is headquartered in Mannheim, with a location in Cologne. With basic research-based services and consulting coverin ...

(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 language, Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (), is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the States of Ger ...

(formerly: Centre for Survey Research and Methodology (ZUMA - Zentrum für Umfragen, Methoden und Analysen)) and GESIS at

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

(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 In statistics and econometrics, cross-sectional data is a type of data collected by observing many subjects (such as individuals, firms, countries, or regions) at a single point or period of time. Analysis of cross-sectional data usually consists ...

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 relevan ...

(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, is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of qu ...

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 human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analysis examine ...

(

demographics Demography () is the statistical study of human populations: their size, composition (e.g., ethnic group, age), and how they change through the interplay of fertility (births), mortality (deaths), and migration. Demographic analysis examin ...

) * Details about the interview and the interviewer * Weights and indices.(cf. Terwey and Baumann 2013: p. x-xvii)

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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