This project supports the National Data Program for the Social Sciences (NDPSS) to conduct the 2014 General Social Survey (GSS) and the 2014 United States allied survey in the International Social Survey Program (ISSP). The NDPSS is a social indicators, infrastructure, and data dissemination program. It gathers data to (1) monitor and explain trends, changes and constants in attitudes, behaviors, and attributes and examine the structure and functioning of society in general, as well as the role of various sub-groups; (2) compare the United States to other societies, by developing cross-national models of human society; and (3) make high quality data easily accessible to scholars, students, and others with minimal cost and waiting. The GSS is a regular, ongoing interview survey of U.S households. The mission of the GSS is to make timely high-quality scientifically relevant data available to social science researchers. Since 1972 the GSS (with NSF support) has conducted 28 in-person, cross-sectional surveys of the adult household population of the U S with approximately 55,087 respondents. GSS content is wide ranging with approximately 5,416 variables overall. The ISSP facilitates cross-national research in 48 nations that use data collection programs modeled on the GSS.
The NDPSS has been collecting high quality, full-probability data in the United States since 1972 and cross-national data since 1982. Using the most scientifically rigorous of survey designs, the GSS is widely acknowledged to represent the "gold standard" in contemporary survey research. The GSS/ISSP surveys monitor societal change in the United States and place American society in comparative perspective. These data are used to develop and test models of societal change and other social processes. The GSS and ISSP have contributed to advancing knowledge of age-period-cohort effects; changes in intergroup relations, gender roles, family structure and values, attitudes about civil liberties; the impact of globalization on national identity; and other social and political aspects of society. The renewal proposal supports several enhancements, upgrades and innovations to the GSS. These include 1) the updating of the sample frame, 2) the linkage of GSS cases to the National Death Index, 3) the expansion of auxiliary and aggregate-level data, 4) adding new design-effects variables, 5) additional hypernetwork samples of congregations and employers, 6) updating coding of occupation and industry and a new measurement of occupational prestige, 7) expanding the ISSP and cross-national research methods, 8) adding new modules on social media use and technological change, and 9) analyzing the GSS panel data to study gross and net change and clarify causal connections,
Broader Impacts
The NDPSS has already had enormous impact beyond the boundaries of the survey itself. The GSS is held as the "gold standard" by which many other survey data collection activities are measured, and the ISSP program has led to innovations and developments in cross-cultural and cross-national research. The user community includes researchers, college and university faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, business planners, the media and public officials. Sociologists, political scientists, economists, statisticians, survey methodologists, anthropologists, geographers, biologists, engineers, psychologists, criminologist, legal scholars, medical/health researchers, and business administration and management scholars use GSS data. The GSS is widely disseminated and easily accessible, supporting research and education of groups that are traditionally under-represented in the conduct of social scientific research. The use of the GSS is widely documented in publications, with over 20,000 publications citing the use of GSS data. The GSS uses a state-of-the-art interview-to-internet archiving and dissemination system that speeds access to the interview data and allows users to access all information associated with each variable in a database. The contributions of the GSS to the teaching of quantitative social science analysis are unprecedented and unmatched. Its accessibility and ease of use has added value far beyond the original data collection efforts, and researchers continue to mine both the old and new data to advance knowledge and test theories. The GSS and ISSP program are part of the core infrastructure of social science research in the U.S.
