ALLBUS/GGSS 1980 (Allgemeine Bevölkerungsumfrage der Sozialwissenschaften/German General Social Survey 1980)

ALLBUS (GGSS - the German General Social Survey) is a biennial trend survey based on random samples of the German population. Established in 1980, its mission is to monitor attitudes, behavior, and social change in Germany. Each ALLBUS cross-sectional survey consists of one or two main question modules covering changing topics, a range of supplementary questions and a core module providing detailed demographic information. Additionally, data on the interview and the interviewers are provided as well. Key topics generally follow a 10-year replication cycle, many individual indicators and item batteries are replicated at shorter intervals.

Since the mid-1980ies ALLBUS also regularly hosts one or two modules of the ISSP (International Social Survey Programme).

The main goal of the first ALLBUS/GGSS survey in 1980 was to develop a baseline of indicators for the purpose of monitoring attitudes, behavior, and societal change in West Germany. Therefore, the survey covers a wide spectrum of topics ranging from politics, government, and the economy to social norms, individual values, and social capital.<br>1.) Importance of life aspects and job characteristics: family and
children, work and occupation, free time and recreation, friends and
acquaintances, kinship, religion and church, politics and public life;
preferred job characteristics (security, income, responsibility, etc.).

2.) Attitudes towards marriage, family, and partnership: family as
prerequisite for happiness; marriage in case of steady partnership;
ideal number of children; importance of educational goals.

3.) Attitudes towards and contacts with the administration: detailed
determination of contacts with the administration; personal experiences
with the administration and assessment of treatment by the
administration; attitudes towards privatization of public services,
bureaucratization, and the welfare state.

4.) Perception of social conflicts: perceived strength of conflicts or
contradictions (split) between social groups.

5.) Attitudes towards and contacts with foreign guest-workers
(Gastarbeiter): scale of attitudes towards foreigners; contacts with
foreign guest-workers within the family, at work, in the neighborhood,
or among friends.

6.) Political attitudes: political interest; postmaterialism
(importance of law and order, fighting rising prices, free expression
of opinions, and influence on governmental decisions); attitude towards
the death penalty for terrorists; opinion on nuclear power; voting
intention (Sonntagsfrage); party-sympathy-scales for the CDU, SPD, CSU,
FDP, NPD, DKP, and the Greens (Die Grünen); self-placement on a
left-right continuum.

7.) Other topics: friends and acquaintances (ego-centered networks),
including information on kinship, occupational position, party
preference of and mutual familiarity between friends or acquaintances;
attitudes towards abortion; self-assessment of social class; fair share
in standard of living; parts of a scale on the influence of social
desirability on respondents (SDS), fear of unemployment or loss of own
business.

8.) ALLBUS-Demography: Details about the respondent: gender; year of
birth, age; place of residence (federal state, size of municipality,
Boustedt-type of municipality, administrative region); religious
denomination, frequency of church attendance; voting intention
(Sonntagsfrage); general education, vocational training, currently at
school or university; employment status; details about current
occupation: length of employment, affiliation to public service,
industrial sector, size of company; length of unemployment; details
about former occupation; date of termination of full- or part-time
employment; desire for employment; principal source of livelihood;
respondent´s income; marital status; marital biography.

Details about respondent´s current spouse: general education,
vocational training; employment status; fear of unemployment or loss of
business; length of unemployment; date of termination of full- or
part-time employment; details about current and former occupation
respectively; religious denomination.

Details about respondent´s former spouse: general education,
vocational training; details about current and former occupation
respectively; religious denomination.

Details about respondent´s parents: general education and occupation
of father.

Composition of household: size of household, number of persons older
than 17 in household (reduced household size); household income; number
of children; type of dwelling.

Details about household members: relation to respondent; gender; year
of birth, age; marital status; income; German citizenship.

Details about children not living in the household: age. Year of birth
and year of death of deceased children.

Respondent´s current memberships (Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (DGB,
blue-collar union), Deutsche Angestelltengewerkschaft (DAG,
white-collar union), Deutscher Beamtenbund (DBB, public service union),
farmer´s association, trade association, Bundesverband der Deutschen
Industrie (BDI, association of German industry), other occupational
association; choral society, sports club, leisure activity club, local
history or community club, other social association, association of
German expellees or refugees, charitable association, religious/church
organization, youth or student organization, political party, citizens´
action group, other club or association).

9.) Data on the interview (paradata): presence of additional persons and
designation of these persons; interferences of these persons in the
interview; willingness to cooperate and reliability of the respondent;
length of interview, date of interview.

10.) Added value: International Standard Classification of
Occupations (ISCO 1968); occupational prestige (according to Treiman).