ALLBUS/GGSS 2010 (Allgemeine Bevölkerungsumfrage der Sozialwissenschaften/German General Social Survey 2010)

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).

ALLBUS/GGSS 2010 focuses on the replication of questions from previous ALLBUS surveys and includes a broad range of sociologically relevant topics. The survey also features an updated and extended module on ego-centered networks that comprises new characteristics of the alteri and an alternative network generator (Burt) surveyed in a split questionnaire. Additionally included are the ISSP modules "Social Inequality IV" and "Environment III".<br>1.) Importance of job characteristics: preferred job characteristics
(security, income, career opportunities, prestige, free time,
interesting work, autonomy, responsibility, human contact,
charitableness, social utility).

2.) Social inequality and the welfare state: self-assessment of social
class and classification on a top-bottom-scale; fair share in standard
of living; evaluation of personal success in life; evaluation of equal
educational opportunities for everyone; prerequisites for social
success; income differences as incentive to achieve; acceptance of
social differences and support of the welfare state; attitudes towards
expansion or cuts in social services; perceived strength of conflicts
between social groups; social pessimism and orientation towards the
future (anomia).

3.) Political attitudes: political interest; postmaterialism
(importance of law and order, fighting rising prices, free expression
of opinions, and influence on governmental decisions); self-placement
on left-right continuum;

4.) Economy: assessments of the present and future economic situation
in Germany; assessment of present and future personal economic
situation.

5.) Social networks and social capital: general trust in fellow men;
trust and reciprocity in social relations; membership status of
respondent in various clubs and organizations; friends and
acquaintances (ego-centered networks), including information on:
gender, age, kinship or type of relationship, school education,
employment, occupational position, occupational group, voting behavior,
current citizenship and country of origin, spatial distance between
alter and ego, comparative economic situation; quality and quantity of
contacts, mutual familiarity between friends or acquaintances.

6.) Ethnocentrism and minorities: scale of attitudes towards foreigners
and contacts with foreigners within the family, at work, in the
neighborhood, or among friends; opinion on dual citizenship and on equal
rights for foreigners; pride in being a German.

7.) Attitudes relating to the process of German unification: attitude
towards the demand for increased willingness to make sacrifices in the
West and more patience in the East; unification is advantageous, for
East and West respectively; future of the East depends on the
willingness of eastern Germans to make an effort; strangeness of
citizens in the other part of Germany; performance pressure in the new
states; attitude towards dealing with the Stasi-past of individuals;
evaluation of socialism as an idea.

8.) Other topics: family as a prerequisite for happiness; marriage in
case of steady partnership or if child was born; overall health;
physical and psychological shape during the last four weeks; Internet
use.

9.) ALLBUS-Demography: Details about the respondent: attractiveness of
respondent, month and year of birth, age, gender, geographical origin,
citizenship(s) (nationality), number of citizenships, original
citizenship, school education, vocational training, employment status,
details about current and former occupation respectively, affiliation
to public service, fixed-term or permanent employment contract, working
hours per week (primary and secondary job), supervisory functions, fear
of unemployment or loss of business, length of unemployment, status of
non-employment, date of termination of full- or part-time employment,
marital status, marital biography, co-habitation with spouse or steady
partner, lived with parents when child, age when leaving parental home,
respondent´s income, type of dwelling, self-description of place of
residence, length of residence, distance to previous place of
residence, self-assessment of religiousness, religious denomination,
frequency of church attendance, voting intention (Sonntagsfrage),
participation in last federal elections, overall life satisfaction,
place of residence (federal state, administrative district, size of
municipality, BIK-type of municipality). Details about respondent´s
current spouse: month and year of birth, age, school education,
vocational training, employment status, details about current
occupation, affiliation to public service, fear of unemployment or loss
of business status of non-employment. Details about respondent´s steady
partner: month and year of birth, age, school education, vocational
training, employment status, details about current occupation,
affiliation to public service, fear of unemployment or loss of business
status of non-employment. Details about respondent´s parents: school
education, vocational training, details about parents´ occupation.
Description of household: size of household, household income, number
of persons older than 17 in household (reduced size of household).
Details about household members: family relation to respondent, gender,
month and year of birth, age, marital status. Details about children
not living in the household: number of children not living in the
household, gender, year of birth, age.

10.) Data on the interview (paradata): Date of interview; beginning and end of
interview; length of interview; presence of other persons during
interview: presence of spouse, partner or children during interview,
presence of other relatives during interview; interference of other
persons in the course of the interview; willingness to cooperate and
reliability of information from respondent; respondent followed
interview on screen; participation in other surveys over the past
year; willingness to participate in follow-up survey; willingness to
provide e-mail address; participation in accompanying ISSP-interviews;
details about respondent´s residential building and assessment of
respondent´s neighborhood; reachability of respondent; willingness to
participate; number of attempts to contact the respondent; release-id.
Details about the interviewer: gender, age, school education, length of
experience as an interviewer, identification number.

11.) Social inequality IV (ISSP): most important prerequisites for
success in society; attitudes towards the welfare state and towards
social differences; estimation of average earnings in occupational
groups and estimation of appropriate earnings; social justice;
self-classification on a top-bottom-scale; occupational status compared
to father’s; estimation of own pay’s fairness; perceived and preferred
type of society; parents’ occupational group; respondent’s occupational
mobility; worth of family assets; respondent’s work ethic in school.

12.) Environment III (ISSP): the two most urgent problems of the
country; attitudes towards the role of private business and government
intervention; postmaterialism; general trust in fellow men and
politicians; role of science in society; most relevant environmental
issue for country and own family; estimate of own knowledge about
environmental problems and their solutions; attitudes on the role of
science and economic growth regarding environmental issues; willingness
to make personal sacrifices to protect environment; assessment of
efficacy of own actions to protect environment; assessment of relative
danger of environmental problems; attitudes on measures to enforce
environmental goals; preferred source of energy for country;
environmental policies in a global context; own actions to protect
environment; knowledge about reasons for climate change; details about
the respondent (years in school, employment, type of employer,
employment status); details about spouse or steady partner (employment;
working hours per week; supervisory functions in job, employment
status), self-classification on a top-bottom-scale.

13.) Added value: Inglehart-Index; International Standard
Classification of Occupations (ISCO 1968, 1988); occupational prestige
(according to Treiman); Standard International Occupational Prestige
Scale (SIOPS, according to Ganzeboom), International Socio-economic
Index of Occupational Status (ISEI, according to Ganzeboom); magnitude
prestige (according to Wegener); class position (according to
Goldthorpe); occupational metaclassification (according to Terwey);
classification of private households (according to Porst and
Funk);family typology; transformation weight for analyses on household
level; east-west design weight.