British Social Attitudes Survey, 1985

This survey is part of a continuing series designed to monitor trends in a wide range of social attitudes in Great Britain. The British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA) is similar in purpose to the General Social Survey carried out by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) in the United States. The BSA questionnaire had two parts, one administered by an interviewer and the other completed by the respondent. As in the past, the 1985 interview questionnaire contained a number of "core" questions covering the major topic areas of defense, the economy, labor market participation, and the welfare state. The 1985 self-enumerated questionnaire was devoted to a series of questions on a range of social, economic, political, and moral issues. Topics that received attention include: (1) media, politics, and international affairs, (2) economic expectations and evaluations and labor market participation, (3) social expenditure, welfare state issues, the National Health Service, and education, and (4) social class, religion, racial prejudice, gender issues, and public and private morality. Other questions covered the welfare state, environment, technology and employment, and nuclear war. Beginning in 1985, an international initiative funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), also contributed a module to the BSA. The topic of the ISSP module in this collection was the role of government. Additional demographic data gathered included age, gender, education, occupation, household income, marital status, social class, and religious and political affiliations.