These files contain data and codebook information from the National Opinion Research Center’s General Social Survey for 1996 and 2006.

In addition to an updated codebook in Word (GSS9606 codebook) there are four data files:

gss96_06each750
gss96_1500cases
gss06_1500cases
gss96_06allcases

The first three files are designed for use with Student SPSS in that they are limited to 1,500 cases and 50 variables. The file gss96_06each750 contains 750 cases from each year for instructors who wish to have students examine both years in a single analysis, perhaps by running tables of year by variables of interest. The file gss96_1500cases contains 1,500 cases from the 1996 sample and the file gss06_1500cases contains 1,500 cases from the 2006 sample. These two files are designed for instructors who desire larger sample sizes, but the files require students to run separate analyses if they wish to compare the two years when using Student SPSS. The file gss96_06allcases contains the full samples for both years on the selected variables and requires the regular version of SPSS. This file includes all the variables included in the limited size files plus additional variables.

Recall that the split-ballot technique employed by NORC means that many questions were asked of only half (more or less) of the sample. Hence, the first file (with 750 cases per year) may contain only about 375 cases on a particular variable for each year. When students set up a table of such variables with other variables which may have been asked of different respondents, cell sizes attenuate very quickly.

These files can be used easily with the codebooks included in the supplements for Babbie’s textbooks. Obviously, the YEAR variable now has values of 1996 and 2006. All of the variables in the 1994-2004 codebook except MEMNUM are included in these updated files. Also, 19 variables have been added to the updated gss96_06allcases file, which now contains 100 variables. The updated Word codebook file is GSS9606 codebook. But the 50 variables selected for the smaller Student SPSS files are the same as those selected in the 1994-2004 files, which facilitates using the existing codebooks in the supplements.