- Welcome
- Important notice
- About the author
- About this site
- Site guide + Search box
- Dedications
- Acknowledgments
- My personal pantheon (of the great and the good in survey research)
- Recent and planned activities
- Textbooks for Research Methods and Data Analysis
- 1: Survey Analysis Workshop (SPSS)
- 1a: Statistical concepts and methods
- 1b: Teaching with Survey Data
- 1c: Developing research projects using survey data
- 1d: Workshop and presentations for ASSESS (SPSS users in Europe)
- 2: Survey Research Practice
- 2a: Survey Research Methodology, Practice and Training
- 2b: Major survey series
- 3: Subjective Social Indicators (Quality of Life)
- 4: Survey Unit, Social Science Research Council (UK)
- 5a: Polytechnic of North London (1976-1992)
- 5b: Survey Research Unit (1978-1992)
- Village life in Normandy
- Contact
- Origins of the British Crime Survey
- British Crime Survey
Recent and planned activities
[Last updated 6 November 2021]
2021 November
[New version of user manual]
John F Hall
The Quality of Life in Urban Britain 1975: Users' Manual
(Research Report no 8, Survey Research Unit, Polytechnic of North London, 1982)
2021 June
New addition to site:
David R Phillips
Do-it-Yourself Social Surveys
(Survey Research Unit, Polytechnic of North London, April 1980)
is a useful handbook specially written for local and community groups with few or no resources other than their own time.
2020 December
Page Relative Deprivation and Social Justice updated to include details of the author:
Stephen "Garry" Runciman (3rd Viscount Runciman of Doxford who died on 10 December 2020, aged 97.
Obituaries: (The Guardian) (Daily Telegraph)
Useful handbook
2020 April
Review_of_Babbie_Wagner_and_Zaino_2019 (pdf, 3pp, 239 kb)
Commentary on SPSS files for Babbie et al 2019 (pdf 19pp 960kb)
Detailed examination of the SPSS files used in:
Babbie, Wagner and Zaino
Adventures in Social Research: Data Analysis Using IBM SPSS Statistics
(10th edition, Sage 2019)
Notes on first encounter with the ONS unrestricted teaching data set
(Revised notes on Unrestricted Teaching Data Set (SPSS) for ONS Well-being 2011: pdf, 55pp. 3.15 kb)
2018
Intensive work on the video tutorials in McInnes (2017)
Restoration of surveys for which "owners" no longer exist or are untraceable: deposit of SPSS files and associated documentation with EDINA and Figshare
Health and Lifestyle survey (London Borough of Islington, 1990-91)
Student Funding survey (National Union of Students, 1989)
Primary Care Nurses (Centre for the Study of Primary Care, North East London Regional Health Authority, 1989
Age Concern panel survey 1977
Age Concern panel survey 1980
Age Concern 1977-1980 combined
2017
Location and testing of SPSS files from major surveys for possible use on a companion website for a proposed new textbook from Sage: Surviving quantitative research methods in the Social and Political Sciences
Detailed commentary on tutorials and exercises in a new text-book: see McInnes (2017)
Added 2015 wave to the cumulative file for British Social Attitudes 1983 onwards
New paper Patterns of individual responses on 0-10 scales used to measure satisfaction and other well-being constructs, a comparison of usage in different surveys (pdf 32pp) examines the use of 0—10 scales in selected surveys and demonstrates variations in individual response patterns..
2016
Critical examination of SPSS files distributed by UKDS for major surveys such as the British Social Attitudes Survey and the ONS National Well-being programme. Examination of individual response patterns in (mostly) 0-10 scales used to measure satisfaction with life and with life domains,, happiness and other constructs in these and other surveys.
2015
Complete book reviews and tutorials in pipeline. Collaboration with research centres and textbook authors in development of (open access) teaching materials based on major surveys, including improved versions of SPSS files.
Replication (and critique) of examples from SPSS textbooks, using syntax instead of GUI. Critical review and secondary analysis of my own surveys for use in tutorials (eg questionnaire development, scaling etc.)
2014:
Continued involvement in the (UK) ESRC Quantitative Methods Teaching Initiative (supported by the Nuffield Foundation Quantitative Methods Programme and the OECD)
Exploring SPSS files and related documentation for major surveys distributed by the UK Data Service and other archives, with a view to producing user-friendly materials for first time users and teachers (see: Teaching with Survey Data and Data sets and documents used for tutorials and exercises)
Generating tutorial examples using more recent data from other surveys, including:.
British Social Attitudes, (Natcen)
Understanding Society (ISER, Essex)
National Well-being (Office of National Statistics, UK Government)
European Social Survey (City University, London)
General Social Survey (NORC, Chicago)
Currently available commentaries are:
British Social Attitudes
Commentary on SPSS file for British Social Attitudes 2011
Notes on British Social Attitudes 2004 teaching data set (as used by Marsh and Elliott, 2008)
Understanding Society
Commentary on Understanding Society 2010
ONS Opinions Survey: Well-being module (April 2011)
Commentary on Unrestricted Access Teaching Dataset (ONS Opinions Survey, Well‐Being Module
Data set and user guide from Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research, now renamed the Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research Manchester.
NORC General Social Survey (GSS)
Commentary on full NORC General Social Survey 2008
Commentary on subset of General Social Survey 2008 (as used by Sweet & Grace-Martin)
Commentary on GSS 2008 SPSS files for Babbie et al (as used by Babbie, Halley, Wagner & Zaino)
York University, 31st October 2014
ASSESS (SPSS users in Europe)
Half-day training workshop:
The Beginner's (Clod's) Guide to Survey Analysis Using SPSS for Windows
Presentation:
Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: working with alien SPSS files
An alternative title would have been: Sows' Ears and Silk Purses: working with other peoples’ SPSS files as a follow-up to Old Dog, Old Tricks, my 2006 presentation for them. Thought about using Old Dog, New Tricks, but it doesn’t carry the same sense of horror and fun.
In addition to the above commentaries there are now introductions to, and commentaries on:
Relative Deprivation and Social Justice (1962: UKDS SN28)
SSRC Survey Unit Multi-purpose Social Survey (1975: UKDS SN680)
2012 - 2013 :
Extensive contributions to the (UK) Office of National Statistics (ONS) initiative on National Well-being and the associated discussion threads on StatsUserNet
Analysing recently released data from the (UK) Office of National Statistics on Measuring National Well-being for comparisons with my own Quality of Life surveys (in urban Britain) and with data from:
European Quality of Life Surveys (EQLS)
European Social Survey
European Values Study.
2001 Detailed response to ESRC Green Paper on Data Policy and Archiving
(not very recent but highly relevant: based evidence from Dr Mark Abrams and myself to the then
Social Science Research Council in 1974!)
2021 November
[New version of user manual]
John F Hall
The Quality of Life in Urban Britain 1975: Users' Manual
(Research Report no 8, Survey Research Unit, Polytechnic of North London, 1982)
2021 June
New addition to site:
David R Phillips
Do-it-Yourself Social Surveys
(Survey Research Unit, Polytechnic of North London, April 1980)
is a useful handbook specially written for local and community groups with few or no resources other than their own time.
2020 December
Page Relative Deprivation and Social Justice updated to include details of the author:
Stephen "Garry" Runciman (3rd Viscount Runciman of Doxford who died on 10 December 2020, aged 97.
Obituaries: (The Guardian) (Daily Telegraph)
Useful handbook
2020 April
Review_of_Babbie_Wagner_and_Zaino_2019 (pdf, 3pp, 239 kb)
Commentary on SPSS files for Babbie et al 2019 (pdf 19pp 960kb)
Detailed examination of the SPSS files used in:
Babbie, Wagner and Zaino
Adventures in Social Research: Data Analysis Using IBM SPSS Statistics
(10th edition, Sage 2019)
Notes on first encounter with the ONS unrestricted teaching data set
(Revised notes on Unrestricted Teaching Data Set (SPSS) for ONS Well-being 2011: pdf, 55pp. 3.15 kb)
2018
Intensive work on the video tutorials in McInnes (2017)
Restoration of surveys for which "owners" no longer exist or are untraceable: deposit of SPSS files and associated documentation with EDINA and Figshare
Health and Lifestyle survey (London Borough of Islington, 1990-91)
Student Funding survey (National Union of Students, 1989)
Primary Care Nurses (Centre for the Study of Primary Care, North East London Regional Health Authority, 1989
Age Concern panel survey 1977
Age Concern panel survey 1980
Age Concern 1977-1980 combined
2017
Location and testing of SPSS files from major surveys for possible use on a companion website for a proposed new textbook from Sage: Surviving quantitative research methods in the Social and Political Sciences
Detailed commentary on tutorials and exercises in a new text-book: see McInnes (2017)
Added 2015 wave to the cumulative file for British Social Attitudes 1983 onwards
New paper Patterns of individual responses on 0-10 scales used to measure satisfaction and other well-being constructs, a comparison of usage in different surveys (pdf 32pp) examines the use of 0—10 scales in selected surveys and demonstrates variations in individual response patterns..
2016
Critical examination of SPSS files distributed by UKDS for major surveys such as the British Social Attitudes Survey and the ONS National Well-being programme. Examination of individual response patterns in (mostly) 0-10 scales used to measure satisfaction with life and with life domains,, happiness and other constructs in these and other surveys.
2015
Complete book reviews and tutorials in pipeline. Collaboration with research centres and textbook authors in development of (open access) teaching materials based on major surveys, including improved versions of SPSS files.
Replication (and critique) of examples from SPSS textbooks, using syntax instead of GUI. Critical review and secondary analysis of my own surveys for use in tutorials (eg questionnaire development, scaling etc.)
2014:
Continued involvement in the (UK) ESRC Quantitative Methods Teaching Initiative (supported by the Nuffield Foundation Quantitative Methods Programme and the OECD)
Exploring SPSS files and related documentation for major surveys distributed by the UK Data Service and other archives, with a view to producing user-friendly materials for first time users and teachers (see: Teaching with Survey Data and Data sets and documents used for tutorials and exercises)
Generating tutorial examples using more recent data from other surveys, including:.
British Social Attitudes, (Natcen)
Understanding Society (ISER, Essex)
National Well-being (Office of National Statistics, UK Government)
European Social Survey (City University, London)
General Social Survey (NORC, Chicago)
Currently available commentaries are:
British Social Attitudes
Commentary on SPSS file for British Social Attitudes 2011
Notes on British Social Attitudes 2004 teaching data set (as used by Marsh and Elliott, 2008)
Understanding Society
Commentary on Understanding Society 2010
ONS Opinions Survey: Well-being module (April 2011)
Commentary on Unrestricted Access Teaching Dataset (ONS Opinions Survey, Well‐Being Module
Data set and user guide from Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research, now renamed the Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research Manchester.
NORC General Social Survey (GSS)
Commentary on full NORC General Social Survey 2008
Commentary on subset of General Social Survey 2008 (as used by Sweet & Grace-Martin)
Commentary on GSS 2008 SPSS files for Babbie et al (as used by Babbie, Halley, Wagner & Zaino)
York University, 31st October 2014
ASSESS (SPSS users in Europe)
Half-day training workshop:
The Beginner's (Clod's) Guide to Survey Analysis Using SPSS for Windows
Presentation:
Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind: working with alien SPSS files
An alternative title would have been: Sows' Ears and Silk Purses: working with other peoples’ SPSS files as a follow-up to Old Dog, Old Tricks, my 2006 presentation for them. Thought about using Old Dog, New Tricks, but it doesn’t carry the same sense of horror and fun.
In addition to the above commentaries there are now introductions to, and commentaries on:
Relative Deprivation and Social Justice (1962: UKDS SN28)
SSRC Survey Unit Multi-purpose Social Survey (1975: UKDS SN680)
2012 - 2013 :
Extensive contributions to the (UK) Office of National Statistics (ONS) initiative on National Well-being and the associated discussion threads on StatsUserNet
Analysing recently released data from the (UK) Office of National Statistics on Measuring National Well-being for comparisons with my own Quality of Life surveys (in urban Britain) and with data from:
European Quality of Life Surveys (EQLS)
European Social Survey
European Values Study.
2001 Detailed response to ESRC Green Paper on Data Policy and Archiving
(not very recent but highly relevant: based evidence from Dr Mark Abrams and myself to the then
Social Science Research Council in 1974!)