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Surveys by SSRC Survey Unit
[Page last updated 9 May 2018]
Future in Britain Survey, 1970
SN 60 Future in Britain Survey, 1970
This survey was done by Research Services Ltd (RSL) for the SSRC Next 30 Years Committee. It was a national survey to ascertain public perceptions of, and attitudes towards, likely futures and compared future expectations of a small "élite" sample (senior businessmen, politicians, social scientists etc) with those of a general population (quota) sample.
It was the first survey I worked on at the Survey Unit. Alan Marsh and I were presented with a huge pile of (Donovan Data Systems) printout from which we had to summarise the findings. A private report (reputed to be available from the Social Science Research Council, but not confirmed) to the SSRC Committee on Next Thirty Years was prepared by Research Services Ltd. One of the key findings in the general sample was "technological optimism" against "social pessimism", but these views were not shared by the élite.
The SPSS saved file from UKDS is incomplete and difficult to reconcile with the documentation. To assist users in exploring the survey I have produced two new SPSS setup files:
future1970.sps has a complete set of variable and value labels, and specifies missing values and measurement levels keeping variables in codebook order.
future1970qaire.sps re-arranges the variables in questionnaire order.
There is also a detailed commentary Notes on Future in Britain 1970
This survey was done by Research Services Ltd (RSL) for the SSRC Next 30 Years Committee. It was a national survey to ascertain public perceptions of, and attitudes towards, likely futures and compared future expectations of a small "élite" sample (senior businessmen, politicians, social scientists etc) with those of a general population (quota) sample.
It was the first survey I worked on at the Survey Unit. Alan Marsh and I were presented with a huge pile of (Donovan Data Systems) printout from which we had to summarise the findings. A private report (reputed to be available from the Social Science Research Council, but not confirmed) to the SSRC Committee on Next Thirty Years was prepared by Research Services Ltd. One of the key findings in the general sample was "technological optimism" against "social pessimism", but these views were not shared by the élite.
The SPSS saved file from UKDS is incomplete and difficult to reconcile with the documentation. To assist users in exploring the survey I have produced two new SPSS setup files:
future1970.sps has a complete set of variable and value labels, and specifies missing values and measurement levels keeping variables in codebook order.
future1970qaire.sps re-arranges the variables in questionnaire order.
There is also a detailed commentary Notes on Future in Britain 1970
Postgraduate Students' Assessment of Their Social Science Training
SN 1273 Postgraduate Students' Assessment of Their Social Science Training, 1971
The purpose of this study was to investigate postgraduate students' evaluations of the provision made for their studies in their universities. It was a postal survey of all postgraduate students in the social sciences who had been awarded a grant from the SSRC.
Marsh, A.,
`Postgraduate students' assessment of their social science training'.
Occasional papers in survey research, no.2 (London: SSRC Survey Unit, 1972)
The purpose of this study was to investigate postgraduate students' evaluations of the provision made for their studies in their universities. It was a postal survey of all postgraduate students in the social sciences who had been awarded a grant from the SSRC.
Marsh, A.,
`Postgraduate students' assessment of their social science training'.
Occasional papers in survey research, no.2 (London: SSRC Survey Unit, 1972)
Quality of Life in Urban Britain
Series of surveys, conducted in collaboration with ISR, Ann Arbor, to develop subjective indicators of quality of life (QoL) covering self-reported well-being and satisfaction/dissatisfaction with life as a whole and with various life domains and sub-domains.
SN 247 Quality of Life: Pilot 1, March 1971 (temporary loss of UKDS/ESDS link)
SN 248 Quality of Life; Pilot 2, October/November 1971
SN 249 Quality of Life: Urban Britain, 1973; UK
replicated simultaneously in two local surveys:
SN 250 Quality of Life; Stoke,-on-Trent 1973/74
SN 251 Quality of Life; Sunderland, 1973/74
SN 915 Quality of Life; Urban Britain 1975
For full details of these surveys (universe, rationale, variables, questionnaires, show-cards) see page
SSRC Survey Unit Quality of Life in Britain surveys 1971 - 1975
For links to a wide range of methodological issues, survey instruments and other QoL surveys see page Subjective Social Indicators
SN 247 Quality of Life: Pilot 1, March 1971 (temporary loss of UKDS/ESDS link)
SN 248 Quality of Life; Pilot 2, October/November 1971
SN 249 Quality of Life: Urban Britain, 1973; UK
replicated simultaneously in two local surveys:
SN 250 Quality of Life; Stoke,-on-Trent 1973/74
SN 251 Quality of Life; Sunderland, 1973/74
SN 915 Quality of Life; Urban Britain 1975
For full details of these surveys (universe, rationale, variables, questionnaires, show-cards) see page
SSRC Survey Unit Quality of Life in Britain surveys 1971 - 1975
For links to a wide range of methodological issues, survey instruments and other QoL surveys see page Subjective Social Indicators
Organisation of Social Science Research in the United Kingdom, 1972
SN 1271 Organisation of Social Science Research in the UK 1972; Research service organisations
SN 1272 Organisation of Social Science Research in the UK, 1972; Academic Departments
Postal surveys of all academic social science departments and centres and a separate survey of all organisations supplying services.
Crawford, Elisabeth T and Perry, Norman [Eds]
Demands for social knowledge: The role of research organisations (Sage, 1976)
SN 1272 Organisation of Social Science Research in the UK, 1972; Academic Departments
Postal surveys of all academic social science departments and centres and a separate survey of all organisations supplying services.
Crawford, Elisabeth T and Perry, Norman [Eds]
Demands for social knowledge: The role of research organisations (Sage, 1976)
Computing in the Social Sciences
SN 1274 Computer Survey, 1970-1971
The Survey Unit was an ex-officio member of the SSRC Computer Panel. It conducted a postal survey of all social science depts and centres in UK universities and higher education colleges to ascertain whether ot not they used computers in their work and, if so, what for.
Utting J E G and Hall J F
The Use of Computers in University Social Science Departments
(Occasional Paper No 3, SSRC Survey Unit, 1973)
The Survey Unit also published the first UK register of software for survey analysis.
Hall J F
Computer Software for Survey Analysis.
Special Supplement to SSRC Newsletter 20, October 1973
Hall J F
Computer Software for Survey Analysis.
Update sheet, special supplement in SSRC Newsletter 24, October 1974
Rowe B C, Hall J F and Scheer
Computer Software for Survey Analysis.
Supplement to SSRC Newsletter 29, 1975
(See also: Beverley Rowe and Marianne Scheer,
Computer Software for Social Science Data SSRC, 1976
(for Study Group on Computers in Survey Analysis)
The Survey Unit was an ex-officio member of the SSRC Computer Panel. It conducted a postal survey of all social science depts and centres in UK universities and higher education colleges to ascertain whether ot not they used computers in their work and, if so, what for.
Utting J E G and Hall J F
The Use of Computers in University Social Science Departments
(Occasional Paper No 3, SSRC Survey Unit, 1973)
The Survey Unit also published the first UK register of software for survey analysis.
Hall J F
Computer Software for Survey Analysis.
Special Supplement to SSRC Newsletter 20, October 1973
Hall J F
Computer Software for Survey Analysis.
Update sheet, special supplement in SSRC Newsletter 24, October 1974
Rowe B C, Hall J F and Scheer
Computer Software for Survey Analysis.
Supplement to SSRC Newsletter 29, 1975
(See also: Beverley Rowe and Marianne Scheer,
Computer Software for Social Science Data SSRC, 1976
(for Study Group on Computers in Survey Analysis)
Postgraduate Students' Assessment of Their Social Science Training, 1971
(UKDS SN 1273)
The purpose of this study was to investigate postgraduate students' evaluations of the provision made for their studies in their universities.
Marsh, A., `Postgraduate students' assessment of their social science training'. Occasional papers in survey research, no.2 (London: SSRC Survey Unit, 1972)
Marsh, A., `Postgraduate students' assessment of their social science training'. Occasional papers in survey research, no.2 (London: SSRC Survey Unit, 1972)
Longitudinal survey of DES and SSRC award holders
This survey was jointly funded by the then Dept for Education and Science (DES) and the then Social Science Research Council (SSRC). It identified 9,000 DES and ESRC postgraduate award-holders and followed them each year from 1970 to 1975. One finding was that future earnings were determined more by obtaining a First than a PhD. The data were deposited with the Survey Archive in 1976, but there is now apparently no trace of the survey nor any record.
Protest, Dissatisfaction and Change, 1973-1974
SN 672 Protest, Dissatisfaction and Change, 1973-1974
This was part of an 8-nation study (See Political Action: an Eight Nation Study, 1973-1976 ICPSR) for which national sample surveys were conducted via personal interview during 1973-1976 in Great Britain, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, United States, Italy, Switzerland, and Finland.
Marsh, A.,
Explorations in unorthodox political behaviour: a scale to measure `Protest Potential',
European Journal of Political Research, 2, June 1974
This was part of an 8-nation study (See Political Action: an Eight Nation Study, 1973-1976 ICPSR) for which national sample surveys were conducted via personal interview during 1973-1976 in Great Britain, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, United States, Italy, Switzerland, and Finland.
Marsh, A.,
Explorations in unorthodox political behaviour: a scale to measure `Protest Potential',
European Journal of Political Research, 2, June 1974
Opinions and Attitudes of Senior Girls, 1973
(UKDS SN 951)
Self-completion "quickie" survey (1973) to measure attitudes and opinions of girls in senior forms at a girls' public school. See also "Trinians" as we jokingly referred to it.
Mark Abrams and John Hall
Attitudes of Girls in Senior Forms [pdf]
Internal SSRC SU paper reporting on selected findings (Feb 1973)
Sarah Abrams
Survey
(Article in Folio, magazine of St Paul's Schools, Vol 20,1,1973: pdf, 5pp)
Mark Abrams and John Hall
Attitudes of Girls in Senior Forms [pdf]
Internal SSRC SU paper reporting on selected findings (Feb 1973)
Sarah Abrams
Survey
(Article in Folio, magazine of St Paul's Schools, Vol 20,1,1973: pdf, 5pp)
Voting Behaviour in Britain : an Attitudinal Analysis; General Election October 1974
(UKDS SN 916)
The purpose of this study was to investigate postgraduate students' evaluations of the provision made for their studies in their universities.
Fishbein, M., Thomas, K. and Jaccard, J.J.,
Voting behaviour in Britain: an attitudinal analysis,
Occasional papers in Survey Research No. 7, SSRC Survey Unit
Fishbein, M., Thomas, K. and Jaccard, J.J.,
Voting behaviour in Britain: an attitudinal analysis,
Occasional papers in Survey Research No. 7, SSRC Survey Unit
SPSS Error Reporting
Joint project with University of London Computer Centre (ULCC). Over a period of one month in 1975, questionnaires were attached to all failed SPSS output asking users to asses what errors were made and whether SPSS accurately described these.
Marsh C and Utting J
article in ULCC newsletter (?1975?)
Marsh C and Utting J
article in ULCC newsletter (?1975?)
SSRC Survey Unit Multi-Purpose Survey, 1975 (UKDS SN 680)
This was the very first multi-purpose social research survey in the UK (on which my then research trainee, the late Cathie Marsh, cut her survey and SPSS teeth). It used a genuine probability sample of the general population, and was open to social scientists to purchase questionnaire space. Their substantive data were then supplied together with detailed standard demographics. This first (and only) wave investigated various aspects of job satisfaction (by Cathie Marsh) and included questions added by other researchers on betting, membership of and level of activity in, various social groups and other aspects of life.
Cathie is named as depositor of the data (from SPS Cambridge)
The only publication I can find is:
Marsh C 1975
Job Satisfaction: the Search Goes On
Paper to UK/USA SSRC Conference on Subjective Measures of Quality of Life, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
SSRC Survey Unit, September, 1975
See also: Commentary on Multi-purpose survey 1975
Cathie is named as depositor of the data (from SPS Cambridge)
The only publication I can find is:
Marsh C 1975
Job Satisfaction: the Search Goes On
Paper to UK/USA SSRC Conference on Subjective Measures of Quality of Life, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
SSRC Survey Unit, September, 1975
See also: Commentary on Multi-purpose survey 1975