General Social Survey Panel Data (2006 Sample)

The General Social Surveys (GSS) have been conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) annually since 1972, except for the years 1979, 1981, and 1992 (a supplement was added in 1992), and biennially beginning in 1994. The GSS are designed to be part of a program of social indicator research, replicating questionnaire items and wording in order to facilitate time-trend studies. This GSS panel dataset has three waves of interviews: originally sampled and interviewed in 2006, interviewed for the second time in 2008, and interviewed for the third wave in 2010. This file contains those 2,000 respondents who were pre-selected among the 2006 samples and those variables that were asked at least twice in three waves. Survey items on religion include the following: religious preference, religion raised in, spouse's religious preference, frequency of religious service attendance, religious experiences, and religious salience.

For more information on the General Social Survey, visit its website.

Data File

Cases: 2,000
Variables: 1,854
Weight Variable: WTPAN12, WTPAN123, WTPANNR12, WTPANNR123

Data Collection

Date Collected: 2006, 2008, 2010

Funded By

National Science Foundation

Collection Procedures

In-person interview of approximately 90 minutes

Sampling Procedures

NORC has introduced an innovative approach to demographic sampling frame construction and sample design for NORC's program of face-to-face surveys from 2004 onwards. The important changes from previous GSS designs are: (i) the construction of a new list-assisted sampling frame for 72 percent of the population; (ii) an increase in the size of the certainty stratum (the proportion of the population covered by certainty area selections); (iii) designation of new primary sampling units (PSUs) for the certainty stratum; (iv) designation of new secondary sampling units (SSUs) for the remaining "urban" areas; and (v) designation of larger SSUs for the remaining areas.

Principal Investigators

James A. Davis
Tom W. Smith
Peter V. Marsden

Weight Variables Weight Variables

This data set includes four different weights: WTPAN12, WTPAN123, WTPANNR12, and WTPANNR123. The four different weight variables are differentiated by whether they include NR in the variable name and whether if they have 12 or 123 at the end of variable name. First, weight variables with NR indicate if the weight variables considered a nonresponse adjustment in addition to selection. Second, while weight variables with 12 indicate two-wave panel (06-08), weight variables with 123 indicate the three-wave panel, which are 06-08-10 panel data.

Note 1: Occupation and Industry Codes

The following links provide a detailed description of the occupation and industry codes utilized in this data set:

Appendix F

Appendix I

Note 2: Prestige and Socioeconomic Index Codes

The following link provides a detailed description of the prestige and socioeconomic index (SEI) codes utilized in this data set:

Appendix G

Note 3: Other Protestant Denominations

Hungarian Reformed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Evangelical Congregational . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Ind. Bible, Bible, Bible Fellowship. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Eckankar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........ 4
Church of Prophecy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
New Testament Christian. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Church of God, Saint & Christ. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 7
Moravian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........... 8
Christian & Missionary Alliances . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 9
Advent Christian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... 10
Spiritualist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......... 11
Assembly of God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 12
Free Methodist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 13
Apostolic Faith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
African Methodist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Free Will Baptist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Eden Evangelist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Holiness (Nazarene). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Baptist (Northern) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Brethren Church, Brethren. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Witness Holiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Brethren, Plymouth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
United Brethren, United Brethren in Christ . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Independent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Christian Disciples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Christ in Christian Union. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Open Bible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Christian Catholic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Christ Church Unity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Christ Adelphians. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Christian; Central Christian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Christian Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Christian Scientist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Church of Christ, Evangelical. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Church of Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Churches of God (Except in Christ and in Holiness). . . . . . . . 36
Church of God in Christ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Church of God in Christ Holiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Church of the Living God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Congregationalist, 1st Congreg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Community Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Dutch Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Disciples of Christ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Evangelical, Evangelist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Evangelical Reformed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Evangelical Free Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
First Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
First Christian Disciples of Christ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
First Reformed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
First Christian. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Full Gospel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Four Square Gospel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Friends. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Holy Roller. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Holiness; Church of Holiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Pilgrim Holiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Jehovah's Witnesses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
LDS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
LDS-Mormon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
LDS-Reorganized. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
LDS-Jesus Christ; Church of Jesus LDS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Mennonite. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Mormon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Nazarene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Pentecostal Assembly of God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Pentecostal Church of God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Pentecostal Holiness, Holiness Pentecostal . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Quaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Reformed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Reformed United Church of Christ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Reformed Church of Christ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Religious Science. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Mind Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Salvation Army . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Seventh-day Adventist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Sanctified, Sanctification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
United Holiness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
Unitarian, Universalist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
United Church of Christ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
United Church, Unity Church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Wesleyan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Wesleyan Methodist-Pilgrim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Zion Union . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Zion Union Apostolic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Zion Union Apostolic-Reformed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Disciples of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Grace Reformed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Holiness Church of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Evangelical Covenant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Million Covenant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Missionary Baptist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Swedish Mission. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Unity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
United Church of Christianity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Other Fundamentalist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Federated Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
American Reform. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Grace Brethren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Christ in God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Charismatic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Pentecostal Apostolic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
House of Prayer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Latvian Lutheran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Triumph Church of God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Apostolic Christian. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Christ Cathedral of Truth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Bible Missionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Calvary Bible. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Amish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Evangelical Methodist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Worldwide Church of God. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Church Universal and Triumphant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Mennonite Brethren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Church of the First Born . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Missionary Church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
The Way Ministry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
United Church of Canada. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Evangelical United Brethren. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
The Church of God of Prophecy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Chapel of Faith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Polish National Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Faith Gospel Tabernacle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Christian Calvary Chapel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Camelite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Church of Daniel's Band. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Christian Tabernacle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Living Word. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
True Light Church of Christ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
Macedonia. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Brother of Christ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Primitive Baptist. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Independent Fundamental Church of America. . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Chinese Gospel Church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
New Age Spirituality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
New Song . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Apostolic Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Faith Christian. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
People's Church. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
New Birth Christian. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Unity School of Christianity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Assyrian Evangelist Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Don't know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 998
No answer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 999
Not applicable (not Protestant and Protestant
denomination given, and not married) . . . . . . . . . . .blank

Note 4: SCITEXT Coding

In analyses, the first three categories are considered to be correct, and are generally collapsed into a code "1" or "scientifically correct." The last three categories are considered to be incorrect, and are collapsed into a code of "0" or "incorrect" in analyses.

1. Formulation of Theories, Test Hypotheses - The top category includes some notion of theory or hypothesis. However, if the response is simply =theory' or =hypothesis' with no elaboration then the response is coded as a '5.'

2. Do Experiments, Control Group - This does not include theory, but mentions experiment or control group. Key words for a response to be placed in this category are 'control group,' 'experiment,' or 'controlled group.'

3. Rigorous, Systematic Comparison - This category understands scientific study as such things as being rigorous (repeated testing, over a long time), systematic (or orderly), unbiased, and replication. Responses mentioning the need for a 'controlled study' or 'controlled environment' will be classified here if they do not include additional information that would allow them to be categorized as a '1' or '2.'

4. Measurement - This category includes the notion of something done 'in a laboratory' or focuses on quantitative methods such as surveys or polls or gathering fads without additional information to allow them to be categorized in one of the above categories. Responses simply indicating 'testing' are coded here.

5. Classification - These responses focus on more vague forms of research such as 'investigate' or 'go to a library' or 'go in depth' or 'do research.'

6. Redundancies/Incorrect/Irrelevant - This category includes all incorrect responses as well as redundant responses that mention 'what scientists do' or 'the scientific method.'