DOI: 10.17608/k6.auckland.2000910.v6
title: ISSP1991: Religion I

description: This was the start of 20 years of successful surveys for the International Social Survey Programme in New Zealand, run by Professor Philip Gendall in the Department of Marketing of Massey University.ISSP is a continuing annual programme of cross-national collaboration on surveys covering topics important for social science research. It brings together pre-existing social science projects and coordinates research goals, thereby adding a cross-national, cross-cultural perspective to the individual national studies. ISSP researchers especially concentrate on developing questions that are meaningful and relevant to all countries, and can be expressed in an equivalent manner in all relevant languages.The sample was a simple random selection of persons 18 years and over, from the election register.A verbose rundown on topics follows.Attitudes towards religious behaviours. Topics: Personal estimation of happiness; assessment of responsibility of the state regarding job creation and income levelling; stronger punishment and the death penalty as measures to combat crime; attitude to pre-marital sexual intercourse and affairs; attitude to homosexuality and abortion; judgement on role distribution in marriage and attitude to working women; honesty in paying taxes and attitude to honesty of citizens with the state; trust in institutions such as the Federal Parliament, business, industry, authorities, churches, judiciary and schools. Attitude to non-religious politicians and office-holders; influence on voters as well as government through church leaders; judgement on the power of churches and religious organisations; doubt or firm belief in God; perceived nearness to God; development of personal belief in God; belief in a life after death; belief in the devil, heaven, hell and miracles; conviction regarding the Bible; fatalism; the meaning of life and Christian interpretation of life; contact with the dead; religious ties at a turning point in life; religious affiliation of father, mother and spouse/partner; frequency of church attendance of father and of mother; personal direction of belief and frequency of church attendance in adolescence; frequency of prayer and participation in religious activities. Self-classification of personal religiousness; attitude to school prayer; personal conscience, social rules or God’s laws as basis for deciding between right and wrong; attitudes to prohibition of religious criticism in literature and films; superstition; belief in lucky charms, fortune tellers, wonder doctors, signs of the zodiac and horoscopes; conversion of faith after crucial experience; idea of God; judgement on world and people as good or bad. Living together with partner; type and temporal extent of vocational employment; private or public employer; professional independence and number of employees; superior function and span of control; number of colleagues; union membership; unemployment; party inclination and behaviour at the polls; self-classification on a left-right continuum; religious affiliation; religiousness; self-classification of social class affiliation; residential status; training and employment of spouse/partner as well as parents; size of household; household income. Also encoded were: region; rural or urban area; city size; ethnic identification.