DOI: 10.3886/icpsr34471
title: CBS News/New York Times National Poll, October #1, 2011
title: Archival Version

description: This poll, fielded October 2011, and the first of three, is part of a continuing series of monthly surveys that solicits public opinion on a range of political and social issues. Opinions were sought about how well Barack Obama was handling the presidency, foreign policy, the economy, the situation in Iraq, and job creation. Further questions were asked about the state of the national economy, various tax cuts and regulations, job creation, the Affordable Care Act, and the most important problem facing the nation. Respondents were asked whether the country was headed in the right direction, whether Congress was performing their job well, how Republicans and Democrats were handling job creation, whether Obama or the Republicans favored a certain social class, whether respondents trusted the government, and whether respondents supported the Tea Party movement and/or Occupy Wall Street movement. Respondents were also queried about how much attention they were paying to the 2012 campaign, whether they planned to vote in a 2012 primary or caucus, and for their opinions of various Republican candidates, such as Mitt Romney. Additional topics included unemployment and unemployment benefits, job searches, and problems resulting from being unemployed. Demographic information includes sex, age, race, marital status, education level, household income, personal finances, perceived social class, employment status, religious preference, whether respondents thought of themselves as born-again Christians, type of residential area (e.g., urban or rural), political party affiliation, political philosophy, voter registration status, voting behavior, military service, number of phones, and household composition.
description: The data contain a weight variable that should be used in analyzing the data. According to the CBS News Web site, the data were weighted to match United States Census Bureau breakdowns on age, sex, race, education, and region of the country. The data were also adjusted for the fact that people who share a telephone with others have less chance to be contacted than people who live alone and have their own telephones, and that households with more than one telephone number have more chances to be called than households with only one telephone number.
description: A variation of random-digit dialing (RDD) using primary sampling units (PSUs) was employed, consisting of blocks of 100 telephone numbers identical through the eighth digit and stratified by geographic region, area code, and size of place. Phone numbers were dialed from RDD samples of both standard land-lines and cell phones. Within households, respondents were selected using a method developed by Leslie Kish and modified by Charles Backstrom and Gerald Hursh (see Backstrom and Hursh, SURVEY RESEARCH. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1963).
description: Datasets: DS1: CBS News/New York Times National Poll, October #1, 2011
description: Persons aged 18 years or older living in households with telephones within the United States. Smallest Geographic Unit: congressional district
description: telephone interview