Government funding agencies and foundations are increasingly requiring
researchers to deposit their data sets in archives once their results have been
published to enhance the benefits from funded research and to help foster high
standards for research integrity. Along with growing prominence of "open
access" electronic journals (free, online electronic journals) and rising
frequencies of collaborative research
Examples (for illustration only -- searching for archives is good practice for
your professional and academic research skills):
Pew Research Center For The People & The Press:
A lot of this archive is opinions on US political events and limited design
structures (for opinion survey work). But a judicious selection of data sets
and variables can explore some useful and psychologically interesting
questions.
PsychExperiments: These
archives seem to emphasize cognitive and social psychology; the download of
software wasn't always smooth. With persistence, it does work at times. The
files come in database format and would need to be imported if you find
anything useful. (People can use MS Excel, e.g., to format the data and then
import the file into SPSS). And it may take some searching to find adequate
coding information and data descriptions.
Social Sciences Data Resource Page: Psychology (Brown University
library): Lots of interesting sites are listed here, but it does take time
and thoughtfulness to go through the various systems, find, download and
interpret data sets, etc.
StatCan (e.g., census data):
For instance, the "Community Profiles" have information on generational
status, ethnicity, health, etc., for communities across the country to see
(e.g.) how "representative" community samples and Internet samples are.
Sample topics: Aboriginal peoples, Children and Youth, Crime and Justice,
Culture and Leisure, Education, Training and Learning, Ethnic Diversity and
Immigration, Families, Households and Housing, Health (including mental
health and well-being), Languages, Population and demography, Seniors,
Society and Community, Statistical methods.
Example uses of census data:
Table 104-0063: "Contact with health professionals about mental
health, by age group and sex, household population aged 12 and over, Canada
and provinces" 1998;
"Importance of spirituality, by age group and sex, household
population aged 12 and over, selected provinces, territories and health
regions (January 2000 boundaries)"
"Self-esteem, by age group and sex, household population aged 12 and
over, Canada and provinces"
"Social support, by age group and sex, household population aged 12
and over, Canada and provinces"
"Sense of belonging to local community, by age group and sex,
household population aged 12 and over, Canada, provinces, territories,
health regions (June 2005 boundaries) and peer groups"
World Health Organization:
Publicly-available data on life expectancy, alcohol, obesity, diabetes, HIV,
public health spending, mental health, etc.
Internal CPSY thesis dataset archive:
We have a list of all datasets produced by past CPSY theses.
You can also get access to the thesis manuscript to further understand the
dataset. You will need to get permission from the thesis supervisor, and the
data will need to be cleaned of any identifying labels (e.g., participant
names, etc.).
Name Last modified Size Description
Parent Directory 08-Sep-2010 21:55 -
CPSY-DataSet-List-08.xls 19-Aug-2010 18:47 88k