Comparing the Predictive Power of Subjective and Objective Health Indicators: Changes in Hand Grip Strength and Overall Satisfaction with Life as Predictors of Mortality

Self-reported measures of health are generally treated as weak measures of respondents' objective health status. On the other hand, most surveys use self-reported health to measure health status and to determine the effects of a range of other socio-economic characteristics of the local environment on individual health. It is therefore of interest to the public health research community to verify the validity of self-reported health data. We do this by analyzing data from a longitudinal household panel survey: the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP). In 2006, and again in 2008, hand grip strength was measured as part of the SOEP. The hand grip data can be compared with other indicators of health and well-being from the SOEP survey. In a first step, we examine short-term mortality outcomes predicted by changes in hand grip strength. Then we compare the predictive power of the results with those of a subjective indicator of well-being: overall life satisfaction. We find that both measures are related to mortality risk. However, the effects are quite independent. Thus we argue that changes in hand grip strength and overall life satisfaction capture two different aspects of health status and its changes. We therefore test this hypothesis by correlating the indicators with other survey-based health measures that were also taken in the SOEP in 2006 and 2008.grip strength, subjective health status measures, mortality, subjective well-being, SOEP

Basic Report Berlin Science Survey

In this report the first results of the pilot study of the Berlin Science Survey are presented. 1,098 respondents participated in the pilot study. Core statements on each topic addressed in the pilot study are presented to create the basis for in-depth detailed analyses. The focus of the basic evaluation is the descriptive presentation of the core indicators

Affective meanings and social relations: identities and positions in the social space

Ever since Georg Simmel’s seminal works, social relations have been a central building block of sociological theory. In relational sociology, social identities are an essential concept and supposed to emerge in close interaction with other identities, discourses and objects. To assess this kind of relationality, existing research capitalises on patterns of meaning making that are constitutive for identities. These patterns are often understood as forms of declarative knowledge and are reconstructed, using qualitative methods, from denotative meanings as they surface: for example, in stories and narratives. We argue that this approach to some extent privileges explicit and conceptual knowledge over tacit and non-conceptual forms of knowledge. We suggest that affect is a concept that can adequately account for such implicit and bodily meanings, even when measured on the level of linguistic concepts. We draw on affect control theory (ACT) and related methods to investigate the affective meanings of concepts (lexemes) denoting identities in a large survey. We demonstrate that even though these meanings are widely shared across respondents, they nevertheless show systematic variation reflecting respondents’ positions within the social space and the typical interaction experiences associated with their identities. In line with ACT, we show, first, that the affective relations between exemplary identities mirror their prototypical, culturally circumscribed and institutionalised relations (for example, between role identities). Second, we show that there are systematic differences in these affective relations across gender, occupational status and regional culture, which we interpret as reflecting respondents’ subjective positioning and experience vis-à-vis a shared cultural reality

Open Science. Research Practices in the Berlin Research Area

This report presents in detail the results of the first pilot study of the Berlin Science Survey (BSS) on the topic of open science. The term open science covers various scientific practices that aim to improve the accessibility, traceability and reusability of scientific results. The BSS specifically addressed open access publications, data sharing, code and material sharing, open peer review, and citizen science. In addition to the prevalence of the individual open science practices, attitudes and assessments of the scientists were also surveyed, providing information on the extent to which the science policy goal of expanding open science is shared among scientists

Focus report of the Berlin Science Survey. Pilot Study 2021/22.

Knowledge transfer encompasses not only scientific communication, but all forms of knowledge exchange between science and various social groups. To quantify the potential for knowledge transfer, the Berlin Science Survey looked at the perspectives of researchers and asked them for which areas of society they consider their own research to be relevant. The transfer potential is to a large extent already realized. Of all respondents, 73% are in contact with at least one social group; 54% are even in contact with two or more groups. However, different disciplines have very different profiles and therefore different transfer potentials

Focus Report of the Berlin Science Survey. Pilot Study 2021/22

The Berlin Science Survey (BSS) project investigates the change in research culture and research practices in the Berlin research landscape from the perspective of science research. The focus of this report is based on the BSS data from a 2021–22 pilot study and is dedicated to the collaborative relationships of scientists in the Berlin research area. The focus of the evaluation was on collaborative structures, the development potential of collaborations, and the quality of existing collaborative relationships. In particular, differences between status groups, between subject groups, and, where relevant, also between gender groups were highlighted and discussed for all sub-topics