Study title

Finnish Values and Everyday Life 2015

Alternative Title

Values, attitudes and a picture of the times (Arvot, asenteet ja ajankuva, A3) 2015

Dataset ID Number

FSD3749

Persistent identifiers

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3749
https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd3749

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Puohiniemi, Martti

Other Identification/Acknowledgements

• Falk,Pasi
• Koskinen, Sinikka (Helsinki City Library)
• Puohiniemi, Sami (Deimos Information Systems Oy)
• Rabin, Eyal
• Schwartz, Shalom H.
• Teittinen, Jouni (ED Design Oy)

Abstract

The survey charted Finnish everyday life, values, attitudes, and current phenomena.

First, the respondents were asked about their taste in music and literature, as well as how important they thought listening to music and reading books were. The respondents' values were examined with the 57-item Schwarz Value Survey (SVS), with the addition of the 'privacy' item.

Changes in society and concerns about the future were surveyed with several questions. The respondents were asked, for example, whether they thought there would be positive or negative developments in Finland's national security and economy in the next few years as well as how often they were concerned about issues such as homelessness, energy problems, and climate change.

The respondents' media use and digital gaming and gambling were also charted. Questions included, for example, which newspapers and magazines the respondents read and how often, which TV shows they found most interesting, and how often they watched TV or listened to the radio. Additionally, the respondents were asked whether they currently used or were planning on purchasing or acquiring various electronic devices or services (e.g. a laptop, smart watch, NFC, cloud services, or contactless payment services), how well they thought they could use a computer and a smartphone or mobile phone, and how often, on which devices and for what purposes they used the internet or social media.

The use of social media was further examined with questions on which social media services the respondents used, why they used them (e.g. to keep in touch with friends, to learn new things, to spend time in a fun way), and how often they followed social media events that were important to them. Digital gaming and gambling were also surveyed with questions on how often the respondents played certain types of digital games (e.g. mobile games, console games, computer games), how often they bought new games or paid to be able to play games, how much money they usually used on digital games in any given week, and which genres of games (e.g. action, adventure, strategy, lotteries, online poker) they enjoyed playing the most.

Next, the respondents' views on current phenomena were charted with various statements on matters such as new technology, following the news, Finland joining NATO, the internet, internationalism, and climate change. The statements included, for example, whether increasing government debt was wrong for future generations, politicians were genuinely interested in the life of an ordinary person, and life without social media would be miserable. The respondents were also asked whether any political parties, ideologies, or non-governmental or civic organisations advocated for issues that were important to them. Finally, the respondents' actions relating to environmental protection (e.g. whether they recycled, bought organic and locally grown food, and avoided using plastic bags) and their own health were examined.

Background variables included the respondent's gender, age, marital status, level of education, job title, economic activity and occupational status, type of municipal of residence, household size, number of children aged under 18 living in the household, income of the household, and job title of the second parent/guardian of the children. Additionally, the respondents were asked whether they had any pets.

Keywords

anxiety; computers; digital games; entertainment; environmental awareness; health; internet; internet use; leisure time activities; listening to music; mass media use; reading (activity); social change

Topic Classification

• Social sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Cultural activities and participation (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Social change (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Media (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Information technology (CESSDA Topic Classification)
• Information society (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Finnish Values and Everyday Life

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Data Collector

• TNS Gallup Finland

Funders

• Kone Foundation

Time Period Covered

2015

Collection Dates

2015-02 – 2015-05

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

People aged 15-75 residing in mainland Finland

Time Method

Longitudinal: Trend/Repeated cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Probability: Simple random

The sample was formed based on Finland's population register, and the respondents were recruited through phone calls. The survey was available to the respondents either as an online questionnaire or a paper questionnaire to be returned by post. 54% of the respondents chose the online questionnaire and 46% the paper questionnaire. The completed questionnaires were read by optical character recognition. 1,351 responses were accepted. Of the original sample, 30% agreed to respond to the survey. After the survey had been distributed to those who had agreed to respond, the final response rate was 16% of the original sample size.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Self-administered questionnaire: Paper

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Response Rate

16

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: English and Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Number of Cases and Variables

692 variables and 1351 cases.

Data Version

1.0

Completeness of Data and Restrictions

To prevent identification of individuals, the variables denoting number of children living in the household and household size (t_children, t_hhsize) were top-coded in the archived data. Additionally, some rare job titles were removed from the open-ended job title variables.

The data archived at FSD do not contain the following questions from the questionnaire: the most important dates in the respondent's life, the respondent's social media activity, attitudinal statements 19, 23, 26, 27 and 29, and two question groups that charted the respondent's ways of thinking and concerns about the consequences of environmental issues.

Weighting

The data contain a weight variable WeightSAE, which weights the data to be representative of the population in terms of gender, age and level of education.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Puohiniemi, Martti: Finnish Values and Everyday Life 2015 [dataset]. Version 1.0 (2024-09-16). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD3749

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Other Material

See downloadable files at the top of the page.

More information on Martti Puohiniemi's webpage.

Related Materials

More information on the research project, main researcher, scales, and data collection (translated summary): Puohiniemi, Martti. Finnish Values and Everyday Life data series archived at the Finnish Social Science Data Archive. 8.5.2024 (see bgF3749_1_eng.pdf)

Puohiniemi, Martti (2022). Suomalaisen arvomaailman muutos, globalisaatio ja ajan henki. Toinen painos. Books on Demand, Helsinki, Suomi: Books on Demand, Norderstedt, Saksa.

Related Publications

Puohiniemi, Martti (2024). Suomalaisen arvomaailman muutos, globalisaatio ja ajan henki. Kolmas painos. Helsinki: BoD.fi.

Puohiniemi, Martti. & Verkasalo, M. (2020). Zeitgeist effects, fragmentation of media use, and value consensus. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, Vol. 8(1), 300-332. https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.v8i1.1117

Puohiniemi, Martti, & Helkama, Klaus (2018). Privacy Changed Its Meaning in Finland 1999-2015. In Klaus Helkama (Editor): Values Knowledge and Morality. Publications of the Faculty of Social Sciences 98. Helsinki University Printing House.

Puohiniemi, Martti (2024). Suomalaisen arvomaailman muutos, globalisaatio ja ajan henki. Kolmas painos. Helsinki: BoD.fi.