Dispositions

Sample dispositions (codes or categories used by survey researchers to track the outcome of contact attempts on individual cases in the sample) provide survey researchers with the status of each unit or case within the sampling pool and are an important quality assurance component in a survey, regardless of the mode in which the survey is conducted. Sample dispositions are used for three reasons: (1) to help the survey researcher control the sampling pool during the field period, (2) to calculate response rates, and (3) to help assess whether the sample might contain nonresponse error. Sample dispositions usually are tracked through the use of an extensive system of numeric codes or categories that are assigned to each unit in the sampling pool once the field ...