Temporary Dispositions

Temporary disposition codes are used to record the outcomes of specific contact attempts during a survey that are not final dispositions, and provide survey researchers with the status of each unit or case within the sampling pool at any given point in the field period. Temporary disposition codes provide a record of what happened during each contact attempt prior to the case ending in some final disposition and, as such, provide survey researchers with the “history” of each active case in a survey sample. Temporary dispositions function as an important quality assurance component in a survey—regardless of the mode in which the survey is conducted. They also serve as “para-data” in some methodological research studies. However, the primary purpose of temporary dispositions is to assist ...