AAPOR Mitofsky, Book, Policy, Student Paper Awards
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- AAPOR Mitofsky, Book, Policy, Student Paper Awards
May 12, 2008 – The leading professional organization of public
opinion and survey research professionals announced its 2008 public
opinion innovation, policy impact and book awards today; the
presentations will be made at the American Association for Public
Opinion Research's (AAPOR) Annual Conference in New Orleans, May
15-18.
The 2008 Warren J. Mitofsky Innovators Award goes to Mick P. Couper for
demonstrating and advocating the use of paradata by survey researchers
as a tool for understanding the behavior of survey respondents. First
introduced in a 1998 presentation to the American Statistical
Association, analysis of paradata allows researchers to better
understand features of the survey situation, interviewer behavior, and
the respondent environment, each of which can greatly affect survey
quality.
In his early work on paradata, Dr. Couper studied behaviors coded from
camera recordings of interviews and data collected from trace files
recording interviewer keystrokes. The use of paradata has since been
expanded to the study of interviewer observations, response latencies,
mouse movement data, call record observations, and a host of
computer-assisted tracking mechanisms for understanding respondent
behavior. In less than a decade, the analysis of paradata has become a
standard used throughout the world.
His innovation lies in recognizing the vast potential of paradata and
showing the research community practical ways to exploit its power.
Measures of paradata have been integrated into large-scale scientific
surveys including the European Social Survey, the National Election
Studies, the National Health Interview Survey, the National Survey of
Drug Use and Health, and the General Social Survey. His work with
paradata has facilitated new ways of thinking about survey responses,
survey quality, and research design. The Warren J. Mitofsky Innovators
Award is named after the recently deceased pollster who was known for
innovation in research, such as helping to devise random-digit dialing
and exit polling methods.
Dr. Couper – who also co-authored the book receiving an award this
year – is a Research Professor in the Survey Research Center,
Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. He is also
a Research Professor in the Joint Program in Survey Methodology, a
consortium of the University of Maryland, the University of Michigan,
and Westat. He received a Ph.D. in sociology from Rhodes
University, an M.A. in applied social research from the University of
Michigan, and an M.Soc.Sc. from the University of Cape Town. His
current research interests include survey nonresponse, design and
implementation of survey data collection, effects of technology on the
survey process, and computer-assisted interviewing, including both
interviewer-administered (CATI and CAPI) and self-administered (web,
audio-CASI, etc.) methods.
Contact award winner: Mick Couper, mcouper@umich.edu
The 2008 Policy Impact Award goes to the Medical Expenditure Panel
Survey (MEPS) at the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in
recognition of their extraordinary, long-term group effort in
contributing timely data and research that has informed U.S. health care
policy decisions.
The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey at the AHRQ has collected detailed
information about the use and payment for health care services from a
nationally representative sample of Americans for two decades. The
research program includes healthcare data collection, development,
research, and the translation of research into practice, with the goal
of identifying strategies to improve access, foster appropriate use, and
reduce unnecessary expenditures. Few other surveys provide the
foundation for estimating the effect healthcare changes have on
different economic groups and special populations, such as the poor,
elderly, veterans, uninsured, and racial and ethnic groups.
In the past several years, MEPS data and associated research findings
have quickly become a linchpin for the nation's economic models and
their projections of healthcare expenditures and utilization. MEPS
data have been used in hundreds of scientific publications and many more
unpublished reports. MEPS findings have been used by many federal
agencies to inform congressional policy decisions, and in the public and
private sectors to help develop economic projections.
For example, MEPS research findings have been used extensively by the
Congressional Budget Office, Department of Treasury, Joint Taxation
Committee and Department of Labor to inform Congressional inquires
related to health care expenditures, insurance coverage and sources of
payment, and to analyze potential tax and other implications of Federal
Health Insurance Policies. MEPS is also used to develop estimates
provided in the Consumers Checkbook Guide to Health Plans, of expected
out-of-pocket costs (premiums, deductibles and copays) for federal
employees and retirees for their health care.
Key collaborators to the MEPS Program include the National Center for
Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the
Bureau of the Census, and Westat.
Contact award winners: Steven Cohen (AHRQ), Steven.Cohen@ahrq.hhs.gov
Karen M. Beauregard (AHRQ), Karen.Beauregard@ahrq.hhs.gov
The 2008 AAPOR Book Award goes to Robert M. Groves and Mick P. Couper
for Nonresponse in Household Interview Surveys. Their book is
being honored for a lasting influence on the science of survey
research. Published a decade ago in 1998, it arrived at a time
when pollsters and other researchers were struggling with plummeting
rates of response to surveys, from both those who could not be reached
and those who were unwilling to participate. This raised serious
questions about the generalizability—and ultimately, the
usefulness—of data from household surveys.
The volume led the field to a more critical and comprehensive
examination of survey participation. Based on a thorough [CP1]
theory-based and interdisciplinary approach, the book assembled original
data about nonresponse on a massive scale and breadth, including
findings from a collaboration with the U.S. Bureau of the Census. It has
shaped how survey methodologists, analysts and practitioners think about
nonresponse, guiding much subsequent research, including the notion that
nonresponse is a stochastic, rather than a fixed, property of individual
respondents.
Dr. Groves is the Director of the University of Michigan Survey Research
Center and a Research Professor at the Joint Program in Survey
Methodology, a consortium of the University of Maryland, the University
of Michigan, and Westat. He is also a Professor of Sociology at
the University of Michigan. He was Associate Director of the U.S.
Census Bureau from 1990-1992, on loan from the University of
Michigan. He is the author of Survey Errors and Survey Costs
(Wiley, 1989), and co-author of Surveys by Telephone (Academic Press,
1979); Nonresponse in Household Interview Surveys (Wiley, 1998): chief
editor of Telephone Survey Methodology (Wiley, 1988), and co-editor of
Measurement Errors in Surveys (Wiley, 1991), as well as many articles in
survey and statistical methodology.
Contact information: Mick Couper, mcouper@umich.edu
Robert Groves, bgroves@isr.umich.edu
The Seymour Sudman Student Paper Award goes to "Social Desirability Bias
in Estimated Support for a Black Presidential Candidate," by Jennifer
Heerwig and Brian McCabe of New York University.
Jennifer Heerwig is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology
at New York University. Her current research projects investigate
the impact of financialization on income and wealth inequality in the
United States as well as the health and socioeconomic effects of
military service.
Brian McCabe is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at
New York University. He holds an undergraduate degree in
International Relations from Georgetown University and a graduate degree
in Geography from the London School of Economics. His current
research examines the impact of housing type on educational achievement
and other social outcomes.
In addition, the Selection Committee asked that Julianna Sandell Pacheco
of Pennsylvania State University be given an Honorable Mention for her
paper, "Political Socialization in Context: The Effect of Political
Competition on Youth Voter Turnout."
Contact award winners:
Jennifer Heerwig, ennif@nyu.edu
Brian McCabe, bjmcc@nyu.edu
Julianna Sandell Pacheco, jls644@psu.edu
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