Nora Cate Schaeffer

Position title: Sewell Bascom Professor of Sociology, Emerita

Email: schaeffer@ssc.wisc.edu

Phone: (608) 262-3868

Address:
4422 Sewell Social Sciences

More Information
Curriculum Vitae
headshot photo of Nora Cate Schaeffer

Research Interest Statement:

My research interests are focused on measurement in social research surveys. Recent analyses have focused on the interaction between the interviewer and respondent in answering both standardized survey questions and also cognitive assessments conducted as part of a survey interview. Another project examines the request for survey participation. In both lines of work we examine measurement and recruitment as interactional phenomena. In addition, I continue to work with collaborators in issues of question design for survey interviews.

Departmental Areas of Interest:

Demography and Ecology, Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis, Methods and Statistics, Social Psychology and Microsociology

Classes:

Soc 351 Introduction to Survey Methods for Social Research
Soc 360 Statistics for Sociologists
Soc 751 Survey Methods for Social Research
Soc 752 Measurement and Questionnaires for Survey Research (Questionnaire Design)
Soc 752 Measurement and Questionnaires for Survey Research (Resources)

Other Campus Affiliations

Center for Demography and Ecology
Center for Demography of Health and Aging
Institute for Research on Poverty
Population Health Sciences
University of Wisconsin Survey Center

Selected Publications

Schaeffer, Nora Cate.  2020.  “Far from Ordinary Questions:  Task Difficulty, Motivation, and Measurement Practice.”  (2020 Presidential Address, American Association for Public Opinion Research).  Public Opinion Quarterly. doi: 10.1093/poq/nfaa032. (Presented version:  https://www.aapor.org/About-Us/History/Presidential-Addresses/2020-Presidential-Address.aspx.)

Min, Bo Hee, Nora Cate Schaeffer, Dana Garbarski and Jennifer Dykema. 2020. “The Action Structure of Recruitment Calls and Its Analytic Implications.” Journal of Official Statistics, 36(3): 529-559.  https://doi.org/10.2478/jos-2020-0028

Schaeffer, Nora Cate. 2020. “Interaction before and during the survey interview:  Insights from conversation analysis.”  International Journal of Social Research. Methodology. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2020.1824626

Schaeffer, Nora Cate and Jennifer Dykema. 2020. “Advances in the Science of Asking Questions.”  Annual Review of Sociology. 46:37-60. https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-soc-121919-054544. (or http://www.annualreviews.org/eprint/NYXQK3SSPS9EWKEJG6RN/full/10.1146/annurev-soc-121919-054544).

Dykema, Jennifer, Nora Cate Schaeffer, Dana Garbarski, and Michael Hout. 2020. “The Role of Question Characteristics in Designing and Evaluating Survey Questions.” Advances in Questionnaire Design, Development, Evaluation, and Testing, edited by P. Beatty, D. Collins, L. Kaye, J. Padilla, G. Willis, and A. Wilmot.  Wiley: Hoboken, NJ

Lor, Maichou, Nora Cate Schaeffer, Roger Brown, and Barbara Bowers.  2020. “Respondents’ Behavioral Displays of Problems and Helpers’ Strategies: Non-literate Hmong Older Adults and Their Family Helpers Completing Self-Administered Questionnaires,” Field Methods, 32(3):253-273.  https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X19893666

Schaeffer, Nora Cate, Jennifer Dykema, Steve M. Coombs, Rob K. Schultz, Lisa Holland and Margaret Hudson. 2020. “General Interviewer Training: Developing Evidence-Based Practices for Standardized Interviewing.” Pp. 33-46 in Interviewer Effects from a Total Survey Error Perspective, edited by K. Olson, J. D. Smyth, J. Dykema, A. L. Holbrook, F. Kreuter and B. T. West. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.

Garbarski, Dana, Jennifer Dykema, Nora Cate Schaeffer, and Dorothy Farrar Edwards. 2020. “Response time as an indicator of data quality: Associations with interviewer, respondents, and question characteristics in a health survey of diverse respondents.” Pp. 253-266 in Interviewer Effects from a Total Survey Error Perspective, edited by Kristen Olson, Jolene D. Smyth, Jennifer Dykema, Allyson Holbrook, Frauke Kreuter, and Brady T. West. Boca Raton, FL:  CRC Press.

Garbarski, Dana, Nora Cate Schaeffer and Jennifer Dykema. 2019. The Effects of Features of Survey Measurement on Self-Rated Health: Response Option Order and Scale Orientation. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 14(2), 545-560. doi:10.1007/s11482-018-9628-x.

Schaeffer, Nora Cate, Bo Hee Min, Thomas Purnell, Dana Garbarski, and Jennifer Dykema. “Greeting and Response:  Predicting Participation from the Call Opening.”  2018.  Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology, 6,1: 122–148.  DOI: 10.1093/jssam/smx014, PMCID: PMC6483105, NIHMSID: NIHMS1021530, PMID: 31032373

Garbarski, Dana, Nora Cate Schaeffer and Jennifer Dykema. 2016. “Interviewing Practices, Conversational Practices, and Rapport: Responsiveness and Engagement in the Standardized Survey Interview,” in Sociological Methodology, edited by Duane F. Alwin, pp. 1-38, Sage. DOI: 10.1177/0081175016637890.

Schaeffer, Nora Cate, Dana Garbarski, Jeremy Freese, and Douglas W. Maynard.  2013. “An Interactional Model of the Call for Survey Participation:  Actions and Reactions in the Survey Recruitment Call. Public Opinion Quarterly 77(1): 323-351. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nft006 .  PMCID:  PMC4072894

Schaeffer, Nora Cate and Jennifer Dykema.  2011. “Questions for Surveys:  Current Trends and Future Directions.”  Public Opinion Quarterly 75, 5: 909-961.  https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfr048. PM­CID:  PMC4071995.

Schaeffer, Nora Cate and Jennifer Dykema. 2011. “Coding the Behavior of Interviewers and Respondents to Evaluate Survey Questions: A Response,” in Question Evaluation Methods: Contributing to the Science of Date Quality, edited by Jennifer Madans, Kristen Miller, Aaron Maitland, and Gordon Willis. New York: Wiley and Sons.

Garbarski, Dana, Nora Cate Schaeffer, and Jennifer Dykema. 2011. “Are Interactional Behaviors Exhibited When the Self-Reported Health Question Is Asked Associated with Health Status?” Social Science Research 40(4):1025–36.

Maynard, Douglas W., Jeremy F. Freese, and Nora Cate Schaeffer. 2010. “Calling for Participation: Requests, Blocking Moves, and Rational (Inter)action in Survey Introductions.” American Sociological Review, 75(5), 719-814. PMCID: PMC3116201

Schaeffer, Nora Cate and Jennifer L. Dykema. 2004. “A Multiple-Method Approach to Improving the Clarity of Closely Related Concepts: Distinguishing Legal and Physical Custody of Children.” Pp. 475-502 in Methods for Testing and Evaluating Survey Questionnaires, edited by Stanley Presser, Jennifer M. Rothgeb, Mick P. Couper, Judith T. Lessler, Elizabeth Martin, Jean Martin, and Eleanor Singer. New York: Wiley.

Schaeffer, Nora Cate and Stanley Presser. 2003. “The Science of Asking Questions.” Annual Review of Sociology, 29: 65-88. https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.soc.29.110702.110112

Schaeffer, Nora Cate and Douglas W. Maynard. 2002. “Occasions for Intervention: Interactional Resources for Comprehension in Standardized Survey Interviews.” In Standardization and Tacit Knowledge: Interaction and Practice in the Survey Interview, edited by Douglas W. Maynard, Hanneke Houtkoop-Steenstra, Nora Cate Schaeffer, and Johannes van der Zouwen. New York: Wiley.

Dykema, Jennifer and Nora Cate Schaeffer. 2000. “Events, Instruments, and Reporting Errors.” American Sociological Review 65(4):619-29.  DOI: 10.2307/2657386.

Schaeffer, Nora Cate. 2000. “Asking Questions about Sensitive Topics: A Selective Overview.” Pp. 105-122 in Arthur A. Stone, Jaylan S. Turkkan, Christine A. Bachrach, Jared B. Jobe, Howard S. Kurtzman, and Virginia S. Cain, eds. The Science of Self-Report: Implications for Research and Practice. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Schaeffer, Nora Cate, and Elizabeth Thomson.  1992.  “The Discovery of Grounded Uncertainty:  Developing Standardized Questions about Strength of Fertility Motivation.”  Pp. 37-82 in Sociological Methodology 1992, edited by Peter Marsden.  Washington, D.C.:  American Sociological Association. DOI: 10.2307/270992.  (Revised version of CDE Working Paper 89-19.)

Schaeffer, Nora Cate, and Elizabeth Thomson.  1992.  “The Discovery of Grounded Uncertainty:  Developing Standardized Questions about Strength of Fertility Motivation.”  Pp. 37-82 in Sociological Methodology 1992, edited by Peter Marsden.  Washington, D.C.:  American Sociological Association. DOI: 10.2307/270992.  (Revised version of CDE Working Paper 89-19.)

Schaeffer, Nora Cate. 1991.  “Hardly Ever or Constantly?  Group Comparisons and Vague Quantifiers.” Public Opinion Quarterly, 55, 3:395-423.  https://doi.org/10.1086/269270.