3 Survey Research & Voter Behaviour

Question 1

voter behaviour

Answer 1

• a field in POLS that uses polling
• uses individual level data to make generalizations about why voters think and act the way they do
• allows the researcher to make conclusions based on random samples

Question 2

popular topics in voter behaviour research

Answer 2

• issue opinions
• political culture
• vote choice

Question 3

issue opinions

Answer 3

how a population/sample reacts to and/or approves of an issue/event; takes a precise political issue or public policy

Question 4

political culture

Answer 4

assesses the deeper political values of a population and how a population politically leans; allows you to compare political cultures and values across diff populations

Question 5

vote choice

Answer 5

examines why ppl vote the way that they do and the factors involved in voting certain ways

Question 6

operationalization

Answer 6

the process of moving from a conceptual def’n (an abstraction) to a measure or set of measures (concrete) that enables a researcher to empirically observe the construct in the particular research project; i.e., creates a set of measurements for observations thru the definition/specification of a broad abstract

Question 7

operationalization in voter behaviour research

Answer 7

the key to understanding operationalization is to understand the relationship between a survey question and the concept in our research question that’s being measured; each survey question tries to measure a concept by itself or is part of a series of questions that try to do so

Question 8

examples of operationalization

Answer 8

• abstract is sexism; the concrete is a measurement of belief that a woman’s place is in the home
• abstract is education; the concrete could be asking highest level of education attained