chapter 10

Question 1

american national election studies

Answer 1

academically-run national surveys of voters in the United States, conducted before and after every presidential election.

Question 2

conservative

Answer 2

a person who is averse to change and holds to traditional values and attitudes, typically in relation to politics.

Question 3

exit polls

Answer 3

a poll of people leaving a polling place, asking how they voted.

Question 4

george gallup

Answer 4

american pioneer of survey sampling techniques and inventor of the Gallup poll, a successful statistical method of survey sampling for measuring public opinion.

Question 5

liberal

Answer 5

typically believe that government is necessary to protect individuals from being harmed by others, but they also recognize that government itself can pose a threat to liberty.

Question 6

libertarian

Answer 6

seek to maximize political freedom and autonomy, emphasizing freedom of choice, voluntary association, and individual judgment.

Question 7

margin of error

Answer 7

an amount (usually small) that is allowed for in case of miscalculation or change of circumstances.

Question 8

moderate

Answer 8

advocating neither extreme left-wing politics nor right-wing politics

Question 9

political ideology

Answer 9

certain set of ethical ideals, principles, doctrines, myths or symbols of a social movement, institution, class or large group that explains how society should work and offers some political and cultural blueprint for a certain social order.

Question 10

political socialization

Answer 10

process by which individuals learn and frequently internalize a political lens framing their perceptions of how power is arranged and how the world around them is organized

Question 11

population

Answer 11

all the inhabitants of a particular town, area, or country.

Question 12

public opinion

Answer 12

the desires, wants, and thinking of the majority of the people; it is the collective opinion of the people of a society or state on an issue or problem. This concept came about through the process of urbanization and other political and social forces.

Question 13

public opinion polls

Answer 13

designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence intervals

Question 14

push polls

Answer 14

an ostensible opinion poll in which the true objective is to sway voters using loaded or manipulative questions.

Question 15

random sampling

Answer 15

the best way to represent a population. In order to obtain a random sample for a political poll, all members of the population must have an equal probability of being selected.

Question 16

sample

Answer 16

an interview study asking questions of a set of people who are chosen as representative of the whole population.

Question 17

sampling error

Answer 17

error in a statistical analysis arising from the unrepresentativeness of the sample taken.

Question 18

social conservative

Answer 18

the belief that society is built upon a fragile network of relationships which need to be upheld through duty, traditional values and established institutions. This can include moral issues.

Question 19

statist

Answer 19

an advocate of a political system in which the state has substantial centralized control over social and economic affairs.

Question 20

stratified sampling

Answer 20

a method of sampling from a population. In statistical surveys, when subpopulations within an overall population vary, it could be advantageous to sample each subpopulation independently

Question 21

straw polls

Answer 21

an unofficial ballot conducted as a test of opinion.

Question 22

tracking polls

Answer 22

a series of individual surveys repeated continuously over time to measure attitudinal and behavioral changes in a target population