Chapter 5 - Public Opinion Flashcards
Conservative
today this term refers to those who generally support the social and economic status quo and are suspicious of efforts to introduce new politcal formulae and economic arrangements. Conservatives believe that a large and powerful govenrment poses a threat to citizens’ freedom
Liberal
today, one who generaly supports political and social reform; extensive government intervention in the economy; the expansion of federal social services; more vigorous efforts on behalf of the poor, minorities and women; and greater concern for consumers and the environment
measurement error
failure to identify the true distribution of opinion within a population because of errors such as ambiguous or poorly worded questions
Political Efficacy
the ability to influence government and politics
political socailization
the process by which people learn political attitudes and beliefs
probability sampling
a method used by pollsters to select a sample in which every individual in the population has an equal probability of being selected as a respondent so that the correct weight can be given to all segments of the population
public opinion pols
scientific instruments for measuring public opinion
push polling
a polling technique in which the questions are designed to shape the respondent’s opinion
random digit dialing
polls in which respondents are selected at random from a list of ten-digit telephone numbers with every effort made to avoid bias in the constructuion of the sample
random sampling
a method of measuring popular opinion whereby a small group of people, randomly selected from the population as a whole, may be considered representative as long as every person had an equal chance of being picked
Sample
a small group selected by researchers to represent the most important characteristics of an entire population
selection bias
polling error that arises when the sample is not representative of the population being studied, which creates errors in overepresenting or underrepresenting some opinions
ideology
A system of ideas and ideals, esp. one that forms the basis of economic or political policy: “the ideology of republicanism”.
survey sampling
sampling is concerned with the selection of a subset of individuals from within a statistical population to estimate characteristics of the whole population
margin of sampling error in surveys
The margin of error is a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in a survey’s results. The larger the margin of error, the less confidence one should have that the poll’s reported results are close to the “true” figures; that is, the figures for the whole population. Margin of error occurs whenever a population is incompletely sampled.
