Chapter 6: Public Opinion And Political Socialization: Shaping The People’s Voice Flashcards
What is public opinion?
Politically relevant opinions held by citizens that they express openly, can be verbal, protests.
What is public opinion characterized by?
Its direction, intensity, salience
What is political socialization?
The process by which individuals acquire their politiccal opinions.
What are americans’ political opinions shaped by?
Frames of reference - partisanship, ideology, group attachments
True or False?
Public opinion has an important influence on government but ordinarily does not determine exactly what officials will do.
True
In a _______ ________ ____, a relatively few individuals - the ________ - are interviewed in order to estimate the opinions of a whole _______________, such as the residents of a city or country.
Public Opinion Poll; Sample; Population
How does opinion sampling work, any inferences to be made?
If respondents are chosen at random from a population, their opinions will approximate those of the population as a whole.
What is the key to scientific polling?
Random selection
What is scientific polling theoretically based on?
Probability sampling
In _____________ ___________ - a sample in which each individual in the population has a known probability of being chosen at random for inclusion.
Probability sampling
In a probability sampling, do individuals step forward, or are they randomly chosen?
Randomly chosen to be a part of the study.
How is a scientific poll different from an internet survey?
Scientific poll - people chosen at random for the study
Internet survey - invites visitors to a site to participate - biased because it includes only individuals who use the Internet
What is the key/determines a poll’s accuracy?
The size of the sample, as opposed to the size of the population, is the key to the poll’s accuracy
What is samplying error?
The error that results from using a sample to estimate the population
- The ________ the sample, the smaller the sampling error.
2. The ________ the sample, the larger the sampling error.
- Larger
2. Smaller
What does the sample provide an estimate of?
What the population is thinking
What does sampling error measure?
How accurate the sample estimate is likely to be
How is sampling error usually expressed?
Plus or minus percentage
True or False?
It should be noted that, if the poll had found that the candidates were separated by one percentage point, it would be statistically incorrect to claim that one of them is “leading”. The one-point difference in their support is smaller than the poll’s three-point sampling error
True
A proper drawn sample of _____ individuals has a sampling error of roughly plus or minus _ percent.
1000; 3
What are three different attributes of people’s opinions?
Direction - whether people have a pro or con position on the topic
Intensity - how strongly people feel about their opinion on a topic
Salience - how important people think an issue is relative to other issues, related to intensity, but not the same
Give an example connecting intensity and salience.
Someone could have an intense opinion about genetically modified food but see it as less salient than an issue such as unemployment.
How is salience typically measured in polls, what question might be asked?
What respondents regard as the top issue or issues.
What are nonopinions?
Responces from respondents where even though they may not know much about the topic, they answer it anyway to not appear misinformed.
What are a few problems with polls?
Pollsters rarely havea list of all individuals in the population from which to sample
Accuracy is diminished when respondents are asked about issues which they are not familiar
Question wording can also affect polls
Despite such issues, _____ remain the best available indicator of people’s opinions.
Polls
What is the learning process by which people acquire their political opinions, beliefs, and values?
Political Socialization
What 2 characteristics are a part of the political socialization process?
- Childhood learning
- Cumulative process - earlier learning effects later learning because previous beliefs serve as a psych screen where new info is filtered.
What are agents of specialization?
Agents, like family or media, that have a significant impact on citizen’s political socialization, can be divided into primary and secondary agents.
What is the difference between primary and secondary agents?
Primary agents interact closely and regularly with the individual, usually early in life, like Family
Secondary agents have less intimate connection with the individual and are usually more important later in life, like work associates
- Some examples of Primary agents:
2. Some examples of secondary agents:
- Family, school, religious organizations
2. Individual’s peers - friends, neighbors, coworkers, mass media, individuals in positions of authority, major events
What do frames of references provide?
Indication of how people think politically; when citizens share a frame of references, they find it easier to work together
What are three of the major frames of references through which americans evaluate political developments?
Party identification, political ideology, and group orientation.
How is party identification defined?
The personal sense of loyalty that an individual may feel toward a particular political party; sense of loyalty to a political party.
True or False?
Older adults tend to have firmer party loyalties and to be less responsive than younger adults to the issues and candidates of the moment. For most people, partisanship is not blind faith in their party. Although they typically support their party’s candicates, their party loyalty usually has its roots in policy.
True
What term refers to the general belief about the role and purpose of government?
Ideology
What do economic liberals believe government should do?
Government should do more to assist people who have difficulty meeting their economic needs on their own.
What do economic conservatives believe government does and shouldn’t do?
They believe that government tries to do too many things that should be left to private interests and economic markets
What do cultural (social) liberals believe governments role is and isn’t?
They believe it’s not the governments role to control traditional values at the expense of unconventional or new values; think that lifestyle choices should be left to the individual.
What do cultural (social) conservatives believe government should do?
They believe government power should be used to uphold traditional values; promote traditional values, like laws banning abortion.
True or False?
Conservatives prefer a smaller role for government on economic issues but want to use the power of goernment to uphold cultural traditions. The reverse is true of liberals.
True
Do americans see politics through group attachments?
Yes
Religious group attachments are a source of solidarity among group memebers and source of conflict.
Chapter 6 - read
True or False?
Economic class has always been a stronger force in the United States than in Europe.
False - always has been a stronger force in Europe than in the US
True or False?
While not the biggest influence on Americans’ opinions, Economic class does influence opinion.
True
True or False?
Region was the defining issue of american politics in parts of US history, the north and south were deeply divided over race and states’ rights, and persists today in social welfare and civil rights
True
What other factors have shaped American opinion?
Race and Ethnicity - affect civil right and civil liberty opinions and issues, Blacks and hispanics are generally more supportive of affirmative action and less trusting of police and the judicial sustem
Gender - women have more liberal opinions than men on education and social welfare issues, women are less supportive than men on the use of military force
Generations of age - World war II era had sense of civic duty unmatched, vietnam war era were more distrustful of government, climate change is greater concern to young adults than older ones
What does it mean when groups tend to be crosscutting in today’s society?
Each group includes individuals who also belong to other groups, where they can encounter different opinions.
True of False?
Americans today interact less with those of different backgrounds.
True
Three of America’s deepest divides - ____, ________, and _________ - are now more closely linked to partisanship.
Race, religion, geography
What is the term used to describe the situation where people base their concerns on a group identity (like race or religion) and align themselves politically with those who share that identity and against those who don’t.
identity politics
What is a delegate?
An elected representative whose obligation is to act in accordance with the expressed wishes of the people he or she represents.
Who embraced the view that representatives should act as his or her constituents delegate by responding to what constituents say they want?
George Gallup - pioneer in polling field
Who apposed Gallup’s view, and instead argued that representatives should act as their constituents’ trustees?
Edmund Burke - 18th century English theorist
What are trustees?
An elected representative whose obligation is to act in accordance with his or her own conscience as to what policies are in the best interesets of the public.
True or False?
A problem with basing policy on public opinion is that people’s opinions are often inconsistent, contradictory, or poorly informed. At the same time, information is not a prerequisite for judgement on some policy issues, like abortion which is largely a question of people’s values and beliefs.
True
The influence of public opinion is also limited by what’s been called “______________ _________”
Manufactured consent
