Public opinion (12 questions)

Question 1

Public opinion

Answer 1

views prevalent among the general public

Question 2

America’s core political values

Answer 2

• Individual liberty (govt interference in lives should be at a minimum)
• equality of opportunity (all individuals should be allowed to seek personal and material success)
• democracy (everyone should be able to be a part of nation’s governmental and policy making processes

Question 3

Random sample

Answer 3

a sample in which every element in the population has an equal chance of being selected

Question 4

Agents of political socialization

Answer 4

Family, social groups, education and political environment

Question 5

Why people’s political attitudes differ (2 questions)

Answer 5

political socialization

Question 6

Public opinion polls

Answer 6

Used by officials when deciding to run, what policies to support, how to vote on legislation and what types of appeals to make in campaigns.

Question 7

Public’s knowledge about politics

Answer 7

a

Question 8

A valid poll (2 questions)

Answer 8

random with a small margin of error, representative of population, no bias questions and multiple ways of contacting the person (remember the example of conducting surveys by home phones and not everyone having one)

Question 9

Sampling error (2 questions)

Answer 9

a polling error that arises based on the small size of the sample.