57 terms

Chap 6 - Public Opinion


Terms in this set (...)

Opinion split along group lines is known as
An opinion gap
A 2007 survey, which identified a racial opinion gap, reported that _____ of African Americans identified as or leaned toward the Democratic Party while _____ of Whites did the same
Because there is no one "public" but rather many different publics, surveying public opinion actually means
describing the aggregate of individual attitudes shared by some portion of the adult population
The response given in late September 2001 to the question "Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president" is an example of
consensus opinion
General agreement among the citizenry on an issue is
a consensus
The following is an example of _____ opinion. "To reduce the threat of terrorism, would you be willing or not willing to allow government agencies to monitor the telephone calls and e-mail of ordinary Americans on a regular basis? (Willing:41%, Not willing 52%)
Private opinion becomes public opinion when
it concerns public issues and is publicly expressed
The transfer of pulitical attitudes and beliefs is more likely to occur from
parents to children
Determining which public-policy questions will be debated or considered is known as
agenda setting
Agenda setting is
determining which public-policy questions will be debated or considered
The phonomenon of certain attitudes occuring at certain chronological ages is known as
the lifestyle effect
Lifestyle effect is the
phenomenon of certain attitudes accurring at certain chronological ages
The process by which people acquire political beliefs and attitudes is called
political socialization
A _____ is a long-lasting effect of the events of a particular time on the political opinions of those who came of political age at that time
generational effect
Scholars believe that greater access to information may explain
why young Americans are more liberal than their parents on many social issues
Children as young as _____ will express political views even when they are not mature enough to understand very much about political institutions
Peer groups are most likely to influence political attitudes when
the peer goup is actively involved in political activities
An opinion leader is
one who is able to influence the opinions of others
Many people believe that the media's influence on public opinion
has grown to equal the influence of the family
The 1960s and 1970s sominated by events such as vietnam and watergate gave rise to
widespread cynicism about the government
Generational effect refers to the
long-lasting impact of significant events on the generation that came of age at that time
Having a college eduction
no longer means that an individual is likely to vot for a particular party
The difference between the percentage of women who vote for a particular candidate and the percentage of men who vote for the candidate is called
the gender gap
In recent years professionals with advanced degrees have moved towards
the Democrats
Jewish voters tend to be
more liberal than average on economic and cultural issues
Historically, Roman Catholic families tend to be
The value assigned to a person due to occupation or income is known as
socioeconomic status
Traditionally, Protestant families tended to be
Voters who are more devout and attend services regularly, regardless of church affillation, are
more likely to vote Republican
African American tend to be more
liberal than whites
Most African Americans have not supported teh
Democratic party since the 1800s
The first election that indicated the presence of a gender gap was won by
Ronald Reagan in 1980
American women are more likely to support
social welfare programs
People in large cities tend to be liberal and Democratic while people in smaller communities tend to be
conservative and republican
today, the following regions are more supportive of the Republicans than the Democrats
The South, the Great plains, and the rocky Mountain states
Most voters who identify themselves as independent nonetheless achknowlege that
they lean toward one party or another
Why did the Literary Digest incorrectly predict that Alf Landon would defeat Franklin Roosevelt in the presidentail election of 1936
The Literary Digest only polled its subscribers, who were more affluent than the average American and thus more antagonistic toward Roosevelt's policies
In response to public pressure
the television networks have agreed not to predict the winner of an election in any state untill all polls are closed
Modern polling was developed
in the 1930s by George Gallup and Elmo Roper
The most important principle in sampling is
the random selection of respondents
A random sample means that
evewry person in the target population has an equal chance of being selected
The survey researchers decide how many persons of certain types they need in a survey and then send out interviewers to find the necessary number of these types in
quota sampling
Usually, the Gallup or Roper polls interview
about 1500 people in a nationwide sample
In opinion polling, the difference between what the sample results show and what the true result would be if everybody had been interviewed is termed
sampling error
Respondents are given misleading information in the questions they are asked in order to persuade them to vote against a candidate in
push polls
Push polls
give respondents misleading information in the questions they are asked in order to persuade them to vote against a candidate
Cell phone numbers are not included in random digit dialing programs or listed in telephone directories
limiting the ability of telephone polls to reach many people
Every media outlet that maintains a web site allows
anyone to submit his or her opinions
Public opinion affects the political process because it is
a source of power for elected officials who take positions supported by the people
During the presidential primary contests, polling becomes important not only to candidates and voters, but also to _____
campaign contributors
The values that shape American political culture do not include
government control of the economy
The degree to which individuals express trust in the government is called
political trust
Since the early 1990s the American people have consistently shown more confidence in _____ than any other institution
the military
in 2006, Gallup reported that the "most important problem" was
the war in iraq and the gas prices
One of the limits of using public opinion polling for determining policy is
survey respondents do not receive expert testimony on tghe likely consequences of their decisions
An examination of polls of other nations around the world reveals that
while much of the world viewed the United States sympathetically after 9/11, it opposed the United States' decision to invade Iraq
In a _____ a known probability is used to select each person interviewed
probability sample