Ap Us Go Po Ch 6: Public Opinion

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straw poll

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non-scientific form of poll in which subjects are self-selected; pollster asks, respondents choose to respond

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Iowa Straw Poll

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famous Republican Straw Poll which serves as early dipstick for measuring candidate popularity; usually a far right candidate wins because only the party base participates

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self-selected respondents tend to be extreme

Back 3

why staw polls are inaccuate

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Public Opinion

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The distribution of the population's beliefs about politics and policy issues.

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Demography

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The science of population changes.

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Census

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An actual enumeration of the population, which the Constitution requires that the government conduct every 10 years. The census is a valuable tool for understanding demographic changes.

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Melting Pot

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A term often used to characterize the United States, with its history of immigration and mixing of cultures, ideas, and peoples.

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Minority Majority

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The situation, likely beginning in the mid-twenty-first century, in which the non-Hispanic whites will represent a minority of the U.S. population and minority groups together will represent a majority.

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Political Culture

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An overall set of values widely shared within a society.

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Reapportionment

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The process of reallocating seats in the House of Representatives every 10 years on the basis of the results of the census.

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Political Socialization

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The process through which individuals in a society acquire political attitudes, views, and knowledge, based on inputs from family, schools, the media, and others.

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Sample

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A relatively small proportion of people who are chosen in a survey so as to be representative of the whole.

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Random Sampling

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The key technique employed by survey researches, which operates on the principle that everyone should have an equal probability of being selected for the sample.

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Sampling Error

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The level of confidence in the findings of a public opinion poll. The more people interviewed, the more confident one can be of the results.

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Random-digit dialing

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A technique used by pollsters to place telephone calls randomly to both listed and unlisted numbers when conducting a survey.

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Exit Poll

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Public Opinion surveys used by major media pollsters to predict electoral winners with speed and precision.

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Political Ideology

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A coherent set of beliefs about politics, public policy, and public purpose, which helps give meaning to political events.

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Liberalism

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A political ideology that prefers a government active in dealing with human needs, support individual rights and liberties, and give higher priority to social needs than to military needs. Opp. of Conservatism.

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Conservatism

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Political ideology that fears a growth of government, deplore government drag on private sector initiatives, dislike permissiveness in society, and play priority on military over social needs. Opp. of Liberalism.

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Gender Gap

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The regular pattern in which women are more likely to support Democratic candidates, in part because they tend to be less conservative than men and more likely to support spending on social services and to oppose higher levels of military spending.

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Political Participation

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All the activities used by citizens to influence the selection of political leaders or the policies they pursue. The most common means of political participation in a democracy is voting; other means include protest and civil disobedience.

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Protest

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A form of political participation designed to achieve policy change through dramatic and unconventional tactics.

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Civil Disobedience

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A form of political participation based on a conscious decision to break a law believed to be unjust and to suffer the consequences.

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Political Efficacy

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The belief that ordinary people can influence the government.

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Libertarian

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A person who believes in the doctrine of free will.

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Quota Sample

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Opposite to random sampling. It is when you take a certain group of people before you random sample. First, get the random sample, then you will group them into sub sets with quota sample. Certain groups here and there for the poll.

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Push Polls

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

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Bandwagon Effect

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An effect in which voters may support a candidate only because they see that others are doing so.

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Skewed Question

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A skewed question is one that is phrased in such a way that a certain answer is more likely to be given.

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Context Effect

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Context effects are aspects of psychology that deal with perception, or how the human mind views an object or event.

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Question Framing

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Certain way of framing the question for polls and surveys. Different ways of framing to get different, bias results. It is a subset of skewed question, it is a type of skewed question.