Deck 9: Public Opinion

Question 1

To help predict the outcome of an upcoming Republican primary election,a polling firm randomly surveys 1,000 people from a list of all registered Republican voters in the state of Texas.In this case,the group of 1,000 registered Republican voters in Texas recruited to participate in the survey is the ____________________.

A) sample
B) selection
C) proportion
D) cohort
E) population

Answer 1

A

Question 2

____________________ are casual surveys or polls that are not designed to be statistically accurate.

A) Push polls
B) State polls
C) Straw polls
D) Sample surveys
E) Social surveys

Answer 2

C

Question 3

To help predict the outcome of an upcoming Republican primary election,a polling firm randomly surveys 1,000 people from a list of all registered Republican voters in the state of Texas.In this case,the set of all registered Republican voters in Texas is the ____________________.

A) sample
B) selection
C) proportion
D) cohort
E) population

Answer 3

E

Question 4

The study of public opinion is one of the ____________________ developed areas of research in the social sciences.Because of ____________________ methods of survey research we know ____________________ about what people think and feel,and about the collective attitudes of the general public.

A) least; rudimentary; little
B) most; sophisticated; a lot
C) least; sophisticated; a lot
D) most; rudimentary; little
E) most; rudimentary; a lot

Question 5

Some people believe that politicians and officials in a democratic government should pay close attention to public opinion and try to follow it when possible,because the government not only derives its authority from the people but should also be responsive to their expressed desires.This is the ____________________ model of representation.

A) delegate
B) trustee
C) leader
D) follower
E) representative

Question 6

____________________ selection refers to any sampling process in which each member of a population has an equal chance of being selected into the sample.

A) Probability
B) Random
C) Propensity
D) Proportional
E) Equitable

Question 7

People's support for or opposition to a government program ____________________ depends on how a question is posed.Public opinion ____________________ over short periods of time.

A) often; fluctuates
B) rarely; remains stable
C) often; remains stable
D) rarely; fluctuates
E) always; remains stable

Question 8

Policy makers and mass media communications often use measures of ____________________ as indicators of what "the people" want.

A) collective judgment
B) public mood
C) private mood
D) public opinion
E) private opinion

Question 9

In statistical research,a ____________________ is the entire group in which a researcher is interested,such as all adults living in the United States.

A) sample
B) selection
C) proportion
D) cohort
E) population

Question 10

Politicians are sometimes criticized for being slaves to public opinion instead of leading based on their own opinions of what is the right thing to do.Instead of being ____________________,these politicians simply do whatever the majority of their constituents want them to do.

A) delegates
B) trustees
C) entrepreneurs
D) followers
E) representatives

Question 11

A ____________________ sample does not accurately represent the overall population from which it is drawn.

A) blended
B) biased
C) broken
D) bilateral
E) bifurcated

Question 12

____________________ is the collection of attitudes,opinions,and preferences of the general public.

A) An opinion poll
B) A survey sample
C) Public opinion
D) Collective judgment
E) Public mood

Question 13

In a presidential election poll surveying a random sample of 1,200 voters,the margin of error is around 1.5 percent.This means that if a candidate,according to the sample of voters in the survey,will receive 47 percent of the vote on Election Day,we can confidently predict that in the real election that candidate will receive ____________________.

A) 47 percent of the vote
B) 46 percent to 48 percent of the vote
C) 44.5 percent to 49.5 percent of the vote
D) 45.5 percent to 48.5 percent of the vote
E) We cannot predict the exact percent of the vote because statistics are not reliable.

Question 14

In statistical research,the ____________________ is the range of expected outcomes for a population given the data revealed by a sample drawn from that population.

A) region of uncertainty
B) zone of expectations
C) area of doubt
D) margin of error
E) edge of approximation

Question 15

Tony is a pollster.He has a list of 300 people from which he can draw a sample to survey.Tony wants to use the method of random selection to choose his sample.He decides that he will survey every third person on his list,for a sample size of 100 respondents.Has Tony accomplished his goal of using random selection to choose respondents?

A) Yes; since Tony has not purposefully selected specific people from the list and excluded others, his method is random.
B) Yes; since Tony has not used demographic criteria (like age, sex, or race) to select his respondents, his method is random.
C) Yes; with a population of 300 potential respondents, a sample of 100 people from the list will provide a random sample.
D) No; Tony needs to account for demographic criteria (like age, sex, and race) if he wanted to be sure that his sample would mimic the population.
E) No; not every member on the list has an equal chance of being selected into Tony's sample.

Question 16

The relationship between the public and the government can be viewed as a special kind of ____________________,because the president works for all the people because they have hired him or her through their ballots and can fire the president at the next election.

A) collective-action problem
B) coordination problem
C) Prisoner's Dilemma
D) unstable coalition
E) principal-agent problem

Question 17

Anuk likes ice cream better than cake,and cake better than pie.Her comparative enjoyment of ice cream,cake,and pie is a/an ____________________.

A) attitude
B) orientation
C) opinion
D) evaluation
E) preference

Question 18

Which refers to how people rank-order potential outcomes or experiences?

A) attitude
B) orientation
C) opinion
D) evaluation
E) preference

Question 19

In statistical research,a ____________________ is a subset who are chosen to provide information as representatives of the entire group in which a researcher is interested.

A) sample
B) selection
C) proportion
D) cohort
E) population

Question 20

Literary Digest mailed out millions of sample ballots to its readers months or weeks before a presidential election and then recorded responses from those completed and returned.From 1920 through 1932,these ____________________ predicted election results quite accurately,including the margins of victory.

A) straw polls
B) push polls
C) state polls
D) social surveys
E) sample surveys

Question 21

____________________ has to do with establishing the context for an issue in such a way as to emphasize certain aspects over others.

A) Priming
B) Framing
C) Sampling
D) Socializing
E) Prioritizing

Question 22

The theory of affective intelligence distinguishes between people's dispositions to act in normal situations and how those dispositions can be interrupted when ____________________ comes into play.

A) money
B) power
C) political office
D) emotions
E) cognitions

Question 23

Kendra is attached to core values of moral traditionalism and economic liberty.These values lead her to express support for policies that limit access to abortion services and lower taxes on income,among other things.Kendra's beliefs and attitudes are consistent with a conservative ____________________.

A) partisanship
B) rationality
C) priority
D) ideology
E) affect

Question 24

Which is a coherent,organized set of ideas and principles that functions as a core from which individuals draw when forming attitudes about public affairs?

A) partisanship
B) belief system
C) ideology
D) policy attitude
E) philosophy

Question 25

The process of developing attitudes,opinions,and preferences through contact with family and friends is called ____________________.

A) priming
B) framing
C) sampling
D) socialization
E) prioritizing

Question 26

Susan conducts a telephone survey about offshore drilling.The people who respond to her calls are overwhelmingly senior citizens,with very few young adults answering her survey questions.Her sample is likely to be ____________________.

A) biased, because younger and older voters hold different opinions on the issue
B) biased, if more older voters than younger voters responded
C) biased, because she did not randomly select her respondents
D) unbiased, if younger and older voters hold similar opinions on the issue
E) unbiased, because the age of a respondent does not matter

Question 27

____________________ is the psychological process of shaping people's perceptions of a particular issue,figure,or policy.

A) Priming
B) Framing
C) Sampling
D) Socializing
E) Prioritizing

Question 28

Researchers have discovered that ____________________ campaign advertisements with emotional appeals polarize viewers while ____________________ ads have the opposite effect,tending to make people less certain of their convictions.

A) positive; negative
B) negative; positive
C) neutral; negative
D) neutral; positive
E) positive; neutral

Question 29

Sam wants to gauge public opinion on the death penalty.He asks survey respondents two questions: (1)"If you could choose between the following two approaches,which do you think is the better penalty for murder: the death penalty or life imprisonment with absolutely no possibility of parole?" and (2)"Are you in favor of the death penalty for a person convicted of murder?" What do you think Sam will find?

A) The same percentage of people will be for and against the death penalty because both questions ask about the same concept.
B) More people will be for the death penalty when asked the first question than when asked the second question.
C) More people will be for the death penalty when asked the second question than when asked the first question.
D) The first question is biased while the second question is unbiased.
E) The second question is biased while the first question is unbiased.

Question 30

When individuals pay attention only to relevant information when making choices,make their decisions based on what is in their best interests,and do not systematically make mistakes,instead using new information to correct past mistakes and improve decision making,they are said to be acting ____________________.

A) selfishly
B) attitudinally
C) ideologically
D) rationally
E) affectively

Question 31

Alissa's parents are both Democrats,as are most of her friends.Alissa herself identifies with the Democratic Party,in part because she grew up surrounded by other Democrats and feels comfortable with the policies and personalities that are associated with that party.The development of Alissa's partisanship is best described as a process of ____________________.

A) priming
B) framing
C) sampling
D) socialization
E) prioritizing

Question 32

Voters are being asked to decide whether to build a new county jail.The public could be cued by politcians,pundits,other public figures,and television ads to consider the proposal in terms of its potential to raise their taxes on the one hand,or as a way to increase the number of jobs available to potential guards,cooks,and social workers on the other.These two types of cues are ____________________.

A) frames
B) primes
C) samples
D) socializations
E) priorities

Question 33

Brian is often hopeful about the prospects of new policies to improve social conditions,and he supports the redistribution of wealth and resources.It is most likely that Brian identifies himself as ideologically ____________________.

A) Conservative
B) Libertarian
C) Agrarian
D) Authoritarian
E) Liberal

Question 34

Many people express opinions and attitudes in surveys that are inconsistent with their own personal material interests but are in accordance with collective interests.For example,quite a few wealthy African Americans support more liberal social welfare policies than their wealthy white counterparts.This is an example of ____________________.

A) socialization
B) irrationality
C) group attachments
D) social connectedness
E) racial consciousness

Question 35

During the 2000 Republican presidential primaries,campaign consultants in favor of George W. Bush's election conducted a poll in which potential primary voters were asked whether they would be likely to vote for or against John McCain after learning that his "campaign finance proposals would give labor unions and the media a bigger influence on the outcome of elections." Clearly,the consultants' goal was not to find out how many people were going to vote for McCain,but to spread negative information about Bush's opponent while posing as pollsters.This is an example of ____________________.

A) straw polling
B) push polling
C) random polling
D) agenda polling
E) strategic polling

Question 36

Response rates to phone surveys-the number of people who actually give interviews,as compared to the number selected and solicited through a random process-have been ____________________.

A) declining for the past few years and now stand at about 70 percent
B) declining for many years and now stand at about 30 percent
C) increasing for the past few years and now stand at about 30 percent
D) increasing for the past few years and now stand at about 50 percent
E) increasing for many years and now stand at about 70 percent

Question 37

Choosing the best available options given one's interests and information is ____________________.

A) selfishness
B) rationality
C) attitudinalism
D) ideology
E) affect

Question 38

Students studying at a university library on Saturday night are probably not representative of all college students.A random sample of students at the library on Saturday evening is,therefore,probably a ____________________ sample of the population of college students.

A) reasonable
B) biased
C) helpful
D) socialized
E) rational

Question 39

A "push poll" is ____________________.

A) the same thing as a straw poll
B) a cost-efficient form of polling used in campaigns
C) not really polling at all, but rather a form of marketing and campaigning
D) a form of polling that uses random selection to choose respondents
E) the preferred form of polling for candidates running campaigns

Question 40

Voters are being asked to decide whether to build a new county jail.Showing them photos of prisoners accompanying a news story about the proposal might cue a negative connotation in voters' minds.However,showing them contented prison workers from another county might cue voters to consciously or subconsciously think more positively about building the jail.Both types of photos are examples of ____________________.

A) frames
B) primes
C) samples
D) socializations
E) priorities

Question 41

Through careful analysis,scholars have shown that government policy changes in a liberal or conservative direction on economic policy come ____________________ a public opinion mood change in the ____________________ direction.This is further evidence of the overall responsiveness of the national government to public opinion.

A) before; same
B) after; same
C) before; opposite
D) after; opposite
E) concurrently; same

Question 42

What is a population and what is a sample? How are these concepts important for understanding the study of public opinion in the United States? What is a random sample? Why is randomization important to making useful inferences about public opinion? What are some sources of bias that might corrupt the results of a survey even if researchers are careful to try to reach a random sample of the population they are studying?

Question 43

Which of the following is loyalty or psychological attachment to a political party?

A) partisanship
B) belief system
C) party identification
D) policy attitude
E) philosophy

Question 44

Which ideology,most closely identified with Marxism,represents the extreme left of the ideological spectrum in Western political thought since the mid-nineteenth century?

A) Fascism
B) Conservatism
C) Liberalism
D) Communism
E) Socialism

Question 45

People can engage in what Anthony Downs called ____________________ about politics by free riding off people who happen to like politics or need to know about politics for their jobs.

A) "ideological ignorance"
B) "political ignorance"
C) "rational ignorance"
D) "functional ignorance"
E) "American ignorance"

Question 46

What is rationality? How does an individual's rational consideration of her interests influence her attitudes toward public policies or public figures? How might a person's rational consideration of her own self-interest lead her to become less informed or involved about important political questions?

Question 47

Juanita is an enthusiastic fan of college football.She spends much of her free time watching games,reading about coaches' strategies and styles,and listening to sports talk radio.As a result,Juanita has little opportunity to keep up with political news and knows little about the candidates in an upcoming election.Juanita is,therefore,____________________ about politics.

A) ideologically primed
B) fairly socialized
C) rationally ignorant
D) functionally partisan
E) ideologically framed

Question 48

Although the United States is one of the most ____________________ nations of the world,its citizens express remarkable ____________________ about democracy and forms of government.

A) homogeneous/disagreement
B) heterogeneous/disagreement
C) homogeneous/ambivalence
D) homogeneous/consensus
E) heterogeneous/consensus

Question 49

Which ideology represents the extreme right of the ideological spectrum in Western political thought,but was discredited in the twentieth century by regimes in Germany and Italy?

A) Fascism
B) Conservatism
C) Liberalism
D) Communism
E) Socialism

Question 50

Although Clarence knows little about politics and does not have many strongly held views on political issues,he responds to a variety of telephone survey questions about current political events to be polite to the interviewer.Clarence's survey responses are ____________________.

A) rational preferences
B) nonattitudes
C) precognitions
D) primed opinions
E) framed opinions

Question 51

Voters appear to separate their opinions about the entire legislative body from their evaluation of their own representatives.They often give ____________________ evaluations of Congress as a whole,while giving a more ____________________ evaluation of their individual representatives or senators.

A) neutral; positive
B) neutral; negative
C) negative; positive
D) positive; negative
E) negative; neutral

Question 52

As the education level of Americans has steadily increased since the 1950s,the level of public ignorance has ____________________.

A) also steadily increased
B) has slowly decreased
C) has increased exponentially
D) has remained roughly constant
E) has rapidly decreased

Question 53

Explain the concept of political socialization.How does the process of socialization influence the opinions a person expresses? What are three likely sources of political socialization for individuals raised in the United States?

Question 54

The proportion of Americans identifying themselves as Democrats ____________________.

A) has been consistently higher than the proportion identifying themselves as Republicans since reliable data were first collected in the 1950s
B) has been consistently higher than the proportion identifying themselves as Republicans since the Watergate scandal involving President Nixon in 1974
C) has been consistently higher than the proportion identifying themselves as Republicans since the failed effort to remove President Clinton from office in 1999
D) has been consistently lower than the proportion identifying themselves as Republicans since reliable data were first collected in the 1950s
E) has been consistently lower than the proportion identifying themselves as Republicans since the "stagflation" that occurred during the Carter Administration

Question 55

In terms of religious behavior,the United States more closely resembles ____________________ than ____________________.

A) the developing world; industrialized nations
B) industrialized nations; the developing world
C) the first world; the third world
D) European nations; African nations
E) Australia and Japan; countries in Central America

Question 56

What are priming and framing? How are the two concepts alike? How are they different? Give an example of priming and an example of framing in hypothetical survey questions.How would these cognitive processes influence respondents' answers in your examples?

Question 57

Joe feels personally attached to the Republican Party despite important disagreements between the party's platform and his own issue attitudes.Joe's relationship to the Republican Party is consistent with the idea of ____________________.

A) partisanship
B) belief systems
C) ideology
D) postmaterialism
E) materialism

Question 58

What is an ideology? What are the major features of liberal and conservative ideologies in modern American politics? What is the relationship,if any,between ideology and partisan identification?

Question 59

Ideology and partisanship are two fundamental ____________________ that are usually long term and shape people's opinions toward specific politicians and government policies.

A) attitudes
B) values
C) predispositions
D) worldviews
E) opinions