Deck 6: Public Opinion and Political Socialization

Question 1

Jewish voters tend to do which of the following?

A) Vote for candidates who are politically conservative
B) Vote at a lower rate than Protestants
C) Focus almost totally on domestic issues
D) Have more liberal views than average on economic and cultural issues
E) Have similar views to the overall population on political issues

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which of the following are the major agents of early socialization in the United States?

A) Religion and social class
B) Family, religion, and political party
C) Family, school, community, and peers
D) School and social class
E) Economics, television, and the Internet

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of the following describes an individual's status that is based on a combination of education, occupational status, and income?

A) Bimodal
B) Partisan
C) Political
D) Skewed
E) Socioeconomic

Answer 3

E

Question 4

The collective attitude of the citizens on a given issue is known as what?

A) Public opinion
B) Gerrymandering
C) Public discord
D) Incumbency
E) Political reform

Question 5

The best example of the generational effect is which of the following?

A) Individuals who are in their early twenties tend to have a more liberal attitude toward social issues.
B) Candidate Hillary Clinton received significant support from women in the 2016 presidential campaign.
C) Many individuals remember where they were the night Barack Obama was first elected.
D) Individuals who came of age during the Watergate scandal have a cynical attitude toward government.
E) Individuals with a high economic status tend to be more politically involved.

Question 6

The generational effect refers to which of the following?

A) The way in which political socialization produces opinions
B) Increased tension between the two major political parties
C) Tendency for persons to become more conservative as they grow older
D) Long-lasting impact of significant events of a particular time on the generation that came of age at that time
E) The way in which the family influences opinions

Question 7

Which of the following is the first agent of political socialization for most people?

A) Family
B) Their peers
C) School
D) Television
E) The Internet

Question 8

The difference between the percentage of women who vote for a particular candidate and the percentage of men who vote for that candidate is called which of the following?

A) The gender gap
B) The generational effect
C) The gendered opinion
D) The lifestyle effect
E) The sexist gap

Question 9

Which of the following best describes the transfer of political attitudes and beliefs?

A) It is more likely to occur from children to parents.
B) It is more likely to occur from parents to children.
C) It is just as likely to occur from children to parents as it is to occur from parents to children.
D) It is exceptionally rare in families.
E) It never occurs from children to parents.

Question 10

Which of the following best describes the views of African Americans on issues of social welfare, civil liberties, and foreign policy?

A) They are more likely to be Republican than whites.
B) They are more liberal than whites.
C) They are more likely to be politically neutral.
D) They are more conservative than whites.
E) They are more apolitical than whites.

Question 11

The process whereby one becomes aware of politics, learns political facts, and forms political values is called what?

A) Political indoctrination
B) Ideological awakening
C) Political ideology
D) Political socialization
E) Systems building

Question 12

Which of the following best describes the influence of parents over their children's political socialization?

A) Only occurs in strongly political families
B) Is due to the declining influence of schools and the media
C) Is due to the rise of homeschooling
D) Is because of children seeing parents as an authority on politics
E) Is due to constant communication and receptivity of children to their parents' views

Question 13

Which of the following best describes the transfer of political values?

A) Is most likely to occur through the media
B) Is more likely to occur from families to children
C) Is more likely that children will influence their parents
D) Is exceptionally rare in families
E) Only occurs in small families

Question 14

As parental and school influences wane in adulthood, which of the following emerges as a more important socialization agent?

A) Families
B) Political parties
C) Historical references
D) The current presidents
E) Adult peer groups and mass media

Question 15

Which of the following statements regarding political socialization is true?

A) Parents disaffected from the political system are more likely to provide political information to their children than parents who are not similarly disaffected.
B) Although more sources of political information have become readily available in recent decades to most Americans, these sources are not as readily available to most young people.
C) Sources of information about politics have been steadily decreasing in the United States for decades.
D) The family has become the only meaningful source of political socialization in the United States.
E) Scholars believe that greater access to political information may explain why young Americans are more liberal than their parents on many social issues.

Question 16

Which of the following describes the gender gap?

A) It is the difference in voter turnout among men and women.
B) It is the long-standing history of women favoring Republicans over Democrats.
C) It is the tendency of women to be more conservative than men.
D) It is the tendency of women to be more libertarian than men.
E) It is the difference in the percentage of women voting for a certain candidate and the percentage of men doing the same.

Question 17

Which of the following are the most important early sources of political socialization?

A) Family and the media
B) Schools and the media
C) Family and political parties
D) Family and schools
E) Political parties and schools

Question 18

Which of the following best describes an opinion leader?

A) One who is able to influence the opinions of others because of position, expertise, or personality
B) A pollster
C) Always someone whose job is to sway public opinion, such as a member of Congress
D) A public relations expert
E) Someone who relies on position or expertise, rather than something like personality

Question 19

The process by which people acquire political beliefs and attitudes is called what?

A) Opinion leadership
B) Political socialization
C) Agenda setting
D) Peer grouping
E) Consensus building

Question 20

Which of the following statements concerning gender and political beliefs is incorrect?

A) Women are more likely to favor government action to promote equality.
B) Women are more likely to favor affirmative action.
C) Men are less likely to favor increased spending on social programs.
D) Men are more likely to favor the death penalty.
E) Women are more likely to favor the death penalty.

Question 21

"Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for Congressman Jones, who voted to raise your taxes 22 times?" Which type of poll includes this kind of question?

A) Media poll
B) Quota poll
C) Pull poll
D) Push poll
E) Gallup poll

Question 22

Gallup or Roper pollsters generally interview about how many respondents for a nationwide sample?

A) 150
B) 1,500
C) 10,500
D) 15,000
E) 150,000

Question 23

Which of the following refers to a challenging issue in the science of research polling?

A) The decline in importance of political polling
B) The lack of scientific research at the university level
C) The relatively low cost of Internet polling
D) The growth of the Hispanic population
E) The growth of cell phones

Question 24

The contemporary political "gender gap" refers to the tendency of women to do which of the following?

A) Identify more with the Democratic Party than men do
B) Vote less than men do
C) Favor female candidates for office over male candidates
D) Pay less attention to politics than men do
E) Vote more for Republican candidates than men do

Question 25

A random sample refers to which of the following?

A) Every person in the target population has an equal chance of being selected.
B) There is no pre-planning in the selection process.
C) Every person in the target population who is encountered is selected.
D) Researchers decide how many persons of certain types they need in the survey.
E) The poll is unscientific.

Question 26

Why do cell phones present a problem for pollsters?

A) It is impossible to randomly select cell phone numbers.
B) Cell phone companies charge pollsters to make calls.
C) Cell phone owners increasingly do not have landlines.
D) Cell phones are more common among older Americans.
E) Most cell phone users have a landline, thus resulting in being "double polled."

Question 27

Which of the following refers to a "poll" where respondents are given misleading information in the questions they are asked in order to persuade them to vote against a candidate?

A) Convention polls
B) Publicity polls
C) Push polls
D) Scientific polls
E) Pundit polls

Question 28

To accurately represent the target population, a small sample should be which of the following?

A) Randomly selected
B) Representative of the whole group
C) Representative in terms of demographic traits (age, region, religion, race, etc.)
D) Representative in terms of opinions
E) All of these are correct.

Question 29

Which of the following best reflects the reason why Literary Digest was incorrect in its prediction of the 1936 presidential election?

A) Its readers were asked to guess as to the outcome, rather than offering up their own opinions.
B) It had not obtained a random sample of the population.
C) Its readers were generally wealthy and not reflective of the population at large.
D) Its readers were asked to guess as to the outcome, rather than offering up their own opinions, and it had not obtained a random sample of the population.
E) It had not obtained a random sample of the population, and its readers were generally wealthy and not reflective of the population at large.

Question 30

Which of the following refers to the principle of randomness in public opinion polling?

A) Every individual sampled decreases the risk of bias error.
B) Every individual can choose to participate or decline participation in the opinion poll.
C) Every individual in the population is sampled.
D) Every individual has a known and equal chance of being sampled.
E) Every individual sampled has a unique perspective on the issues.

Question 31

When was modern polling developed?

A) In the 1890s by Literary Digest
B) In the 1930s by George Gallup
C) In the 1940s at Harvard University
D) In the 1960s at the Census Bureau
E) In the 1970s by Zogby and Nielsen

Question 32

Which of the following is true of push polls?

A) They have been determined to be illegal in twenty-three states.
B) They are always conducted face to face rather than by telephone.
C) They are so controversial that very few candidates have chosen to use them.
D) They were used widely in the 1960s and 1970s, but when they became associated with the dirty politics of those eras, they were disregarded by most candidates.
E) They are designed to disseminate negative information about a candidate.

Question 33

Which of the following factors best determines the accuracy of the sample?

A) Randomness of sample
B) A smaller sample
C) Location of the sample
D) Amount of time during which the sample was conducted
E) Year sample is taken

Question 34

Why are Internet polls not necessarily accurate?

A) Most women are not on the Internet.
B) Most men are not on the Internet.
C) Most African Americans are not on the Internet.
D) They lack a random sample.
E) It is impossible to weight the sample.

Question 35

American women are more likely to support which of the following?

A) Capital punishment
B) Restrictions on access to abortions
C) Social welfare programs
D) Military interventions abroad
E) Legislation restricting the rights of homosexuals

Question 36

In polling, the difference between the sample's results and those that would have been obtained had the entire population been interviewed is known as which of the following?

A) A failure of randomness
B) A sampling error
C) Unlikely to happen at all
D) Likely to be very large
E) A statistical miscalculation

Question 37

Which of the following describes voters who exhibit high degrees of religiosity and attend services regularly, regardless of church affiliation?

A) More likely to vote Republican
B) More likely to vote Democratic
C) More likely to vote for Independent and third-party candidates
D) Less likely to vote at all
E) Similar to the overall population in their political preferences

Question 38

Today, how are most polls conducted?

A) Face-to-face interviews
B) The telephone
C) Mail surveys
D) Radio broadcasts
E) Straw voting

Question 39

Which of the following is the most important principle in sampling?

A) The sample size
B) Randomness
C) Integrity of the pollster
D) Prior experience
E) Population characteristics

Question 40

A sample size that is which of the following will more accurately represent the population?

A) Neutral
B) Male-oriented
C) Smaller
D) Female-oriented
E) Random

Question 41

Evaluate the extent to which socioeconomic status impacts voter choice.

Question 42

Discuss how assessing public opinion has changed since the 1930s.

Question 43

Discuss three factors that might distort public opinion results collected through opinion polling.

Question 44

How do race and ethnicity play a major role in shaping political beliefs and public opinion? Support your response with specific examples.

Question 45

Analyze the impact of gender on voter participation and choice.

Question 46

Regarding public opinion, what is meant by the gender gap?

Question 47

What is establishing the context of a media report called?

A) Framing
B) Agenda setting
C) Priming
D) Political contextualization
E) Political socialization

Question 48

Which of the following statements about whether employers should be required to include coverage for birth control methods in their employee insurance plans is correct?

A) The issue arose in the 1970s as a consequence of Roe v. Wade.
B) The issue has yet to be addressed by the Supreme Court.
C) The issue was resolved by the Supreme Court as applying to all employers, regardless of religious affiliation.
D) The issue arose in 2012 as a consequence of the Affordable Care Act.
E) The issue raised questions of exemptions for businesses that could not afford contraception coverage.

Question 49

Describe how political opinions are formed, and mention at least three major influencers.

Question 50

Explain how modern polling can provide a fairly precise reading of public opinion.

Question 51

Which of the following statements regarding public opinion and polls is true?

A) Polls show that people give Congress a low rating.
B) Polls consistently give the military a low rating.
C) Public opinion never has an impact on government policies.
D) Public opinion has little impact on what government does.
E) Polls indicate that a majority of the public believe that public opinion should have minimal influence on public policy.

Question 52

The decline in public support for progressive policies such as welfare and extended health care can be linked to which of the following?

A) Declining political trust
B) Declining political socialization
C) Increasing party identification
D) Increasing unemployment rates
E) Increasing voter turnout

Question 53

Which of the following statements about public confidence in social and political institutions is most true?

A) Public confidence in the military has increased likely due to the military's role in the war on terrorism.
B) Public confidence in religion has decreased due to sex scandals.
C) Public confidence in Congress has increased due to the passage of health care reform.
D) Public confidence in the military has increased likely due to the military's role in the war on terrorism, while public confidence in religion has decreased due to sex scandals.
E) Public confidence in Congress has increased due to balancing the federal budget.

Question 54

How does socialization affect partisanship, ideology, and public opinion?

Question 55

How is gender related to political beliefs and opinion?

Question 56

In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court find that corporations could claim the rights of religious freedom?

A) Citizens United v. FEC
B) Bush v. Gore
C) Griswold v. Connecticut
D) Hobby Lobby v. Obama
E) Burwell v. Hobby Lobby

Question 57

Public perceptions of the most important problem facing the nation can best be described as which of the following?

A) Perceptions about the most important problem vary greatly by political party.
B) Perceptions about the most important problem tend to be based on stories that have been given a large volume of media coverage.
C) Perceptions about the most important problem have steadily focused on economic issues since the Great Depression.
D) Perceptions about the most important problem have steadily focused on foreign policy issues since September 11, 2001.
E) Perceptions about the most important problem are something polls rarely measure.

Question 58

Describe two of the earliest sources of political socialization and another source that grows in importance as Americans reach adulthood.

Question 59

Since the early 1990s, the American people have consistently shown more confidence in which of the following institutions compared to other institutions?

A) Public schools
B) Organized labor
C) Big business
D) The military
E) Television news

Question 60

What is a push poll? When is it used?

Question 61

Analyze how public opinion impacts the formulation of public policy.

Question 62

Evaluate the extent to which political trust has declined in the United States since 1999. Identify causes of this decline.

Question 63

Why is a random sample important in polling?

Question 64

Explain the ways in which cell phones have affected polling and why this issue is important.

Question 65

Analyze why public opinion is not always reflected in public policy.

Question 66

Identify and discuss the factors that can cause poll results to be wrong.

Question 67

Evaluate public trust in political institutions relative to other social institutions.

Question 68

What challenges are associated with accurate public opinion polling, and how can these challenges be overcome?

Question 69

Explain the principle of randomness in polling, and connect this principle to at least one other technique or problem in polling.