Chapter 5 American Government

Although white Americans do not know what it is like to be black, ______ of whites report being satisfied with society's treatment of blacks

67%

The first political institution that young children tend to focus on is the

President

The _______ principle indicates that what is learned first is learned best

Primary

The extent of the influence of any socializing agent depends on

The extent of our exposure to it, our communication with it, and our receptivity to it

In the current American context, a liberal would tend to promote

economic equality ahead of freedom, and freedom ahead of social order.

For most people, the first agent of political socialization is

family

The major agents of early socialization in the United States are

family, school, community, and peers

In the presidential elections since 1968, the South has tended to vote

for Republican candidates

The contemporary political "gender gap" refers to the tendency of women to

identify more with the Democratic Party than men do

The set of values and beliefs that a person holds about the purpose and scope of government is called

political ideology

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

political socialization

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

public opinion

The political knowledge of many young adults changes from high school to college especially if professors encourage students to

question authority

Political differences between the South and the rest of the country today are often rooted in attitudes about

racial politics and social issues

The goal of the statistical theory of sampling is to

reflect the views of the population with some predictable degree of accuracy

When a political opinion is based on what is considered to be in the best interest of the nation rather than what people think in their own interest it is an example of

sociotropic responses

A distribution of opinions that shows little change over time is called a ______ distribution

stable

Today, the mass media conduct most polls by

telephone

Public opinion polls can be criticized on the grounds that

the way a pollster words a question can determine an answer.

A sample of 1000 randomly selected individuals is usually more accurate to (plus or minus) _______ percentage points.

three

Learning political party identification from parents is known as the ___________ model of partisanship

transmission

The most frequent response (such as "I favor") in a public opinion distribution is known as the

mode

When Americans are asked to identify themselves one left-right ideological scales ("liberal,""moderate," or "conservative"), the data plotted on a graph is a(n)_________ distribution

normal

A symmetrical, bell-shaped distribution around a single mode is called a

normal distribution

When elementary schools introduce students to authority figures outside the family, like the teacher, they prepare students for the value of _________; when they stress norms of democratic decision making and respecting the opinions of others, they teach _________.

order; equality

Based on the text, which of these factors does NOT determine the accuracy of the sample?

year the sample is taken

With respect to religion, the group that has grown rapidly in the 21st century and now makes up almost 23 percent of the American population is

"unaffliated"

The prediction of the Gallup Poll for nineteen presidential election since 1936 have been deviated from actual voting results by less than _______ percentage point(s)

1

Survey methodology did not become a powerful research tool until the

1950s

As some historians estimate, _________ percent of American opposed to the Revolution in July 1776

20

A January 2014 poll showed that _____ percent of Americans knew that the Affordable Care act prohibits companies from denying health insurance to people because of any illnesses they may have.

54

According to the text, which of the following is NOT a characteristic of public opinion?

Citizens are typically unwilling to offer opinions on matters outside their experience, even when asked by pollsters

Government tend to respond to public opinion. In recent years, this has become particularly true regarding issues involving.

Gay rights

Which of the following statements reflects the role public opinion should play according to the majoritarian model of democracy

Government should do what a majority of the public wants

Which of the following statements concerning ideological "moderates" is correct?

Many people identify as "moderate" because they do not understand the alternatives

as students move from elementary school, to high school, their political socialization tends to transition from knowledge of ___ to development of _____.

Patriotic ritual; good citizenship

Which of the following accurately characterizes presidential poll results?

Survey results can be prone to random error because interviews receive superficial responses

The farmers wanted to build public opinion into our government structures by creating

The House of Representatives

Pressure on an individual to conform to community values or views is strongest when

The community is homogeneous

One critique that pluralists make of the public as a whole is that

The public seldom demonstrates clear, consistent opinions on daily issues of government

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

Women are more likely to favor death penalty

As parental and school influences wane in adulthood, _________ emerge as more important socialization agents.

adult peer groups and the mass media

The fact that ideological conservatives believed even more strongly that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction before the 2003 war after they were informed that subsequent investigations concluded that this was not true is an example of the

backfire effect

A polling company surveying public opinion on Obama's health-care plan finds public opinion to be almost evenly divided, for and against. The graph of such a distribution would be characterized as

bimodal

In the current American context, a communitarian would tend to promote

both order and equality over freedom

Parental influence on party identification is greater when

both parents strongly identify with the same party

Recently, media outlets have started including ________ in their samples, particularly in response to the habits of younger Americans.

cell phones

Through the transmission model of a partisanship, party identification is passed on to

children

According to the self-interest principle, people tend to

choose what benefits them personally

A respondent who agrees with the statement, "By law, a woman should be able to obtain an abortion as a matter of personal choice" values

freedom over order

As a general trend, college-educated individuals are more likely to choose

freedom over social order

Individuals with higher education and income tend to favor ________ over

freedom; order or equality

A voter who is uninformed about the issues might rely on political party labels to make a decision. This type of mental shortcut which requires hardly any information is called

heuristics

A libertarian is most likely to exhibit the characteristics of

high income and high education

If a senatorial candidate talks about reducing taxes as a way to "return money to the people" that candidate is using _________ as a way to define the topic of taxes

issue framing

A sample size that is _____ will more accurately represent the population.

larger

African-Americans and Hispanics are most likely than whites to have ______ policy preferences on abortion

liberal

Today, Americans aged 17-24 are much more __________ than the general public

liberal

People who are not religious are more likely to be categorized as

libertarian

Lack of political knowledge among individual Americans makes the ____________ model of democracy more difficult to sustain.

majoritarian

Surveys conducted over the Internet have been criticized because they

may not be representative of the whole nation

When sampled, the public strongly favors the death penalty for certain crimes. The graph of such a distribution would be characterized as

skewed

Since surveying the American public about ideology began, the ideological distribution of the public has become

skewed toward conservatism

An individual's _________ status is based on a combination of education, occupational status, and income.

socioeconomic