Chapter 5
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
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
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 is 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
The Framers wanted to build public opinion into our government structure by creating
the House of Representatives
Pressure on an individual to conform to community values or views is strongest when
the community is homogeneous
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
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
Based on the text, what factor does NOT determine the accuracy of the sample?
the year the sample is taken
A symmetrical, bell-shaped distribution around a single mode is called a
normal distribution
What statement concerning gender and political beliefs is incorrect?
women are more likely to favor the death penalty
A libertarian is most likely to exhibit the characteristics of
high income and high education
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, what is NOT a characteristic of public opinion?
Citizens are typically unwilling to offer opinions on matters outside their experience, even when asked by pollsters
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
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
According to the self-interest principle, people tend to
choose what benefits them personally
In the current American context, a liberal would tend to promote
economic equality ahead of freedom, and freedom ahead of social order
Governments tend to respond to public opinion. In recent years, this has become particularly true regarding issues involving
gay rights
Learning political party identification from parents is known as the ___________ model of partisanship.
kinship
Lack of political knowledge among individual Americans makes the ___________ model of democracy more difficult to sustain.
majoritarian
When sampled, the public strongly favors the death penalty for certain crimes. The graph of such a distribution would be characterized as
skewed
