PLAP 3270
Why does Tocqueville fear the "tyranny of the majority?"
"Only in hindsight could Americans appreciate the real force of Tocqueville's insight: public opinion was indeed the true danger, and prejudices might actually be the strongest where expression was free. A self-governing people could internalize rigid attitudes and inhibitions, and in effect police its own behavior."
2 different kinds of 'errors' in survey-based measures of policy preferences:
1. ambiguities of question wording, the difficulty in matching a specific sentiment to the available response options, and mistakes in reading or hearing the survey question will all introduce some degree of MEASUREMENT ERROR; 2. Most respondents do not have perfectly fixed and certain views on most issues
What is a "focusing event?" How does Bishop define "self-interest?"
A big event that focuses national attention on it - -deepwater horizon; self interest defined as what is best for that individual -- in many economies where drilling was important, huge jump in support for drilling.
What does Gamson note about the setting of the research? Can a truly "natural" setting really be achieved?
A lot of people think focus groups in and of themselves are unnatural. Gamson believes that the the "naturalness" should be set aside because, while the researcher contrived the meeting, it is not uncommon for these people to be asked their political standpoints.
What does Cramer consider the "positivist" approach to social science? How does her approach differ?
A positivist approach tests data to demonstrate causality and discover scientific laws that explain human behavior and society. The positivist model set-up assumes that values on one explanatory variable move independently of the other variables- this wouldn't work for Cramer's study. Her goal is to distinguish how people themselves combine attitudes and identities. Not an X causes Y type of thing.
Describe "argumentative" and "double-negative" questions. How can these questions be reworded?
Argumentative: pushing respondents in a particular direction (Do you favor giving foreign aid to other nations when there are children in the United States who are suffering from hunger?) Example: (As you may know, in 1974, Jerry Springer, who had gotten married six months earlier, was arrested on a morals charge with three women in a hotel room. He also used a bad check to pay for the women's services, and subsequently resigned as mayor of his city. Does this make you much more likely, somewhat more likely, somewhat less likely, or much less likely to support Jerry Springer for governor this year?) -- Also seen in hypothetical solutions (Ohio budget question) Double-negative: using two negatives that make the question ambiguous and hard to answer. Introduces ambiguity ("Does it seem possible or does it seem impossible to you that the Nazi extermination of the Jews never happened?")
How do Plato and Aristotle differ in their conceptions of public opinion?
Aristotle thought that public opinion matches the views of the elite with their devotion to voting, juries, and political participation (aggregation of views within the community); Additionally, he felt that the individual shortcomings were quelled when the general public came together Plato was skeptical of the role that public opinion played.
What question does Bartels investigate using regression analysis in Table 3? What factors does he include as control variables, and how does the relationship between questions asked on the survey change with different model specifications (different controls included)?
Bartel shows that the people who feel that they pay too much in taxes favored a cut... They are likely to be net losers (bear the burden of the tax cut)
What does Cramer assume about the nature of public opinion among ordinary people? Is her study "bottom-up" or "top-down," and what do these terms mean? What assumptions does Cramer make about how public opinion operates?
Bottom up in-depth interviews (1: political experts and commentators; 2: differences within population can be through attitudes to war and racial groups; 3: judge the ordinary citizen when an ordinary citizen is capable of making good judgments according to their knowledge; 4, peoples beliefs are justified; 5: Identities people use to make sense of politics are constantly evolving and changing to the context; 6: public opinion is no what the polls measure)
What are branching and labeling effects? What is the scholarly debate that surrounds formatting questions in these ways?
Branching refers to the follow-up questions asked after an initial query is presented to respondents. For example, political scientists typically measure political party identification by a series of questions. The first simply ascertains whether a person IS a Democrat, a Republican, or an independent. If respondents say "Democrat" or "Republican," they are then asked whether they are strong or not-very strong Democrats or Republicans. If respondents say they are independents, they are then asked whether they lean toward the Democrats or the Republicans. Labeled: that is, each response option is specified in words. Unlabeled options are said to be used when, for example, respondents are asked to place themselves on a scale that ranges from one to seven, where only the endpoints are labeled with words; this type of scale is often used to measure citizens' policy attitudes and positions.
How does cellphone use affect coverage bias?
Cell phone use and popularity has contributed to the growing coverage error seen in surveys. Cell phones are not allowed to be on automatic dialing services under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act
Does "reflection" influence subjects' responses? Or do they always give the same response off the "top of the head"?
Chong believes that surveys are subject to many different difficulties, Firstly, they have the issue of interpreting from survey respondents. Secondly, survey respondents believe that they need to respond as if they have a portable, accessible attitude. This can not only lead to not fully develop thoughts and attitudes, but also inconsistency in the results of subsequent surveys (perhaps why public opinion changes rapidly). Education influences how often people change positions (college graduates change at 24% of the time as oppose to those without a college degree 38%). Reflection and thinking about the issue led to inconsistencies and demonstrated the differences in framing issues (i.e., free press v. protection of others -- Nazi and Klan example or murder prisoners and bail)
Did Chong use a set script for his interviews? How might the method of conducting the interview affect the transcripts/data?
Chong did not use a list of responses; rather, he allowed the respondents to freely speak and formulate answers. The data may not have data that is strictly comparable because of the freedom of responding. Additionally, the data may not be accurately used to frame items.
How many subjects does Chong interview? How does he select his subjects? Does he claim his sample to be "representative?"
Chong interviewed 30 subjects during the pretest stage of a national survey of public opinion on civil liberties interests. Does not claim that it is representative, but the sample did produce a diverse group of respondents.
How does Chong present/analyze his results? Quantitative analysis (tables, figures, etc.), qualitative analysis (textual analysis, direct quotes), both?
Chong looks through his data to identify regularities and patterns in the how the respondents interpreted the questions and formulated answers.
What are the three main insights from Herbst?
Citizens will have more control over the shape of public opinion and how it is measured: People are able to express their opinions from anywhere at anytime through the internet (a democratizing shift) Media organizations will need a fundamentally different business model: News organizations provide a marketplace for the exchanging of ideas that a democracy needs to flourish Political Participation is in danger of disappearing: Turnout, despite the increase in news sources, has not increased. Mass media puts us into an informed yet inactive state (Merton and Lazarsfeld).
What was the Greeks' "sense" of public opinion?
Community; they came together through theater rhetoric oratory and festivals (came together for entertainment); built on interpersonal relationships due to the small size of the community
What does Lane say the reason the common man believes what he does is?
Conducted interviews with 15 men in order to develop ideas about the origins and maintenance of ideologies Attempted to suggest BUT NOT PROVE the American Common Man's ideology Discursive interviews⇒ rambled responses, dialectical and conversational, contextual analysis Finding: Common premises lead to common ideological patterns, common life experiences give emphasis to common social themes (more or less latent themes) Questions drew on topics such as: policy orientation, political parties and leaders, group memberships, political roles, political ideology, social values, political information and awareness, political history, personal history, self image, social relations, and personal values
What is content analysis used to do? What questions does it answer?
Content analysis is used to measure changes over time How is the media changing public opinion? What is forming public opinion?
Coffeehouses, salons, and taverns symbolized the "public sphere" in the Enlightenment Era. What was the importance of this "public sphere?"
Conversational public opinion: encouraged debate among men of all spheres in an equal environment. All opinions, despite being disagreed with, were valued; also, the spread of information and increasing urbanization contributed to the use of these coffeehouses and salons in becoming settings of public opinion formulation and discussion.
Issue Publics:
Converse concept meaning the obvious but often overlooked fact that different people care about different political issues⇒ not every citizen must have a preference on every issue
What are social identities and what is their political role? How do social identities interact with the politics of resentment?
Definition of social identities is simply this: Identities with social groups; They serve as reference points by which people compare themselves to others
What evidence does Cramer give that politics in the U.S. has become increasingly polarized? Does she describe the state of Wisconsin as fitting the overall trends of political polarization?
Divides are deeper as a people (age, race, religion); Question is the proper role of government in society; Anecdote about filling up the car with Tom; Also, the legislature is Wisconsin can be seen; Also, with Scott Walker
What is the elite model of opinion leadership, and how does Federico describe cue-taking?
Elite opinion leadership -- beliefs held by citizens at the mass level are typically not constructed by the citizens themselves -- they take cues from the political eltite.
The Theory Problem
Emotions are functional; but do they need to be conscious? Many say yes, the conscious experience of this emotion causes the person to act in an adaptive way, such as running in the opposite direction. However, this is not the only possible explanation of emotional reactions. James argued that the perception of environmental events triggers bodily responses, which then trigger conscious emotions. With the question of whether the conscious experience of emotion is necessary for adaptive responses to environmental threats James's theory suggests that it may not be, and thus turns the entire issue of the function of emotions on its head.
For Federico, how does evaluative motivation play into the usage of ideology?
Evaluative motivation -- a look at how people's needs or goals shape their use of politicla information pertinent to ideology .
Hochschild
Explains the lack of a call to change from capitalism to socialism; Wants to examine the perhaps divergent views toward socialism of the rich and poor Social: America lacked a feudal aristocracy against which to react; virtually all Americans came from, or quickly became members of, the property-holding middle class; our two-party political system solidified before a working-class party could develop; the frontier served as an outlet for the discontented and landless; the Socialist Party and leftist radicals were unable to work together in their historic moment of opportunity in the late nineteenth century; and slavery caused an irreconcilable split within the proletariat. Economical: U.S. chose capitalism knowing it wasn't the fair in distributive means Political: Some argue that political and legal equality through representative democracy is "the principal ideological lynchpin of Western capitalism" because its "very existence deprives the working class of the idea of socialism as a different type of state." The distinction between economic hierarchy and political equality "is then constantly presented ... to the masses as the ultimate incarnation of liberty." There is, finally, classic pluralism; American politics substitutes group antagonisms and payoffs for class-based ones. Psychological:. Workers generally accept, even if they have some doubts about, the American ethos of rugged individualism and the American dream of upward mobility. They fear equality; they have little or no class consciousness; they believe the world is just and people get what they deserve; Focusing on redistribution by comparing rich and poor respondents in a way that can explore their beliefs about distribution⇒ through intensive, qualitative interviews with a small set of people Research method that permits textured, idiosyncratic responses Interviewer must understanding respondent's POV Obedience to a more detached and abstract understanding⇒ balance between openness and discipline Sample: 28 adults chosen at random in New Haven, CT Use census data to identify lowest and highest income people among predominantly white neighborhoods 16 poor participants, 12 wealthy Each interview consisted of 3 sessions of about 2 hours each; all taped and transcribed verbatim Topics of convo included distribution of money and authority within the family, school, and workplace; views on fair income, the class structure, electoral system, and gov. Policies; meaning of justice, equality, and democracy Detailed probes, forced choice questions, and opportunity for rambling anecdotes⇒ allow interviewer to EVALUATE THE STRENGTH of individual beliefs Limitations: cannot safely generalize from a sample of this kind to a national population
Feigned Attitudes vs. Feigned Non-Attitudes
Feigned attitudes (respondents do in fact have relevant opinions but are embarrassed to state them) vs. feigned non-attitudes (when respondents lack opinions/info and are reluctant to say "don't know" to avoid embarrassment)==> minor distortions of survey measurements of public preferences, not substantial enough to have an impact
What three major concepts, for Federico, represent the term "ideology?" What is a "schema?"
First, ideologies are belief systems or frameworks of inter-related ideas -- they consist of opinions, values, and beliefs about the nature of social reality that can be grouped. Second, ideologies are shared by and reflect the life situations of groups of individuals. Third, ideologies provide a description of how society is now and what it should be in the future
Four themes explicated below are the example of the way the categories of pro-life and pro-choice assessed by surveys may not fully represent the complexity of the issue (argument against survey)
First- found that respondents who endorsed the same opinion category on the survey used very different rationales to explain their positions Second- found the response categories participants choose may bear little resemblance to their opinions as they describe them at length Third- survey questions as respondents to make judgements about issues in the abstract, which may differ dramatically from their views about a particular case Fourth- given free response options, some women endorsed more than one response category
Press and Cole findings
Found that pro-life and pro-choice activists were alike in that they both structured the narrative of their life stories to represent reproductive events as critical points > Ginsburg concluded that at root the abortion debate is actually about women's struggle to understand what their gendered social role will become as their are increasingly expected to be both homemakers and breadwinners
What are "critical discourse moments?" How do they act as a "compromise" in studying the processes of public opinion? In the appendix, where did the researchers select these moments/issues from?
From Chilton: "critical discourse moments" -- they make discourse on an issue very visible and are down as a compromise to examine the different mediums used in looking at content. Nuclear speeches. Using this, even only an extended period of time, only provides snapshots at the moments when the discourse is considered critical.
In the appendix, how does Gamson address the advantages of focus groups over survey methodologies? How does the "peer group" approach differ from the traditional conception of a focus group? Are peer groups, for Gamson, "superior"?
Gamson references Morgan: "The hallmark of focus groups is the explicit use of the group interaction to produce data and insights that would be less accessible without the interaction found in a group." Several Advantages are: The participants are forced to have a discourse set by only one frame; other frames may be introduced by the conversation will be dominated by only one particular frame at a time Emphasizes Schultz "intersubjectivity"; Participants bring their own unique vocabulary Participants become consciously aware of their perspective Peer Groups: Higher Sociable Discourse because of intimacy Are smaller, consisting of four to six people. Two groups had only three members and four groups had more than six, but the average size was five, Are held on the participants' turf rather than in a bureaucratic setting Involve familiar acquaintances rather than stranger Play down the facilitator's role in keeping the conversation going.
Why is Gamson interested in "working class" individuals? How does he define this term and what are some of the characteristics of the individuals he does end up including in the study?
Gans (1988): Middle Americans as a combination of working-class and lower-middle-class families; population is mainly white (more cultural than socioeconomic) Gamson (1992) wants his target population to be somewhat less middle and more colorful than Gan's; Made efforts to include diverse participants; Working class -- they are people who do not own the means of production; two reasons why study: (1) historic usage is misleading and the real middle class are those that are engaged in the secondary labor market; (2) it is a term that the middle class would not sue to define themselves ("working men," not "working class")
Are genes important in determining ideology? If so, is their influence direct or indirect?
Genes do play a role..... Direct
How did Hacker and Pierson's conclusions about the tax cut differ from Bartels' interpretation? How does Bartels contest the Hacker and Pierson findings?
Hacker and Pierson's conclusions differ from Bartel's in that they are exactly the opposite -- they find the majority is against the tax cut. They compared tax cuts to a reallocation of federal surplus (education or healthcare); Bartel contests their finding by saying their was no clear opinion that was consistent to amount to public opinion.
According to Dr. Jonathan Haidt, how does morality play into ideology? Which characteristics are more valued by conservatives?
Haidt looks at the individual v. the binding of the community; conservatives like the binding where the liberals like the individual
Which magazines does Gilens analyze? Which categories/key words does he choose? Can you think of any categories that he may have omitted?
He omits any stories that are written about blacks in poverty top ensure that he gets just stories regarding the poor in general
What data does Bartels rely on to make his argument?
He relies on his data that shows a majority of Americans think growing inequality is a problem, but that they still supported the disproportionately large tax cut for the wealthy.
How does Cramer describe the goal of her research effort?
Her goal is not to predict voters' candidate choices or policy preferences; instead, my goal is to better understand how people think about politics
What constitutes a "high quality survey"? What is the difference about reliability/validity, and why should we care about these concepts?
High quality survey is one that tries to minimize all sources of error within the inevitable time and budgetary restraints of the project; wants to produce valid (refers to the accuracy of the results) and reliable (refers to the consistency or stability in the results if the survey were to be repeated in an identical circumstance) results.
Who does "Homer" represent? What is the fundamental divide between policy and public opinion that Bartels addresses?
Homer represents the Middle Class that supported the Bush tax cut despite rising income equality; Policy and public opinion is not linked in the minds of many Americans
How does Cramer describe the "insider/outsider" dynamic in the process of interviewing? Where does she place herself?
How does Cramer describe the "insider/outsider" dynamic in the process of interviewing? Where does she place herself?
What are Hochschild's four claims of strengths of interviews?
How does Cramer describe the "insider/outsider" dynamic in the process of interviewing? Where does she place herself?
What is the difference between ignorance and misperception? Why does this difference matter?
Ignorance: as lacking a correct belief on an issue Misconception: incorrect answers that respondents are confident are correct
Last week, we discussed "frames" in the context of survey designs. How does Gamson try to avoid "framing" the interviews in ways that would bias his results?
In this form of study, the facilitator wanted a conversation instead of a group led exercise. Had an open question followed by a series of more specific follow up questions. The open ended nature would encourage debate.
What is the difference between an index and a scale? Why use one over the other?
Index:An index focuses mainly on how many items a respondent agrees to or gets right;For example, in our hypothetical knowledge index, a score of seven means that the respondent got seven questions correct. It does not matter which seven; any seven correct replies will result in a score of seven. The use of an index is justified on both substantive and methodological grounds Substantively, the index does a better job of representing the complexity of the concept being studied than any single item could. Methodologically, the use of a multiple-item index can lessen the harmful effects of the random measurement error that is present in survey data: Whenever a researcher measures opinions, the very process of measurement may produce results that are not perfectly accurate. If the measurement error is random, the results obtained are just as likely to be above as below the true value. Thus, combining a number of items in an index will tend to cancel out some of the random measurement error, particularly if all of the items that make up the index are measuring the same underlying phenomenon. Unfortunately, consumers of public opinion polls are. often not provided sufficient information about the components of an mdex, including the actual wording of the questions. Moreover, consumers are not informed about the ways in which separate items relate to each other and how they are combined into an index; they often must accept on faith that the index has been constructed properly "simple additive index": in which the index score is a simple count of respondents' replies. Scale:a scale would also be concerned with the pattern of the items that a respondent agrees to or gets right; In dealing with scales, one would also be concerned with the pattern of responses. For example, did people who got a score of seven tend to get the same seven knowledge questions correct? Was there a pattern to the responses such that certain items were easier and others more difficult?
How did Merton's focus groups with U.S. soldiers inform experimental approaches?
Interviews conducted in the 1940's; goal was to quickly and practically provide facts about attitudes which would be practically useful in policy making; focused on mass communication... focus groups really helpful in coming up with what the best parts of the film. They were worried about the possibility of overgeneralizing the comments to force causation.
How does Cramer's "interpretivist" approach differ from the "positivist" approach that is often identified with survey and experimental research?
Just trying to observe rather than make a correlation- illuminate understandings rather than establish causality
Review the key findings of Phillip Converse. According to Converse, can citizens truly form cohesive ideologies? How does political knowledge play into the formation of ideology?
Low level of political conceptualization (ideologies), nonattitudes (both non interested and non informed)
How does Machiavelli view public opinion? What does a successful prince need to do to control it?
Machiavelli viewed public opinion as undemocratic: people are not capable of self-rule (but that they were based in the community in interpersonal networks); he told princes to use fear to control it, given the fragility of love.
Gary Langer
Mass media is both data hungry and math phobic, leading to straw polls, not scientifically driven polls
What are some sources of measurement error? What best practices can reduce this error?
Measurement error can be affected by a lot of things, see above, as well as the mode of survey administration (phone, mail, in person); the interviewer can express different attitudes based on the race of the individual. The respondent can introduce error when the question relies on the understanding and comprehension of the respondent. Extensive pretesting of the research method can help alleviate these problems Cognitive pretesting: when draft survey questions are administered for the purpose f collecting information about how you interpret and process the questions can be used to identify and questions that are difficult to interpret or that can be interpreted in ways different from the researcher intends.
Why is methodological disclosure important? Is there such as thing as a "perfect" survey design?
Methodological disclosure is important because it will promote greater transparency in the way results were achieved; second hand research data will be able to be judged objectively. Additionally, the greater transparency will allow for viewers of the poll to see if the data has been manipulated. There is no thing as a perfect survey design.
How can the exclusion /inclusion of responses affect the results. How has the "standard" question asking about the public's opinion of the president been affected by the response choices given?
More choices give people more options. Provides a better indication of the public opinion. Additionally, the alternatives can influence the support for other options (ex. Taxes vs. reducing spending). Gallup (4 options) vs. CBS News (2 options) revealed different support for each of the two presidential candidates.
How did respondents' answers change from 2010 to 2012 (both with regard to confidence and with regard to the willingness to respond)?
More people declined to answer more questions in 2012 than in 2010, worked to make informants both less knowledgeable and less misinformed.
Fiorina believes...
Morris Fiorina believes people are not polarized. 1) reps in red states are not much different in their political thinking from dems in blue states, 2) dems & reps are more divided than they used to be, 3) abortion attitudes have remained consistent, 4) americans less hostile towards homosexuality. Fiorina→ political world is closely rather than deeply divided.
What are multi-dimensional ideological approaches? Describe the most common two-dimensional model.
Multi-dimensional can be classified in terms of two different content dimensions. The first dimension reflects one's preference for equality vs. inequality in social life while the second dimension reflects one's preference for openness versus social order. These views can change.
Does Gamson argue his sample is representative? How does the context of events going on at the time affect the conclusions he can draw?
No he does not. In the appendix, he admits not to having a perfect probability sample, but he insists that they tried to have one. They failed because they wanted to guarantee some diversity and broke with the probability sample. That is highlighted here: However, he points out that the study only had 2% that hardly followed the news at all. He lost the apolitical end of the spectrum. Used monetary incentives to attract those not interested or involved in politics at all. He argues that the contextual issues would continue to exist regardless of whether or not the sample was perfectly random. Some of the contextual issues were: (1) Chernobyl nuclear reactor; (2) Differences in the residents histories with integration: (3) Regan challenging affirmative action
Does Cramer have a goal of having a "representative" sample of Wisconsinites?
No, just a variety of representations
Does Cramer argue that rural groups are unique in their use of the politics of resentment? That is, do they tend to use the politics of resentment more than urban residents? What are the three main components of rural consciousness that Cramer observes?
No, urban uses the politics of resentment as well due to their connections with their own social groups 1) Power/ A belief that rural areas are ignored by decision makers, including policy makers; 2) a perception that rural areas do not get their fair share of resources; 3) a sense that rural folds have fundamentally distinct values and lifestyles
What is the difference between unit and item non-response?
Nonresponse error refers to errors introduced by the practical reality that surveys never collect data from all sampled cases (people hard to reach); Data gathered through low response surveys increase the chance that the survey is not accurate, but does not guarantee it. Can be divided into two categories: unit nonresponse and item nonresponse. Unit non response is where an individual fails to take part in a survey. Item non response is when the individual skips a question and does not fill out a complete survey.
How do focus groups usually proceed? Do they strictly follow a script, necessarily?
Normally a moderator runs it and will ask open-ended questions allowing for people to adopt their own frame and receive a diverse response. Also, there will be follow up questions that are more specific and geared to learning about a certain aspect.
How does question wording affect survey results? Is it only polling firms with "an ax to grind" that bias their results because of question wording, or do reputable firms have to take into account question-wording effects as well?
Obviously, all firms take into account the wording of questions in order to protect the integrity of the poll (if unbiased i.e., not fake news)
How could focus groups prevent some of the possible biases we discussed in section that could affect survey results?
Open ended questions.
Key's definition of public opinion
Opinions of private individuals that the government finds it prudent to heed
Who do the authors credit with originating the focus group method? What do Merton, Fiske, and Kendall advise about conducting focus groups?
Originated by Robert Merton and his research on wartime propaganda; expanded by Paul Lazersfeld (studied communication). Merton, Fiske, and Kendall stressed the need for a shared experience to hold the group together (i.e., broadcast) - used to study subjective experiences.
What is the timeframe of Gilens' study? How large is his sample, overall? Does he use every story from the magazines/networks, or a subset of the stories printed/aired?
Over 5 years. He uses every story from the respective magazines
Why do Delli Carpini and Williams hold that people "construct rather than retrieve their views" on the issues? What aspect of their use of focus groups led them to this conclusion?
People Construct their views because of the complex schema in opinions. The Focus group technique allows people to think out loud. Also, focus groups are often used because of their ability to model the social dynamic processes used in forming opinions.
How does Bartels reach the conclusion that his data reveal "little popular enthusiasm for economic inequality?"
People hold the disillusioned opinion that people can become rich despite the many disadvantages that they face
Wright, "Fear Comes First"
People like Glenn Beck who say these things aren't morally culpable for the way these people act to things he says, however he is responsible for things he says that are false and connected to mislead gullible people ➢ Easy to buy into the demonization of people you never communicate with, and whose views you never see depicted by anyone other than their adversaries
What is political socialization? How is ideology typically transferred? What are reference groups, and how do they affect the ideology of individuals?
Political socialization is the process by which individuals learn about the political world and acquire their opinions and views from other. Ideology is normally transferred through relationships. Reference groups are groups that people use as a standard for evaluating themselves and their behavior. We tend to adopt these groups' views.
What was the most important development of public opinion in the Renaissance? How did this affect the diffusion of public opinion?
Printing press: Print tied the public together the formation of attitudes came out of this sharing of print and ideas.Geography no longer presented an obstacle in the sharing of ideas.
Compare probability (random) to non-probability (convenience) samples. Why do probability samples provide superior capacity for statistical inference?
Probability sampling is the ability to generalize from the sample to the population (use random sampling) Non-probability sampling is when the pollsters select respondents from a target population in some nonrandom manner, so that some members of the population gave no chance of being selected. Also known as Convenience Sampling. Quota sampling is a variant because it identifies a group and sets a minimum or maximum on the number of that group that can be sampled. Probability sampling allows us to calculate sampling errors so we can estimate how much our sampling may differ from the target population. In non-probability sampling, the degree to which the sample differs from the population is unknown. Example is the Reader Digest fiasco of 1936 with FDR
John Zaller is responsible for what?
RAS model. Receive, Accept, Sample. Accept is where a person's party identification plays most critical role
Anthony Downs term that refers to the logic of being politically uninformed
Rational Ignorance
What's the difference between a "check-all" and "forced-choice" format? Why are these used?
Respondents checked more in the forced choice format and took longer to do so than the check all format They are used in different realms (check all in survey in paper and forced-choice over the phone because of the burdensome task of reading a list to check off rather than individual questions)
What topics does Cramer typically focus on when interviewing her subjects? Why?
Rural urban divide, economy, taxes, representation
What are the two key theoretical factors Cramer uncovers by listening to rural Wisconsinites? Why do these factors matter?
Rural-versus-Urban divide and the politics of resentment
What is sampling error? Why does Hillygus note that it might be the "least important" source of error?
Sampling error: represents the uncertainty or imprecision in estimates based off random chance that occurs simply because we observe data from a random sample of individuals in the population rather than every individual in the population. It is what it is- unlike other errors, it can't be minimized.
How are different psychological beliefs associated with different ideologies? What is the argument of the authors of The Authoritarian Personality?
Says that psychological beliefs (the need for security and certainty) dictate which political party we are apart of; conservatives tend to need more security and certainty. The Authoritarian Personality argues that an authoritarian personality usually drifts to the super conservative model.
Describe the process of stratified purposeful sampling and how Cramer uses it. How many communities are studied?
She looked up partisan leaning, income, population, racial and ethnicity. Divided wisco into 8 regions then chose them purposefully. 27
How does Cramer call into question the accuracy of the "populist" label for some contemporary candidates?
She says that the term has evolved over time; It used to mean of the people but now it is a political strategy to step out and take jabs at government
"Bradely effect"
Some studies (Berinksy and Reeves) have found evidence of a "Bradely effect" (tendency for polls to over-report actual voting for black candidates) but in more recent studies this effect has diminished considerably (Hopkins)
How can "loaded words" and compound questions manipulate survey respondents?
Sometimes compound questions are more disguised, so that the duality of the item is not evident until one interprets the responses. Classic examples are such questions as, Do you still beat your spouse? and Have you stopped using illegal drugs? Either a yes or a no answer to these questions leaves the impression that at some point respondents beat their spouses and used illegal drugs. Loaded words are words that are synonyms for a normal word that carry a heavier negative connotation. Ex. union "czar" or "boss" instead of "leader"
Why does Bartels argue that public thinking on the Bush tax cuts has been "remarkably superficial?" What aspects of the data support his conclusion?
Superficial because if the result were examined further, people would see how many people did not support or endorse the tax bill( don't know). The NES 2002 survey
How does Chong characterize responses to open-ended or "essay" questions versus more structured interview questions?
Survey questions can be interpreted in different ways by different people despite the same wording. In-depth interviews ask more vague questions; the heuristic used to shortcut to an answer is not readily available. Rather, they have to examine the possible cues and the mental route they will take to approach the question. Survey questions are structured and therefore bring out different responses (costs of liberties or consideration of") changes based on words.
How does Chong critique survey methods (particularly with regard to frames)? Do in-depth interviews address these difficulties?
Survey questions can be interpreted in different ways by different people despite the same wording. In-depth interviews ask more vague questions; the heuristic used to shortcut to an answer is not readily available. Rather, they have to examine the possible cues and the mental route they will take to approach the question. Survey questions are structured and therefore bring out different responses (costs of liberties or consideration of") changes based on words.
Describe the distinction between symbolic (philosophical) and operational ideology. How can someone be a "philosophical conservative" and an "operational liberal?"
Symbolic ideology refers to whether own person identifies oneself as liberal or conservative. Operation liberal would be someone whose positions are on average left.
How did the development of television and the "turning inward" of America affect American communities and the measurement of public opinion?
Television shaped political opinion in homes; sample surveys were created that allowed Americans to answer from a sill position in the comfort of their homes; the public meetings were no longer involved with the definition of the public
What is a public discourse, where is it carried out, and how, according to Gamson, should it be studied?
The essence of public discourse is the sense of speaking to a gallery. This can be seen in surveys as well as interviews or focus groups. In this method, the group of people and the tape recording designed to be published qualifies it as public discourse.
How do focus groups compare to Kramer's approach in The Politics of Resentment? Why might both focus groups and interview studies have a problem with generalizing their results?
There is no true causation when dealing with interviews. The questions did not cause the response.
What is the target population, and how does the sample frame relate to it?
They are the group to whom the survey is intended to generalize. After finding the target population, the sample frame (lists or procedures that identify all the elements of the target population) is used to have a means to conduct the survey. It is a way that helps identify how the target population was found
How are misperceptions coded?
They combined certainty assessments with incorrect answers to quiz questions to build a measure of misperceptions for each of various attributes of the law in each of the two surveys.
How do Delli Carpini and Williams describe public opinion? Is it a fixed quantity?
They find public opinion to not be fixed, as opinions are continuously constructed through cognitive processes involving complex schema.
Why were Merton and Lazarsfield skeptical about the capacity for causal inference of focus groups? Do they ultimately reject the approach?
They were worried about the possibility of overgeneralizing the comments to force causation.
Why are focus groups often stratified (divided) by demographics or specific attitudes?
To make people feel more comfortable and willing to speak up
How does Pasek et al.'s quiz measuring misperceptions differ from previous knowledge quizzes used?
To measure misperceptions, we need to distinguish incorrect answers to quiz questions that are held with confidence from incorrect answers people aren't sure about. To do so, we conducted two surveys in which factual quiz questions were followed by questions asking how certain the respondent was of each answer. Quizzes before did not ask the follow up question.
Cramer notes her original purpose was not to study the rural-urban divide. What was her original focus?
To study socioeconomic class identity
What are the two units of analysis in content analysis?
Two kinds of unit analysis Recording units: counting the number of times a specific word appears Context units: examining the sentence or paragraph the specific word appears in and characterizing the tone/context
What method does Gamson use in his study? Where is the study conducted? How does this method contrast from other methods we have read about/discussed?
Used "Group conversation," also know as FOCUS GROUPS; talked about how the groups were homogenous based on the race of the contact person (17 all white, 17 all black, 3 interracial). Twist on the Generic focus group :The greatest advantage is that it allows us to observe the process of people constructing and negotiating shared meaning, using their natural vocabulary. The study was conducted in the home of the participant as opposed to a bureaucratic and obtuse college campus.
Why does Gilens exclude categories that reference "blacks" or "African-Americans?" How, does he argue, will this affect his results?
Wants stories on just poor, not stories on the black and poor
What does Cramer mean by the term "rural consciousness?"
Way of growing up and living that is a culture A belief that rural areas are ignored by decision makers, including policy makers; a perception that rural areas do not get their fair share of resources; a sense that rural folds have fundamentally distinct values and lifestyles
What is the "Big Five" model? Which characteristics are highly correlated with ideology?
Way to judge how people are aligned with ideologies. Extroversion, emotional stability, agreeableness, conscientiousness and open to experience (openness to experience and conscientious are the two most aligned with political ideology)
Cramer argues that economic inequality has played an important role in our politics. How, according to Cramer, has inequality affected access to politicians and political responsiveness?
Wealthiest people are the most listened to; "the preferences of the lowest third by income are hardly reflected at all by senators (pg. 3 & 4)
What is "sociable public discourse?"
When people integrate the social skills acquired from other interactions into the task. The sociable aspect is cued through the use of refreshments primarily.
What political calculations does an individual that participates in the "politics of resentment" make? How does one's conception of identity factor in here?
When people perceive they are not getting their fair share and that others are but do not deserve to, the emotion of resentment is a likely result; Politics of resentment arises from the way social identities, the emotion of resentment, and economic insecurity impact. People understand their circumstances as the fault of guilty and less deserving social groups, not as the product of broad social, economic, and political forces.
How did the 1896 election illustrate changes in public opinion in 19th century America?
William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan Increasing intensity and partisanship plagued the election. Massive spending and mud slinging and hyberbolic rhetoric
Press and Cole worked in what two research traditions?
Work in grounded in two traditions: 1) the important and growing literature about the relation between mass media and politics in contemporary society 2) cultural studies school of media research where researchers used qualitative and ethnographic methods, transformed conventional notions of what media "reception" studies are really about
How are the pictures in the articles coded? Does Gilens argue that his coders demonstrate "reliability?"
Yes he does! In fact, he shows that they were in agreement 97% of the time
Do researchers typically use quantitative or qualitative methods to analyze focus group results? Both? How are these methods used?
Yes they both can be used. For example, the Press and Cole experiments designed their focus groups as qualitative pre-post experiments. And Zukin used focus groups quantitatively to help develop questions for a survey.
According to Bishop, should we be skeptical of respondents' opinions about the environment? What are "doorstep opinions?"
Yes, Bishop says that they aren't really deeply held; rather, they are views that people are expected to have when a survey hits their doorstep.
How can the order of questions affect survey results?
Yes, Schuman and Presser (1981) demonstrated that the effects of question Wording and Context of Questions 83 order are important-particularly when the questions are general, somewhat amorphous, and have little direct relevance to respondents-and they recommend that anyone examining the distribution of responses to identical questions asked at different times take into account whether the contexts.in which the questions were asked also were identical.
Does existing research point to a multi-dimensional model? Which model would be the most convenient for politicians?
Yes, it has been argued that the two party system and its inherent dichotomy have created this multidimensional model. May be considerable overlap
Can question wording affect objective or subjective survey items? Both?
Yes, unclear wording can lead to inaccurate or wrong answers to objective questions as illustrated in the husband wife and kid example
Deliberate democracy view:
argue that a more enlightened public can be cultivated by providing citizens with the opp to learn about issues and to interact in an egalitarian forum w others who bring alternative info and perspectives
Morris Fiorina
argued that party identification was not an intense psychological attachment but rather a running tally of recent political outcomes.
Implicit Association Test devised by Anthony G. Greenwald, Mahzarin Banaji, and Brian Nosek
based on a seemingly obvious- but nonetheless quite profound- observation that we make connections much more quickly between pairs of ideas that are already related in our minds than we do between pairs of ideas that are unfamiliar to us The disturbing thing about the test is that it shows our conscious attitudes may be utterly incompatible with our stated conscious values "You don't choose to make positive associations with the dominant group but you are required to. All around you, that group is being paired with good things. You open the newspaper and you turn on the television and you can't escape it."- Mahzarin Banaji, one of the creators of the test
Why people like to use surveys
because they're better at controlling for bias; standardized and neutral questioning; empirical conclusions
Page and Shapiro
do not view aggregate opinion as a cure for all the biases of PO but argue that collective preferences display a greater degree of stability and cogency than individual level responses 2 objections to view of "miracle aggregation": 1. Errors not always randomly distributed⇒ MISINFORMATION 2. Misunderstanding of the question
Herbert Gans 1979
identified "availability" and "suitability" as the most significant determinants of news content. Discounting the "availability" explanation: 1. News bureaus in large cities lend and urban slant to national news, but census data shows that this is wrong 2. Poor blacks are more geographically concentrated that poor whites, but this can't explain it all they would have to be in the very poorest neighborhoods, not to mention they would be ignoring the vast majority of poor people 3. No answer for media portrayals of racial distortions and pattern of racial misrepresentation Talking about "suitability": Enter into both the selection of news stories and the content of those stories... journalists cannot exercise news judgments concerning story accuracy and objectivity without drawing upon their own set of "reality judgments." Possible that photo editors hold unconscious stereotypes or editors (consciously or unconsciously) indulge what they perceive to be the public's stereotypes→ however, this remains speculative
What is the finding in Chong's work?
in regards to civil liberties and rights, people have difficulty reconciling their desire to conform to general democratic values with their fears about consequences of granting freedom to individuals or groups that violate societal norms⇒ produces TENSION
Adaptive conscious
might produce feelings independent of people's conscious constructions of feelings
Measurement error
occurs when recorded responses to a survey fail to reflect the true characteristics of the respondents, and it can influence both the accuracy and reliability of our results; can occur in the questionnaire (the question wording, order, or length the data collection method, the interview and the respondent.
Philip Converse
painted a bleak picture of the American public lacking coherent political preferences; relied on SURVEY DATA FINDINGS: respondents apt to express different preferences when presented with the same question on different occasions; preferences on one policy issue weakly connected with prefs on seemingly related issues; broad organizing principles like liberalism or conservatism were poorly understood by most Americans Respondents report on surveys consist largely of "non-attitudes"
Deliberative investigation:
polls⇒ measure of pre and post-deliberation preferences (4 days of focused study and deliberation)
FRAMING
provides background info (here is the democratic opinion of abortion, here is the republican opinion, so what is your opinion?) People need information because they form their opinions from others
Gold Standard of Polling
random, representative sample; non-probability/convenience sample is a real issue for surveying
Cue taking:
taking cues from more knowledgeable "like-minded" elites or acquaintances is a sensible strategy for citizens who lack the ability or inclination to gather the info needed to form a preference on a given policy issue
Deepwater Horizon and Aggregate Opinion
the Deepwater Horizon accident increased the salience of offshore oil drilling among the mass public, while temporarily nudging public opinion in a more pro-environment and anti-drilling direction.
Coverage error
the error that arises when the sampling approach that does not include all of the target population (some people do not have a chance at selection)
Krosnick:
the greater the importance a respondent attached to a given policy issue, the more likely they were to mention that issue as a reason for liking or disliking the presidential candidates, more stable issue preference was over time
Sampling error
the random sample of those in the target population may differ from others in the target population that were not interviewed; represents the uncertainty of imprecision in estimates based on random chance that occurs simply because we observe data from a sample of individuals in the population rather than every individual in the population; (Often reported as margin of error)
reaction formation
unconscious desires are disguised as their opposite (ex: people who are extremely homophobic may be repressing homosexual urges)
Minimalist democracy view:
view citizens as fundamentally limited in their interest and ability to form sensible preferences on questions of public policy However, believe citizens can play a role in democracy by assessing whether their own wellbeing has improved or declined while the incumbent has been in office
Non-response error
when individuals in the survey fail to respond to questions.
Reeves found that
white bring their racial attitudes to bear on evaluations of black candidates only when race-relevant issues were raised in the campaign
