AP Gov Chapter 11

A group that overwhelmingly votes Democratic

African Americans

Exit polls

Polls conducted at selected polling places on Election Day

Push Polls

Polls taken for the purpose of providing information on an opponent that would lead respondents to vote against that candidate

Agents of Political Socialization: Region

a;lkdsjfa

History of Public Opinion Research

.

Agents of Political Socialization: Religion

76% of all Americans consider religion an important part of their lives. many issues are influenced by religion and lead by religious people. i.e. civil rights movement, lead by Reverend Martin Luther King. Jerry Falwell lead the Moral Majority group and helped aid in Ronald Reagan's election.

Sampling Error or Margin of Error

A measure of the accuracy of a a public opinion poll

Random Sampling

A method of poll selection that gives each person in a group the same chance of being selected

Stratified Sampling

A variation of random sampling; census data are used to divide the country into four sampling regions. Sets of counties and standard metropolitan statistical areas are then randomly selected in proportion to the total national population.

Public opinion polling is used to measure American's beliefs about a number of issues, and polling can be relatively accurate under certain conditions. Identify and explain how two of the factors listed believe can impact the accuracy of a public opinion poll. Random sample-the way questions are worded-sampling error

Accurate polling requires random sample of adult population. any voter has an = chance of being interviewed. pollsters make lists of regions according to size of population. then its broken down ensuring that a fair sample of the pop is pooled. prevents one demographic from having too much of a say. The way questions are worded affects accuracy. loaded or emotional language can skew a poll's results by leading to the right answer. a poll that asks whether innocent boys should die in foreign wars will give negative responses. but if it says whether american soldiers should defend freedom throughout the world might get positive responses. negative impact. Sampling error is percentage of error that is possible. for a pop over 500,000 pollsters need to make 15,000 calls to obtain a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percent. close races are difficult to predict with accuracy

Personal Benefits

Americans are I centered. "people vote with their pocketbooks." When faced with policies that don't affect us or involve moral issues, we have difficulty forming an opinion.

Agents of Political Socialization: School and Peers

Children are taught respect for the USA when learning the Pledge of Allegiance, support for the flag, most children are patriotic despite negative views that adults have about the country. (i.e. during US action in Iraq, many people questioned the us, but children sent letters and packages.

Tracking polls

Continuous surveys that enable a campaign to chart its daily rise or fall in support.

Agents of Political Socialization: Race and Ethnicity

Differences in Political Socialization appear early between blacks and whites. young blacks show positive feelings about society but it lessens over time. they fail to hold the president in esteem accorded by white children. Differences continue through adulthood. Many differences were revealed after Hurricane Katrina. Both races agreed that the gov'ts response was slow because most of the affected were poor or black.

Agents of Political Socialization

Family, school, peers and mass media are the most important. other factors are religion, race and ethnicity, gender, age, the region where you live and political events.

Specific political attitudes develop from a number of sources. Identify three of these sources, and explain how they affect political ideology.

Family-young people know and share their parents political beliefs. Dinner table is a political classroom where families discuss and share values. Issues on civil liberties and race, young people tend to be more liberal than their parents. Religion- Catholics and Jews tend to support democrats. Jews emphasize social justice, and conservative Christians emphasize personal salvation and responsibility. cornerstone for Republican party. Gender- Gender gap, men and women see political issues differently. Men are more likely to support defense spending, and women social programs. More women vote democrat. Edu-Longer in college, more liberal they become.

Agents of Political Socialization: Family

Influence of the family of political socialization in two factors: communication and receptivity. children at an early age learn their parents political values. decline of liberal ideological self-identifcation

Public Opinion Polls

Interview or surveys with samples of citizens that are used to estimate the feelings and beliefs of the entire population

how people get their political info

Late night comedy shows

Leaders-high approval

Politicians with a high approval rating tend to have more power

Figure 11.2 Religious Ideologies

Protestants: 49% Conservative 32% Moderate 19% Liberal Catholics: 36% Conservative 35% Moderate 29% Liberal Jews: 30% Conservative 18% Moderate 52% Liberal

Determining factor for Americans voting

See how it pertains to themselves

Fastest growing age group

Seniors

Political Socialization

The Process through which an individual acquires his particular political orientations-his knowledge, feeling, and evaluations regarding his political world. Some political scientists believe that our attitudes about issues are grounded in our political values.

Agents of Political Socialization: Mass Media

The average adult spends nearly 30 hours a week in front of the tv. talk shows, radio, newsletters, magazines and blogs are important sources of info, yet they are not always reliable. Tv can enlighten voters and encourage voter turnout. Sound bites are misleading. Many people use the internet to research candidates.

Political Ideology

The coherent set of values and beliefs about the purpose and scope of government held by groups and individuals

Political Knowledge and participation rate in politics

The more knowledge you have the more you'll participate (direct relationship)

Straw Polls

Unscientific surveys used to gauge public opinion on a variety of issues and policies

Public Opinion

What the public thinks about a particular issue or set of issues at any point in time. based on the sum total of a selection of individuals' views on issues, candidates, and various public policies.

Agents of Political Socialization: Gender

Women have different opinions from men on a variety of issues. Thought to be reaised more nurturing and caring and men are more aggressive. this leads to different political orientations. Women, particularly unmarried women usually vote Democrat, while white men are the core of the Republican party. Women have more liberal attitudes about social welfare concerns, education, juvenile justice, capital punishment, and the environment. They have negative views on war, and the gender gap in military affairs was small during 9/11.

Agents of Political Socialization: Age

asdf

Effects of Public Opinion and pooling on government and politics

laksdjf