U4: Political Beliefs and Behaviors

Flashcard deck · A.P. U.S. Government · Political Beliefs and Behaviors · Social Studies

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Covers political socialization agents, polling methods like push polls and exit polls, the gender gap, generational effects, and the ideological spectrum from Conservatism to Libertarianism.

Terms in this deck

age and political beliefs: Older citizens tend to be more conservative and vote at higher rates; younger citizens tend to be more liberal and participate less.
agenda setting: The media's power to influence which issues the public and policymakers consider most important by giving them coverage.
agents of socialization: Groups and institutions — family, school, peers, media, religion — that shape a person's political attitudes and values.
approval rating: A poll measuring the percentage of people who approve of how a political figure, especially the president, is handling their job.
benchmark poll: Initial poll on a candidate and issues on which campaign strategy is based and against which later polls are compared.
Conservatism: In favor of preserving the status quo, traditional values and customs, and against abrupt change.
crosscutting cleavages: Divisions in society — such as race, class, gender, religion — that cut across each other rather than reinforcing a single political divide.
education and political beliefs: Higher levels of formal education tend to correlate with more liberal social views and higher rates of political participation.
entrance survey: A poll conducted of people coming to an event.
exit poll: A survey taken at polling places of how people voted.
family as agent of socialization: The family unit is the earliest and most influential source of political values, party identification, and ideology for most people.
focus group: A small group of individuals who are led in discussion by a professional consultant in order to gather opinions on and responses to candidates and issues.
framing effect: The way in which an issue is presented or described influences how people think about and respond to it.
gender gap: The consistent difference in political opinions and voting behavior between men and women.
Generational Effect (Cohort Effect): A long-lasting effect of the events of a particular time on the political opinions of those who came of political age at that time.
horse-race journalism: Media coverage that focuses on who is winning or losing a campaign rather than on policy issues.
ideological spectrum: A scale ranging from left (liberal) to right (conservative) used to classify political beliefs and parties.
income and political beliefs: A person's income level often influences their political ideology, with wealth correlating with preferences for lower taxes and less redistribution.
intensity of opinion: The strength with which a person holds a political opinion, which affects whether they act on it.
latent opinion: Political views that are not currently expressed but can be activated by events or political campaigns.
Liberalism: A belief that government can and should achieve justice and equality of opportunity.
Libertarianism: An ideology that cherishes individual liberty and insists on minimal government, promoting a free market economy, a noninterventionist foreign policy, and an absence of regulation in moral, economic, and social life.
life cycle effect: The impact of a person's age and stage in life on his or her political views.
mandate: The claim by an elected official that their election victory gives them the authority to carry out a specific policy agenda.
mass survey: A way to measure public opinion by interviewing a large sample of the population.
media as agent of socialization: Television, internet, and news outlets that expose citizens to political information and shape political opinions.
party identification: A citizen's self-proclaimed preference for one party or the other.
party ideology: A basic set of ideas and goals about society and the role of government that its members and supporters generally share.
peer group influence: Friends, coworkers, and social groups that shape and reinforce a person's political opinions and behaviors.
political culture: Commonly shared attitudes, beliefs, and core values about how government should operate.
political efficacy: A citizen's belief that their participation in politics can make a difference and that government responds to ordinary people.
political ideology: A more or less consistent set of beliefs about what policies government ought to pursue.
political socialization: The process by which people gain their political attitudes and opinions.
priming: The process by which media coverage affects which issues citizens consider most important when evaluating political figures.
public opinion: The distribution of individual preferences or evaluations of a given issue, candidate, or political institution held by the population.
push poll: A poll that uses biased or misleading questions to influence respondents' opinions rather than genuinely measure them.
question order: Earlier questions can change the way respondents understand and answer later questions.
question wording: The way in which survey questions are phrased, which influences how respondents answer them.
race and ethnicity (political influence): A person's racial or ethnic background often correlates with distinct political views, party identification, and policy preferences.
random selection: A way of ensuring that a sample of people is representative of a population by giving everyone in the population an equal chance of being selected for the sample.
Random-Digit Calling: A technique used by pollsters to place telephone calls randomly to both listed and unlisted numbers when conducting a survey.
region (political influence): Geographic region — such as South, Northeast, or Midwest — correlates with distinct political cultures, ideologies, and party preferences.
religion and political beliefs: A person's religious affiliation and practice often correlates with their political ideology and party identification.
representative sample: A sample that accurately reflects the characteristics of the population as a whole.
Rule of Law: Principle that the law applies to everyone, even those who govern.
salience: The degree to which a political issue is personally relevant and important to a given individual or group.
sample: A subset of the population.
sampling error: The margin of error indicating the level of confidence in the findings of a public opinion poll.
scientific poll: A method of measuring public opinion that involves defining a population, making a sample, constructing unbiased questions, conducting the poll, and analyzing and reporting data.
straw poll: An unscientific poll based on a non-random sample, used to get a rough sense of opinion with no statistical validity.
tracking polls: Continuous surveys that enable a campaign or news organization to chart a candidate's daily rise or fall in support.
weighting: Adjustments to surveys during analysis so that selected demographic groups reflect their values in the population, usually as measured by the census.

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