Pols Exam 3 Updated Actual Questions And Correct Answers

POLS EXAM 3 UPDATED ACTUAL QUESTIONS AND
CORRECT ANSWERS

Question:
1. what is public opinion?
Answer:
citizens' attitudes about political issues, leaders, institutions, and events

Question:
2. individual public opinion
Answer:
what ONE person thinks about issues, leaders, institutions and events

Question:
3. aggregate public opinion
Answer:
the ACCUMULATION of these individual expressions -- expressed in polls, votes, town meetings,
protests, etc

Question:
4. what matters in shaping public opinion?
Answer:
preferences, beliefs, and choices matter

Question:
5. Preferences are shaped by....
Answer:
economic SELF-INTEREST, SOCIAL, or MORAL VALUES (some preferences may be held more firmly
than others)

Question:
6. Beliefs reflect....
Answer:
how people understand the world and the consequences of actions

Question:
7. Choices presented to us.....
Answer:
do NOT always yield a clear measure of our preferences or beliefs

Question:
8. on most things, the public does not hold a single view americans do hold a common opinion on some
issues.. what is an example of such issue?
Answer:
legitimacy of the constitution

,Question:
9. individual opinions are products of what?
Answer:
one's personality, social characteristics, and interests

Question:
10. opinions are also shaped by ______
Answer:
Institutional, Political, and Governmental forces
-Make it more likely we'll hold some belief and less likely we'll hold others

Question:
11. what are economic interests
Answer:
government policies directly affect americans' financial well-being in a variety of ways

Question:
12. what are VALUES
Answer:
-our philosophies about morality and justice impact our opinions
-may even contradict our economic interests

Question:
13. what are IDENTITIES
Answer:
-race, religion, geographic origin, language, and partisan identification impact our opinions

Question:
14. how are preferences developed?
Answer:
they are developed through social lives = upbringing, schooling, religion, and experiences (with coworkers
and friends)

Question:
15. what is POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION
Answer:
the induction of individuals into the political culture ; the process of learning the underlying beliefs and
values on which the political system is based

Question:
16. what are agents of socialization?

, Answer:
the social institutions, including families and schools, that help shape individuals' basic political beliefs
and values
-family
-education
-social groups
-political groups

Question:
17. FAMILY
Answer:
-most people acquire their initial orientation to politics from their family
-parents don't necessarily teach their kids about politics but kids absorb the political conversations around
them and often the political orientation that comes with it

Question:
18. EDUCATION
Answer:
-some values (liberty, equality, and democracy for instance) are impressed on students continuously
throughout their education
-higher levels of educational attainment --> changes in political beliefs

Question:
19. SOCIAL GROUPS
Answer:
GROUPS
-some are voluntary (political parties, unions, and occupational groups)
-involuntary = race and gender
-groups = source of divergent preferences

Question:
20. what is gender gap?
Answer:
distinctive pattern of voting behavior reflecting the differences in views between women and men

Question:
21. how do women and men vote differently in american elections usually?
Answer:
women consistently vote more democratic men vote more republican

Question:
22. what are political conditions?
Answer:
-conditions under which individuals and groups come of political age also shape political orientation (an
orientation that characterizes the thinking of a group or a nation)
-views of individuals and groups change as political conditions change