Public Opinion Voices Measured Test Bank Answers Chapter 7 - Complete Test Bank | American Gov Stories of a Nation 2e by Scott F. Abernathy. DOCX document preview.
Chapter 7: Public Opinion: How Are Americans’ Voices Measured, and Do They Matter?
Test Bank
Multiple Choice
1. Information is a central part of representative government because ______.
a. candidate access to political information is essential
b. government control of information is critical
c. citizens must have some knowledge of what their elected representatives are up to
d. public information is of value to any governmental institution
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Understand how public opinion is fluid, often not unified, and shapeable
REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Introduction
Difficulty Level: Medium
2. Which of the following best defines public opinion?
a. the sum of individual attitudes about governmental policies and issues
b. a representative sampling of public attitudes and opinions
c. the feelings and attitudes of an individual respondent
d. the results of a brief political poll conducted by a single candidate
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Understand how public opinion is fluid, often not unified, and shapeable
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Introduction
Difficulty Level: Easy
3. Which of the following questions is central to measuring public opinion?
a. Are the measurements actually collecting individual beliefs and attitudes?
b. Are individual beliefs and attitudes somehow different than their aggregate?
c. Is the aggregate collection accounting for differences in individual beliefs and attitudes?
d. Does the aggregate sum of “public opinion” constitute a meaningful communication or just noise?
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Understand how public opinion is fluid, often not unified, and shapeable
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Introduction
Difficulty Level: Hard
4. This chapter focused on American public opinion in which of the following specific areas?
a. successful election of ethnic minorities in governmental situations
b. treatment of young African American men by law enforcement officials
c. educational pursuits of young men and women on college campuses
d. public reaction to large social movements such as Black Lives Matter
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Understand how public opinion is fluid, often not unified, and shapeable
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Introduction
Difficulty Level: Medium
5. On August 9, 2015, demonstrators in Ferguson, Missouri, rallied to the slogan ______.
a. “Hands up, don’t shoot”
b. “Black lives matter”
c. “All lives matter”
d. “Police brutality”
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.5: Evaluate the power of individuals, events, and people’s interpretations of events to make lasting change in American politics.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Ferguson and the Effects of Public Opinion on Democratic Representation
Difficulty Level: Medium
6. Immediately following the Michael Brown shooting, protesters were calling for ______.
a. the release of autopsy results
b. the arrest and prosecution of the officer who shot Brown
c. the release of Brown’s personal effects
d. the release of dash cam video of the encounter
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Understand how public opinion is fluid, often not unified, and shapeable
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Public Opinion May Be Moved by Important Events Like Ferguson
Difficulty Level: Medium
7. You are the manager for a campaign for the U.S. Senate. You are handed a poll with a sampling error (margin of error) of 10%. You deem this number unacceptable and demand it be lowered to get a better understanding of the electorate’s opinion. What does the pollster have to do to lower the sampling error (margin of error)?
a. increase the number of respondents
b. embrace random digit dialing
c. reword most of the questions
d. decrease the number of respondents
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and the construction of the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Scientific Polling Is Based on Efforts to Accurately Sample Representative Populations
Difficulty Level: Medium
8. Many observers could interpret the events of Ferguson, along with the August 5 shooting of John Crawford and the death of Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York, as evidence of ______.
a. escalating black-on-black violence
b. renewed white-on-black hatred
c. systemic police mistreatment of blacks
d. continuous black-on-white crimes
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Understand how public opinion is fluid, often not unified, and shapeable
REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Public Opinion May Be Moved by Important Events Like Ferguson
Difficulty Level: Hard
9. Straw polls and self-selected listener opinion polls share the same disadvantage, which means ______.
a. they can sway elections if released too early
b. their samples are not random
c. they only focus on political issues
d. their sampling errors are large
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and the construction of the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Public Opinion Survey Validity Varies by Type
Difficulty Level: Hard
10. What observation did Representative John Conyers (D-Mich) make about the treatment of African Americans by police?
a. “There is little or no evidence of focused attention by police on black citizens.”
b. “Police mistreatment of blacks and Hispanics has become a major problem in America.”
c. “Police should be given latitude to perform their duties without question or oversight.”
d. “There are virtually no African-American males who have not been stopped for driving while black.”
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Understand how public opinion is fluid, often not unified, and shapeable
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Public Opinion Reflects Different Fergusons
Difficulty Level: Medium
11. Immediately following the death of Michael Brown, the Pew Research Center organized a survey by ______.
a. conducting a random sample of 1,000 American adults using landlines and cell phones
b. posting a self-selected survey on a public Internet site titled DoBlackLivesMatter.org
c. going to Ferguson and personally interviewing more than 2,000 active protesters
d. recording the opinions of callers who responded on local talk radio programs
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Understand how public opinion is fluid, often not unified, and shapeable
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Public Opinion Reflects Different Fergusons
Difficulty Level: Medium
12. Which of the following best describes the results of the Pew Survey following the Michael Brown incident?
a. More than 90% of all respondents indicated concern for the treatment of blacks by the police.
b. Only 10% of all respondents showed any concern for the treatment of blacks by the police.
c. Eighty percent of black respondents indicated concern for “important issues about race,” while only 37% of white respondents agreed.
d. No significant information was obtained due to errors in survey construction and data collection.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Understand how public opinion is fluid, often not unified, and shapeable
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Public Opinion Reflects Different Fergusons
Difficulty Level: Medium
13. The Pew Survey that followed the Michael Brown incident demonstrated that Americans were ______ about whether Mr. Brown’s death reflected important issues about the state of race in America.
a. deeply divided
b. indifferent
c. highly unified
d. moderately concerned
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Understand how public opinion is fluid, often not unified, and shapeable
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Public Opinion Reflects Different Fergusons
Difficulty Level: Easy
14. One of the most interesting and important debates about American public opinion is ______.
a. the value of public opinion in governmental decisions
b. whether public opinion actually exists
c. the validity of public opinion in political races
d. how to accurately measure public opinion among young adults
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: “Public Opinion Is the Sum Total of Individual Beliefs and Attitudes
Difficulty Level: Easy
15. American public opinion is difficult to understand because individuals ______.
a. always have hidden preferences
b. may not actually have meaningful preferences
c. may have unexpressed preferences and attitudes
d. may not understand the public opinion process
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Public Opinion Is the Sum Total of Individual Beliefs and Attitudes
Difficulty Level: Easy
16. Which of the following best explains the assumptions of constituency?
a. Voters have attitudes, and those attitudes are expressed through political action.
b. The public has knowledge assets, and those assets are expressed through representative activation.
c. Candidates need political information, and the value of political information can be measured.
d. Constituents have preferences and attitudes that can be meaningfully expressed and measured.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Public Opinion Is the Sum Total of Individual Beliefs and Attitudes
Difficulty Level: Easy
17. What two camps do arguments about the meaning of public opinion fall into?
a. (1) The average citizen either doesn’t have or is unable to express meaningful opinion and (2) even though they may lack sufficient political information, citizens can find ways to work around their lack of information through friends, institutions, and partisanship.
b. (1) The average citizen possesses sufficient political information and (2) political information can be expressed and fluidly changed over time.
c. (1) Citizens seek to be educated about political information and (2) it is the responsibility of a democratic republic to educate and indoctrinate its citizens with political information.
d. (1) Citizens lack political knowledge and (2) the lack of political knowledge creates a barrier to effective government.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: There Are Two Competing Views about the Meaning of Public Opinion
Difficulty Level: Hard
18. Which of the following best describes the minimalist paradigm?
a. Individuals have sufficient political knowledge to vote and take political action.
b. People have insufficient capacity to acquire political knowledge and cannot make rational political decisions.
c. Most people fall short of what we expect them to know, think about, and pay attention to in the complicated world of politics and policy.
d. Most citizens do not need to acquire political information or civic education, and governments run with minimal interaction from their citizenry.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: The Minimalist Paradigm Holds That Most People’s Opinions Consist of Stereotypes and Nonattitudes
Difficulty Level: Hard
19. One of the earliest and most influential advocates of the minimalist paradigm was ______.
a. Christopher Achen
b. Walter Lippmann
c. Phillip E. Converse
d. Robert Shapiro
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: The Minimalist Paradigm Holds That Most People’s Opinions Consist of Stereotypes and Nonattitudes
Difficulty Level: Easy
20. A key concept in Walter Lippmann’s research was the ______.
a. stereotype
b. constituency
c. elites
d. consideration
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: The Minimalist Paradigm Holds That Most People’s Opinions Consist of Stereotypes and Nonattitudes
Difficulty Level: Medium
21. Lippmann described a public that is ______.
a. highly reflective and averse to efforts that might change their opinions
b. intensely interactive and fluidly reactive to change
c. moderately reflective and lacking sufficient levels of information to be of value
d. dangerously unreflective and vulnerable to attempts to shape our opinions
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: The Minimalist Paradigm Holds That Most People’s Opinions Consist of Stereotypes and Nonattitudes
Difficulty Level: Medium
22. Inherent in the minimalist critique is the idea that ______.
a. Americans lack any relevant amount of political information
b. not all Americans have the same amount of political information
c. all Americans have equal access to and knowledge of political information
d. political information contains no value and is irrelevant to the political process
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: The Minimalist Paradigm Holds That Most People’s Opinions Consist of Stereotypes and Nonattitudes
Difficulty Level: Medium
23. The small number of Americans who have well-informed and well-reasoned opinions is known as ______.
a. elites
b. masses
c. politicos
d. partisans
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: The Minimalist Paradigm Holds That Most People’s Opinions Consist of Stereotypes and Nonattitudes
Difficulty Level: Easy
24. The majority of individuals, who lack necessary levels of political information, are described as ______.
a. elites
b. masses
c. politicos
d. partisans
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: The Minimalist Paradigm Holds That Most People’s Opinions Consist of Stereotypes and Nonattitudes
Difficulty Level: Easy
25. In an early study using large sample surveys, a group of researchers made the observation that ______.
a. young citizens tend to be under involved in politics, while older citizens tend to be highly involved
b. most citizens are highly involved in political activities
c. American citizens are no more or less involved in politics than citizens of other countries
d. the average citizen is very much less involved in politics than is imagined
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: The Minimalist Paradigm Holds That Most People’s Opinions Consist of Stereotypes and Nonattitudes
Difficulty Level: Easy
26. A preconceived, often oversimplified idea about something, which people apply as a filter to the world, is best described as a(n) ______.
a. stereotype
b. attitude
c. opinion
d. observation
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: The Minimalist Paradigm Holds That Most People’s Opinions Consist of Stereotypes and Nonattitudes
Difficulty Level: Easy
27. Which of the following best describes a term referring to the lack of stable and coherent opinions on political issues and candidates?
a. stereotype
b. attitude
c. nonattitude
d. knowledge
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: The Minimalist Paradigm Holds That Most People’s Opinions Consist of Stereotypes and Nonattitudes
Difficulty Level: Easy
28. Philip E. Converse found that ______.
a. elites serve as models for mass behavior
b. masses do not learn from elites
c. elites filter political knowledge to masses
d. mass behavior lacks a level of education
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: The Minimalist Paradigm Holds That Most People’s Opinions Consist of Stereotypes and Nonattitudes
Difficulty Level: Easy
29. Systematic attempts to make inferences about the opinions of large numbers of individuals by carefully sampling and asking questions to a small, randomly assigned sample of the larger population are defined as ______.
a. public opinion surveys
b. straw polls
c. self-selected listener opinion polls
d. exit polls
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Understand how public opinion is fluid, often not unified, and shapeable
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Public Opinion Reflects Different Fergusons
Difficulty Level: Easy
30. You believe that Puerto Rico should become a U.S. state. You believed this twenty years ago, ten years ago, now, and believe you will in another decade. Your long-held opinion on Puerto Rico’s statehood exemplifies issue ______.
a. direction
b. intensity
c. stability
d. salience
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and the construction of the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Individual Opinions Vary According to Direction, Intensity, Stability, and Salience
Difficulty Level: Easy
31. Your great-grandfather was at Pearl Harbor in December of 1941. Before the Japanese attack, he did not support the United States being involved in World War II. After the attack, he almost instantly did. Thus, for your great grandfather, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was a ______.
a. civic education
b. straw poll
c. focusing event
d. gender gap
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion
REF: Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Personal Experience and Focusing Events Affect Individual Attitudes Over Time
Difficulty Level: Easy
32. In the U.S. context, a person who supports government-controlled health care and transportation systems would most likely be a ______.
a. liberal
b. conservative
c. socialist
d. libertarian
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Political ideology
Difficulty Level: Medium
33. In their 1996 book What Americans Know About Politics and Why It Matters, two researchers came to the finding that ______.
a. civic knowledge had a high degree of correlation to successful political efficacy
b. knowledge of American government had no impact on the behavior of political candidates
c. political knowledge was consistently high among all groups involved in the survey
d. a significant percentage of Americans were unable to answer basic questions about American government
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: The Minimalist Paradigm Holds That Most People’s Opinions Consist of Stereotypes and Nonattitudes
Difficulty Level: Hard
34. The authors of What Americans Know About Politics and Why It Matters found that with regard to political knowledge, it was ______.
a. highly equitable
b. unequally distributed
c. solely in the hands of the elite
d. significantly inaccurate and biased
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: The Minimalist Paradigm Holds That Most People’s Opinions Consist of Stereotypes and Nonattitudes
Difficulty Level: Medium
35. Researchers with the Pew Center periodically administer an instrument called ______, which is a test administered to random samples of Americans with questions covering political figures and current issues.
a. POLIQUEST
b. NEWSQUEST
c. NEWSIQ
d. PRONEWS
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: The Minimalist Paradigm Holds That Most People’s Opinions Consist of Stereotypes and Nonattitudes
Difficulty Level: Easy
36. A combination of cognition and affect that contributes to any one answer to any one question or evaluation is defined as ______.
a. assumption
b. consideration
c. stereotype
d. aggregation
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Another Perspective Says That People Can Overcome Information Gaps
Difficulty Level: Easy
37. Zaller’s theory of consideration says that our ______.
a. knowledge and emotions both come into play when forming an opinion
b. desire to become politically active is influenced by family and societal acquaintances
c. interest in the political process is an innate human response to societal engagement
d. opinions and attitudes are influenced more by institutions than by family and friends
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Another Perspective Says That People Can Overcome Information Gaps
Difficulty Level: Medium
38. An individual’s identification with a particular ______ is a powerful informational shortcut for voters in order to evaluate candidates and form opinions about them.
a. political attitude
b. social movement
c. political party
d. political campaign
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Another Perspective Says That People Can Overcome Information Gaps
Difficulty Level: Medium
39. Some political scientists have emphasized the possibility of the ______ in which individuals, imperfectly informed, can come up with meaningful assessments of problems and situations.
a. wisdom of crowds
b. social effect
c. group learning process
d. random sampling effect
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Another Perspective Says That People Can Overcome Information Gaps
Difficulty Level: Medium
40. Which of the following scenarios accurately exemplifies the concept of linked fate?
a. A Latino candidate campaigns in Spanish and in English for office.
b. A black man from Ohio travels to Ferguson, Missouri to take part in a protest.
c. A woman votes for the Republican candidate in a local election.
d. A young man emails his Congressman requesting support for pending legislation.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion
REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Racial and Ethnic Identity
Difficulty Level: Medium
41. Benjamin Page and Robert Shapiro contend that public opinion is a ______ phenomenon.
a. partisan
b. individual
c. aggregate
d. collective
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Another Perspective Says That People Can Overcome Information Gaps
Difficulty Level: Medium
42. The component of individual opinion that is the common focus of political experts is ______.
a. direction
b. intensity
c. stability
d. salience
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and the construction of the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Individual Opinions Vary According to Direction, Intensity, Stability, and Salience
Difficulty Level: Easy
43. The strength of individual involvement and preference is defined as ______.
a. direction
b. intensity
c. stability
d. salience
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and the construction of the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Individual Opinions Vary According to Direction, Intensity, Stability, and Salience
Difficulty Level: Easy
44. The degree of change over time in response to differently worded survey questions or in different contexts of a particular opinion is defined as ______.
a. direction
b. intensity
c. stability
d. salience
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and the construction of the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Individual Opinions Vary According to Direction, Intensity, Stability, and Salience
Difficulty Level: Easy
45. The centrality of an individual’s opinion in the sense of its ability to shape their views on other issues or candidate evaluations is defined as ______.
a. direction
b. intensity
c. stability
d. salience
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and the construction of the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Individual Opinions Vary According to Direction, Intensity, Stability, and Salience
Difficulty Level: Easy
46. The president’s role in focusing Americans’ attention on specific issues and events and in making sense of tragedies and challenges is referred to as being the ______.
a. chief executive
b. chief communicator
c. chief of state
d. chief diplomat
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Government and Media Influence Public Opinion
Difficulty Level: Easy
47. When does an individual’s own attitude about the government become public opinion?
a. when it is aggregated
b. when it is measured by Congressmen
c. when it is delivered to government
d. when it is published
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Understand how public opinion is fluid, often not unified, and shapeable
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Introduction
Difficulty Level: Medium
48. According to your textbook, the battle over Ferguson quickly became a battle over ______, with a need to tell stories from a particular point of view.
a. political information
b. racial supremacy
c. individual biases
d. public opinion
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Understand how public opinion is fluid, often not unified, and shapeable
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Public Opinion Reflects Different Fergusons
Difficulty Level: Easy
49. A small number of individuals, the ______, may have well-informed and well-reasoned opinions; however, the majority of individuals, the ______, do not.
a. elites; masses
b. educated; ignorant
c. wealthy; poor
d. leaders; followers
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: The Minimalist Paradigm Holds That Most People’s Opinions Consist of Stereotypes and Nonattitudes
Difficulty Level: Medium
50. In November 2014, a grand jury announced Officer Wilson would ______.
a. face disciplinary charges
b. be indicted for aggravated murder
c. not be indicted for the shooting
d. resign his position as a police officer
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Government and Media Influence Public Opinion
Difficulty Level: Medium
51. A poll conducted several months after Mr. Brown’s shooting found that large majorities of Americans expressed support for the use of ______ by law enforcement to record their interactions with people.
a. personal logs
b. body cameras
c. increased paperwork
d. dash cams
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Personal Experience and Focusing Events Affect Individual Attitudes Over Time
Difficulty Level: Medium
52. A sociologist at George Washington University pointed out that one incident on its own might NOT move American public opinion, but a(n) ______ of these incidents might certainly shift public opinion.
a. critical mass
b. small number
c. isolated few
d. rising number
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Personal Experience and Focusing Events Affect Individual Attitudes Over Time
Difficulty Level: Medium
53. A system through which citizens communicate with their elected officials through phone calls, emails, or personal visits would best be described as ______.
a. census taking
b. indirect communication
c. constituent polling
d. direct communication
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Citizens’ Opinions Are Transmitted to Public Officials through Direct and Indirect Channels
Difficulty Level: Medium
54. A political tool that gives elected officials broader knowledge of the overall preferences of the citizens as a whole is ______.
a. straw polling
b. scientific polling
c. elections
d. census taking
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Citizens’ Opinions Are Transmitted to Public Officials through Direct and Indirect Channels
Difficulty Level: Medium
55. Which of the following is a limiting factor of most elections?
a. low turnout rates
b. degree of reliability
c. scope of public opinion
d. reliability of preferences
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Citizens’ Opinions Are Transmitted to Public Officials through Direct and Indirect Channels
Difficulty Level: Easy
56. In terms of measuring the preferences of constituents, the deeper challenge with elections is that they tend to ______.
a. involve issues that are important to the candidates but have no relevance to the voters
b. revolve around a small set of issues for which voters have intense preferences
c. measure only a snapshot of public opinion at one particular point in time
d. fail to take into account the reasons people vote in the first place
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Citizens’ Opinions Are Transmitted to Public Officials through Direct and Indirect Channels
Difficulty Level: Medium
57. For the majority of questions of public policy with which elected officials will have to contend, elections are too ______ to reveal useful information.
a. narrow in scope
b. focused on candidates
c. broad a tool
d. focused on voter preferences
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Citizens’ Opinions Are Transmitted to Public Officials through Direct and Indirect Channels
Difficulty Level: Medium
58. One tool in which candidates assemble small groups of individuals for a directed conversation in which they hope to uncover patterns of thinking about issues and individuals is the ______.
a. focus group
b. political survey
c. self-selected opinion poll
d. random sampling
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Citizens’ Opinions Are Transmitted to Public Officials through Direct and Indirect Channels
Difficulty Level: Easy
59. A political candidate has constructed a survey instrument and intends to administer it to a randomly selected sampling of respondents who are divided by geographic region, political party membership, age, gender, and ethnicity. This would be an example of a ______.
a. scientific poll
b. self-selected opinion poll
c. straw poll
d. census instrument
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Scientific Polling Is Based on Efforts to Accurately Sample Representative Populations
Difficulty Level: Easy
60. The main problem with scientific polling is one of ______.
a. administration
b. construction
c. sampling
d. administration
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Scientific Polling Is Based on Efforts to Accurately Sample Representative Populations
Difficulty Level: Easy
61. A key challenge to sampling is one of ______.
a. self-selection
b. random selection
c. instrument construction
d. participant selection
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Scientific Polling Is Based on Efforts to Accurately Sample Representative Populations
Difficulty Level: Easy
62. Those individuals who participate on your survey are known as ______.
a. respondents
b. participants
c. subjects
d. members
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Scientific Polling Is Based on Efforts to Accurately Sample Representative Populations
Difficulty Level: Easy
63. A random sampling has been taken from a normally distributed American population of respondents with 60% white, 30% black, 10% Hispanic, 50% male, and 50% female. The sample contains the following characteristics: 90% white, 10% black, 0% Hispanic, 50% male, 50% female. This sampling is likely to contain which of the following sampling errors?
a. oversampling of black respondents
b. undersampling of male respondents
c. oversampling of white respondents
d. undersampling of Hispanic respondents
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Scientific Polling Is Based on Efforts to Accurately Sample Representative Populations
Difficulty Level: Hard
64. Pollsters are likely to use weighting ______.
a. when observed results need to be adjusted according to what is known about specific proportions from the larger population
b. when observed results are equivalent to what is known about specific proportions from the larger population
c. in all randomly selected sampling situations involving large populations of American citizens
d. rarely, as it carries with it a set of sampling errors and other biases
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Scientific Polling Is Based on Efforts to Accurately Sample Representative Populations
Difficulty Level: Medium
65. A barrel contains 1000 balls with 800 of them blue, 150 red, and 50 green. A sample of 100 balls is randomly selected from the barrel with the following results: 40 green, 10 red, and 60 blue. This would be a possible example of which of the following types of errors?
a. sampling error
b. self-selection bias
c. questioning bias
d. instrument construction error
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Scientific Polling Is Based on Efforts to Accurately Sample Representative Populations
Difficulty Level: Hard
66. The goal of scientific polling is to ______.
a. maximize uncertainty while maximizing cost
b. minimize uncertainty while maximizing cost
c. minimize uncertainty while minimizing cost
d. maximize uncertainty while minimizing cost
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Scientific Polling Is Based on Efforts to Accurately Sample Representative Populations
Difficulty Level: Easy
67. Which of the following is a problem inherent to straw polls?
a. They are subject to self-selection bias.
b. Their target population is not randomly selected.
c. Interview bias can impact their outcome.
d. Question selection is often difficult.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Public Opinion Survey Validity Varies by Type
Difficulty Level: Easy
68. Which of the following is a problem inherent in self-selected listener opinion polls?
a. question wording
b. instrument construction
c. self-selection bias
d. nonopinion bias
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Public Opinion Survey Validity Varies by Type
Difficulty Level: Easy
69. A political candidate wishes to get immediate feedback as to how voters are casting their ballots in an election. Which of the following types of surveys would he/she most likely select?
a. self-selected listener opinion polling
b. random-digit dialing
c. exit polling
d. straw polling
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Public Opinion Survey Validity Varies by Type
Difficulty Level: Medium
70. In 1980, television networks were releasing their presidential predictions after the polls had closed on the East Coast. Which of the following would be a major criticism of this decision?
a. Exit polls in other areas had yet to be tabulated and were not inclusive.
b. Exit polls were not predictively accurate enough to be of any use.
c. This action could influence voters in other time zones around the country.
d. Exit polling is seen as a disruption of the voting process and is illegal.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Public Opinion Survey Validity Varies by Type
Difficulty Level: Hard
71. In order to obtain a random yet representative sample with minimal cost, many pollsters use which of the following tools?
a. self-selected listener opinion polling
b. straw polls
c. exit polls
d. random-digit dialing
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Public Opinion Survey Validity Varies by Type
Difficulty Level: Medium
72. Random-digit dialing carries which of the following possible errors?
a. sampling error
b. interviewer error
c. wording error
d. tabulation error
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Public Opinion Survey Validity Varies by Type
Difficulty Level: Medium
73. In a survey of Americans, political scientist George Bishop asked respondents about their opinions on “the Public Act Affairs Act of 1975.” What problem did his study reveal?
a. Respondents tend to self-select.
b. Many respondents lack sufficient subject knowledge.
c. Survey wording can influence the results of a survey.
d. Question framing can impact the results of a survey.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: How Public Opinion Surveys Are Constructed Affects Their Validity
Difficulty Level: Hard
74. Question order is important in survey construction because ______.
a. the sequencing of questions can influence answers
b. the construction of question types influences survey outcome
c. some questions are easier to understand than others
d. more salient questions should be placed at the end of the survey
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: How Public Opinion Surveys Are Constructed Affects Their Validity
Difficulty Level: Hard
75. When the race or ethnicity of respondents and interviewers impacts the outcome of a survey, political scientists refer to this as ______.
a. the race of interviewer effect
b. racial discrimination
c. interviewer bias
d. respondent bias
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: How Public Opinion Surveys Are Constructed Affects Their Validity
Difficulty Level: Medium
76. An academic political researcher would be more apt to use which of the following poll types in order to obtain reliable information?
a. random-digit dialing in which calls are placed to landlines and cell phones
b. scientific surveys with randomly selected respondents and multiple random survey instruments
c. internet-based polling of large numbers of respondents with little respondent filtering
d. well-designed exit polls administered in a particular set of purposely selected precincts
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Polls Are Used for Commercial, Academic, and Political Purposes
Difficulty Level: Hard
77. Which of the following is considered a negative campaign tactic rather than a truly reflective poll?
a. straw polls
b. random digit dialing
c. self-selected listener opinion poll
d. push poll
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Polls Are Used for Commercial, Academic, and Political Purposes
Difficulty Level: Medium
78. The variety of experiences and factors that contributes to our understanding of, attitudes toward, and values in the political space is defined as ______.
a. political opinions
b. political information
c. political attitudes
d. political socialization
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Political Socialization Shapes Individual Attitudes
Difficulty Level: Medium
79. Party identification is highly transmitted through which of the following?
a. peer groups
b. families
c. employers
d. schools
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Families, Schools, and Peers Are Early Shapers of Information and Opinion
Difficulty Level: Medium
80. Which of the following plays the most important role in conveying civic education?
a. peer groups
b. families
c. employers
d. schools
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Families, Schools, and Peers Are Early Shapers of Information and Opinion
Difficulty Level: Medium
81. Which of the following is NOT a method by which representatives learn about their constituents’ opinions?
a. voting
b. interest group lobbying
c. individual scaling, writing letters, or emailing their representatives
d. focus groups
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Citizens’ Opinions Are Transmitted to Public Officials through Direct and Indirect Channels
Difficulty Level: Medium
82. A random sample is ______.
a. the entire target population
b. a selection of people representing a larger population with no systematic errors
c. a group of people that makes up fewer than 5% of the entire population
d. a group of approximately 1,500 people that is pre-selected
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Scientific Polling Is Based on Efforts to Accurately Sample Representative Populations
Difficulty Level: Medium
83. What action immediately catalyzed the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia?
a. the NFL policy on the national anthem
b. Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand for the national anthem
c. Donald Trump’s victory in the previous year’s president election
d. the removal of statues of Confederate generals
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.5: Evaluate the power of individuals, events, and people’s interpretations of events to make lasting change in American politics.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Ferguson and the Effects of Public Opinion on Democratic Representation
Difficulty Level: Medium
True/False
1. When it comes to political socialization, schools get there first and families second.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Families, Schools, and Peers Are Early Shapers of Information and Opinion
Difficulty Level: Medium
2. Individual political opinions are considered set in stone at an early age.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Personal Experience and Focusing Events Affect Individual Attitudes Over Time
Difficulty Level: Medium
3. The effects of national events and crises on opinions and attitudes work on a highly individual level.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Personal Experience and Focusing Events Affect Individual Attitudes Over Time
Difficulty Level: Medium
4. American public opinion is frozen in time due to the tools with which it is measured and the technologies through which it is expressed.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Personal Experience and Focusing Events Affect Individual Attitudes Over Time
Difficulty Level: Medium
5. “Children don’t enjoy healthy food” is an example of a stereotype.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful
REF: Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: The Minimalist Paradigm Holds That Most People’s Opinions Consist of Stereotypes and Nonattitudes
Difficulty Level: Medium
6. The incidents at Ferguson, Missouri are evidence that social media plays only a small role in transmitting and collecting political information, attitudes and ideologies today.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Government and Media Influence Public Opinion
Difficulty Level: Medium
7. One of the least effective predictors of public opinion is an individual’s identification with a political party.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Another Perspective Says That People Can Overcome Information Gaps
Difficulty Level: Medium
8. How we define ourselves in terms of race, gender, or ethnicity can form clear, consistent, and persistent patterns of similarity and division in American public opinion.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Racial and Ethnic Identity
Difficulty Level: Medium
9. Studies have demonstrated that the phenomenon of partisan polarization has NOT been observed in American politics.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Political Ideology
Difficulty Level: Medium
10. Party identification and political ideology are synonyms. They mean the exact same thing.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Political Ideology
Difficulty Level: Medium
Short Answer
1. A subgroup of individuals within a larger population that is intended to be representative of the larger group is called a ______.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Scientific Polling Is Based on Efforts to Accurately Sample Representative Populations
Difficulty Level: Easy
2. A polling company wishes to administer a scientific random poll of individuals across the country. In order to truly get a computer-generated random sample, what type of survey should it conduct?
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Public Opinion Survey Validity Varies by Type
Difficulty Level: Easy
3. The term “______” refers to the fact that American women are more likely to identify with and vote for the Democratic Party than are men, who are more likely to vote for Republican Party candidates.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Gender
Difficulty Level: Easy
4. Scholars of race and gender in American politics have found evidence to support the notion of ______, in which individuals accept “the belief that their own life chances are inextricably tied to the group as a whole.”
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Racial and Ethnic Identity
Difficulty Level: Easy
5. The primary source of political socialization is considered to be the ______.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Families, Schools, and Peers Are Early Shapers of Information and Opinion
Difficulty Level: Medium
6. If one concedes the concept of the gender gap as true, an American woman is more likely to vote in an election for the ______ candidate.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion
REF: Cognitive Domain: Knowledge
Answer Location: Gender
Difficulty Level: Medium
7. John Zeller’s basic concept in attitude construction, which holds that a combination of cognition and affect that contributes to any one answer to any one question or evaluation is known as ______.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.2: Discuss differing theories about public opinion formation and expression and the degree to which it is meaningful.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Another Perspective Says That People Can Overcome Information Gaps
Difficulty Level: Easy
Essay
1. Explain the role of accurate and reliable information in the political process.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Understand how public opinion is fluid, often not unified, and shapeable
REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Introduction
Difficulty Level: Hard
2. Ferguson, Missouri resident Michael Brown was killed in August 2014. Subsequent protests have spawned an national conversation about race in the United States. Describe some of key moments in that conversation, citing both events from your textbook and the personal experience in your own community.
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.5: Evaluate the power of individuals, events, and people’s interpretations of events to make lasting change in American politics.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Ferguson and the Effects of Public Opinion on Democratic Representation
Difficulty Level: Medium
3. What issues and problems might derive from the construction and administration of political surveys?
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.3: Describe the issues involved in transmitting and measuring American public opinion and constructing the instruments used to do so.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Citizens’ Opinions Are Transmitted to Public Officials through Direct and Indirect Channels
Difficulty Level: Medium
4. How are political values correlated to the individual lived experiences of individuals in interpreting political information?
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion.
REF: Cognitive Domain: Comprehension
Answer Location: Personal Experience and Focusing Events Affect Individual Attitudes Over Time | Partisan Identification, Individual and Group Identities, and Elite Attitudes Inform Our Views
Difficulty Level: Medium
5. Have the events of Ferguson and the story of Michael Brown impacted American political opinions today? How can we measure this impact in an accurate and cost-effective manner? How can political information presented in the text be used to prove or disprove your initial answer?
TOP: Learning Outcome: Describe the roles and relative importance of major entities and influences in American political life.
KEY: Learning Objective: 7.1: Understand how public opinion is fluid, often not unified, and shapeable. | 7.4: Examine the contributors to individual attitudes and public opinion
REF: Cognitive Domain: Analysis
Answer Location: Public Opinion Reflects Different Fergusons | Practicing Political Science: Looking for a “Break in Trend” in Data and Drawing Conclusions Over Time. | Political Ideology
Difficulty Level: Hard
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