POLS 3180 First Exam Review

POLS 3180
Public Opinion and Political Behavior
First Exam Review

Democratic Theory

Expectations and reality about the role of the citizen

Elements of Public Opinion

Political Culture
- Easton's model of the political system
- Importance of examining political culture in a democratic society
  - System support: diffuse v. specific
  - Political Tolerance
    - Theory of democratic elitism
    - Pluralistic intolerance
Attitudes
- components of attitudes
  - Affective
  - Cognitive
  - Conative

Linkage Models of Public Opinion and Public Policy

Rational-Activist
Political Parties
Interest Groups
Delegate
Sharing

Measuring Public Opinion

Determinants of accuracy
- sample size
- representativeness
- Validity
  - Question wording
  - Question order

Information processing

cognitive limitations of individuals
Online v. Memory-based models
Zaller's RAS model
cognitive dissonance
strategies for reducing dissonance

Sources of Public Opinion

Political Socialization
- Development of political orientations
  - Stages of pre-adult political socialization
  - Agents of childhood socialization (note the specific role of each)
    - Family
    - Peers
    - School
- Demographic characteristics
  - Societal cleavages
    - Cross-cutting cleavages
    - reinforcing cleavages
  - in what ways, and why, do they covary with political attitudes
    - gender
    - race
    - age
    - religion
    - class and education
Media and Elites
- Functions and role of the media in attitude formation
- Media influence
  - two-step information flow
    - gatekeeping function
    - agenda setting
  - framing effects
  - bias and negativity
  - limits on media influence
- Campaign effects (or lack thereof)
- Comparison of commercial and political advertising
- Democratic responsiveness v. Elite manipulation

Terms you should know:

accessibility axiom
activation
agent of socialization
attitude
affective
cognitive
cognitive dissonance
compartmentalization
conative
concessions
conversion
cross-cutting cleavage
delegate model
democratic responsiveness
denials
diffuse support
elite manipulation

essentialist
excuses
justifications
Likert scale
margin of error
minimal effects thesis
multistage cluster sample
memory based model
online model
order effects
predisposition
political efficacy
political parties model
political tolerance
political trust
population

probability sample
rational-activist model
rationalization
reception axiom
reinforcement
reinforcing cleavage
religiosity
resistance axiom
response acquiescence
response axiom
sample
selective exposure
selective perception
sharing model
social constructionist
specific support

The exam will feature one of the following essay questions. Your best bet is to be prepared to answer each of them. It is not wise to try and anticipate which one I will select because the decision will be a random choice.

Discuss the gender gap in American politics. How, and to what extent, do men and women differ in terms of the political attitudes and behavior? What explanations have been offered to explain these differences, or the lack thereof?

Discuss the process of socialization. Who are the key players in the development of political attitudes among pre-adults, and what specific roles do they play in conjunction with, and independently from, each other?

Describe the process of opinion formation with the context of the "two-step flow of information." What role do political elites play in the formation of public opinion, and how is their influence affected by individual level differences?