AP US Government and Politics Chapter 6

Because it is often impossible to interview every member of a large group, surveys typically involve _____ of the _____.

• random digit dialing; population
• populations; sample
• random samples; sampling error
• samples; population

Theories of political socialization posit that people’s political opinions originate in:

• their genetic makeup.
• what they learned from their parents and their surrounding culture.
• their religious upbringing.
• primary school.

All of the following are common problems with surveys, except:

• respondents may provide socially acceptable answers rather than reveal their true opinion.
• respondents may provide answers they believe the interviewer wants to hear.
• question wording can bias survey results.
• none of the above

Decreasing the number of survey respondents lowers the margin of error.

• True
• False

There is a high correlation between a person’s party identification and the liberal–conservative ideology of his or her parents.

• True
• False

Margin of error (or sampling error) is a calculation that describes what percentage of people surveyed may not accurately represent the populations being studied.

• True
• False

Increasing the number of respondents _____ the _____.

• decreases; margin of error
• increases; issue scale
• increases; population
• decreases; sample

Ideological polarization describes the effect on public opinion when:

• many citizens move away from extreme positions toward the middle of the political spectrum, identifying themselves instead as moderates.
• many citizens move away from moderate positions toward either end of the political spectrum, identifying themselves as either liberals or conservatives.
• many citizens move away from Democratic Party identification toward Republican Party identification.
• many citizens move away from Democratic Party identification toward no party identification, instead identifying themselves as independents.

The best way to match an individual’s ideology at age 40 is to assume that:

• she will be more conservative than at age 20.
• she will be more liberal than at age 20.
• she will be the opposite of what she was at age 20.
• she will be the same as what she was at age 20.

Which of the following is the term for media influence on the public’s general impression caused by positive or negative coverage of a candidate or issue?

• filtering
• priming
• bias
• slant