1. Citizenship, Socialization, and Measuring Public Opinion

2. U.S. Citizenship By Birth Naturalization
Jus Soli
Jus Sanguinis
Naturalization
5 year resident in the U.S. (if married – 3 years)
Read, write, and speak English
Good moral character
Have an understanding of Am. Gov’t and History
USCIS - Naturalization Self Test
Process: file a declaration with the Attorney General and submit a petition; investigation and tests; oath

3. Political Socialization
How Political Socialization and other Factors Influence Ideology Formation
Political Socialization
The process through which an individual acquires particular political orientations
The learning process by which people acquire their political beliefs and values
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4. Agents of Socialization
Family
Mass Media
School
Peers
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5. Social Groups
Group effects – certain characteristics that allow persons to be lumped into categories – also affect the development of political beliefs and opinions.
Religion
Age
Race and Ethnicity
Gender
Region
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6. The Ideological Self-Identification of First-Year College Students
Support for RR in led to a decline of
But in general college students are In their first year . . .
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7. The Impact of Events
Key political events play a very important role in a person’s socialization.
Nixon’s resignation in 1974
Impression on young people
Government not always right or honest
Clinton Scandals
Impact on Millennials
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8. Why We Form Political Opinions
Personal Benefits
Political Knowledge
Cues from Leaders or Opinion Makers
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9. American’s Political Knowledge
Percentage Unable to Identify
Number of senators 52
Representative in the House 53
Who has the power to declare war? 60
Chief justice of the United States 69
Source of the phrase “government of the people, by the people, for the people” 78
Sources: “A Nation That is in the Dark” San Diego Union-Tribune (November 3, 2002): E3; John Wilkens, “America Faces a Crisis of Apathy,” San Diego Union-Tribune (November 3, 2002): E3
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10. Personal Benefits Most Americans more “I” centered
Attitudes on moral issues are often based on underlying values.
If faced with policies that do not
Affect us personally
Are not moral in nature
…Then we have difficulty forming an opinion.
Foreign policy is such an example.
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11. Political Knowledge
Political knowledge and political participation have a reciprocal relationship.
High literacy rate
Level of knowledge about history and politics low
Hurts American’s understanding of current political events
Geographically illiterate
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12. Cues from Leaders
Low levels of knowledge can lead to rapid opinion shifts on issues.
Political leaders may move these shifts.
President is in an important position to mold public opinion
But who is truly leading, public or the president?
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13. Family Traced to communication and receptivity
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14. Mass Media
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15. School Taught patriotism and respect Citizenship
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16. Peers
As family wanes in influence, peers influence increases, especially in middle-school and high-school
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17. The Ideological Self-Identification of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews
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18. Comparing Four Age Cohorts on Issues, 2003
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19. Group-identified Voting Patterns in the 2004 Presidential Election
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20. Measuring Public Opinion

21. Did you know . . .
During the presidential election in 1948, public opinion polls heavily favored Thomas E. Dewey over Harry S Truman. The news editors at the Chicago Tribune had been so confident of a Dewey victory that they had printed a “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline and distributed their early edition before the election results were fully tabulated

22. Traditional Methods (in the past)
Political parties
Interest groups
The mass media
Newspapers, magazine cover stories, editorials, letters to the editor, talk shows, and television newscasts
Letter writing campaigns to public officials by mail, fax, and .

23. Traditional methods
Straw polls organized by media provide responses to specific questions.
Unscientific
Biased sample/sampling error

24. Scientific Polling
Scientific polling involves three basic steps: 1) select a sample of the group to be questioned; 2) presenting carefully worded questions to the individuals in the sample; 3) interpreting the results.
In a scientific poll the term universe refers to the group of people that are to be studied, such as all Texans or all women in the United States.
A representative sample is a small group of people typical of the universe.
Most pollsters use representative samples to measure public opinion.
Using a random sample gives everyone in the universe an equal chance of being selected.

25. Scientific Polling
A sampling error defines how much the results may differ from the sample universe
A cluster sample is a group of people from the same geographical area.
Pollsters may weight their results for race, age, gender, or education.
The way a question is phrased can greatly influence people’s responses.

26. Which Presidents has higher approval ratings at the end of their terms than at the beginning?

27. Exit Ticket: Interpreting the skill
Pg. 523 in your textbook
Read: Learning the Skill
Answer the questions under “Practicing the Skill”
What is the poll about?
What was the size of the polling sample and what was the margin or error?
State the results of the poll in sentence form
Compose a non-biases question to poll American on their approval or disapproval of Congress’s work.