1. Ch. 6 Vocabulary Review Public Opinion

2. Political Socialization
The process of acquiring information and beliefs about politics. Occurs through a variety of agents of socialization: the family, schools, peers and community, religious institutions, the media, and exposure to national and world events. .
Political Socialization

3. Men tend to be more traditional and vote for Republicans, while women are more liberal and vote for Democrats.
Gender Gap

4. Choosing a relatively small group of people to participate in a survey
Choosing a relatively small group of people to participate in a survey. For survey data to be valid, care must be taken to ensure that the group is representative of the population.
Sample

5. Favors an active central government with social and economic responsibilities, a more equal distribution of wealth, more government regulation of big business, more government spending on social programs, and abortion. Opposes increases in defense spending and military actions, prayer in school, and tax breaks for the wealthy.
Liberalism

6. The collective political beliefs and attitudes of the public and groups within the public.
Public Opinion

7. Level of confidence in the findings of a public opinion poll
Level of confidence in the findings of a public opinion poll. The more people interviewed, the more confident one can be in the survey. Emerges because no matter how good the work, it is never an exact match for the population.
Sampling Error

8. A system of interrelated and coherently organized political beliefs and attitudes. It helps give meaning to political events.
Political Ideology

9. Overall set of values widely shared in a society.
Political Culture
Overall set of values widely shared in a society.

10. Surveys in which every member of the population has an equal chance of being in the group. It is considered the gold standard in survey research. Most polling organizations rely this technique.
Random Sampling

11. Process of reallocating seats in the House of Representatives every 10 years on the basis of the results of the census.
Reapportionment

12. Melting Pot
Term used to characterize the U.S., with its history of immigration and mixing of cultures, ideas, and peoples.

13. Political philosophy that favors limited government and freedom of the private sector. More likely to support military spending, free markets, prayer in school, and reduce taxes. Opposes abortion, affirmative action, and government spending on social programs.
Conservatism

14. The situation, beginning sometime in the mid-21st Century, in which non-Hispanic whites will represent a minority of the population and minority groups together will represent a majority.
Minority Majority

15. The science of population changes.
Demography
The science of population changes.

16. The actual “enumeration” of the population, which the Constitution requires the government conduct every 10 years. It is a valuable tool for understanding demographic changes.
Census

17. Exit Polls
Public opinion surveys used by major media pollsters to predict electoral winners with speed and precision.

18. Any of the means of communication, such as  television or newspapers, that reach very large numbers of people.
Mass Media

19. Political Participation
All of the activities used by citizens to influence the selection of political leaders or the policies they pursue. The most common means of political participation in a democracy is voting. Other means include protest and civil disobedience.
Political Participation

21. Random-digit-dialing
Technique used by pollsters to place phone calls randomly to both listed and unlisted numbers when conducting a survey.  
Random-digit-dialing

22. A form of political participation designed to achieve policy change through dramatic and unconventional tactics.
Protest

23. A form of political participation based on a conscious decision to break a law believed to be unjust and suffer the consequences.
Civil Disobedience