Presentation developed for a series of lectures on public opinion (and political socialization) for PS 101 American Government at the University of Kentucky, Spring 2007. Dr. Christopher S. Rice, Instructor.

1. Public Opinion Dr. Christopher S. Rice

3. Public Opinion The politically relevant opinions held by ordinary citizens that they express openly through words or actions.

5. Polling

6. Survey Systematic interviews by trained, professional interviewers, who ask a standardized set of questions of a rather small number of randomly chosen citizens.

7. Public Opinion Poll a relatively few individuals (the sample) are interviewed in order to estimate the opinions of a whole population.

8. The Theory of Probability

9. Sampling Error?

10. 68% 95% The Bell Curve

11. Representative (Probability) Sample sample in which each individual in the population has a known probability of being selected at random for inclusion in the survey

12. Phone Books and Computer Dialing (cc) 2006 mj ecker Some Rights Reserved

13. What about Cell Phones? (cc) 2006 Andreww Hubbell Some Rights Reserved

15. Straw Polls Unscientific surveys which make no attempt at using a representative (random) sample in their polling.

16. 1936 Presidential Election

18. 1948 Presidential Election

19. 2004 Zogby Exit Polls

23. Push polls Polls which deliberately feed respondents misleading information or leading questions in an effort to “push” them into favoring a particular candidate or issue.

25. Political Socialization the learning process through which people acquire their political opinions, beliefs and values.

26. Political beliefs are NOT ingrained… they are acquired through a lifelong learning process.

27. Political outlook is substantially influenced by childhood learning.

28. Age-Cohort Tendency