2.6 KiB
Measuring Public Opinion
Public Opinion Polls
polls that guage attitudes on issues or support for candidates in an ellection in a cross-section of the population
Benchmark Polls
poll used by political campaign to figure out what the candidate's intentions are
Tracking Polls
measure how prospective voters feel about an isussue
Entrance Polls
conducted outside poilling places and are sued to gague election day and predicte elections done before people vote
Exit Polls
conducted outside poilling places and are sued to gague election day and predicte elections done after people finish their votes
Approval Ratings
used to tell presidential approval
Focus Groups
small group of citizens 10 - 40 people to find out more minute detailes
Questions
questions need to be specifically framed and phrased to avoid skewing the results
Sampling Techniques
different ways to assure an acurate poll
Representative Sample
a group of people meant to represent a larger group in question
Universe
the large group in question
Random Sample
everone being surveyed must have an equal chance of being surveyed
Random-digit dialing
just calling randopm numbners in an area to attempt to survey people
Weighting/Stratificaiton
making sure demographic groups are properly represented
Think as a Political Scientist
Study the information below from December 2019 and answer the questions that follow.
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What additional information might make this table more useful? knowing what type of poll it might be especially between the different polls
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What might explain the different results among the various polls? the different ways of results might be due to different groups that got polled and or different polling techniques that would have highlighted diffent trends
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What conclusions might be drawn from this information? that biden has roughly a 9.3 lead across all the diffent polling groups
Sampling error
difference between two different polls because of different people and sampling groups
Margin of Error
another name for sampling error
Non Attitudes
people may be uninformed or do not want to share views. or just do not have strong opinions
Human Bias and Push Polling
how the interviewer contacts and interacts can impact the poll
Essential Question: What are the elements of a scientific poll and how do these elements impact elections and policy?
- Elements of Scientific Poll The poll must be using a diverse and random set of the uniuverse so that the margin of error is lowered as much as possible
- Possible Effects on Decsion-Making doing this might swkew the data results and points