PS 473
Final Exam Review Questions
Professor Peffley
Ground Rules: The exam is worth 40% of your final grade
and will consist of about 30 multiple choice questions and 1 to 4 short essay
questions. The review questions below are designed to focus your preparation on
theories and concepts from which the exam questions will be selected and
formulated. If you are prepared to answer these questions, you should do well
on the exam. During the exam, you may not rely on notes. Bring both a # pencil
for the multiple choice questions and a ball-point pen and a blue book for the
essay questions. Better essays will be organized and efficiently written.
The
exam will cover class discussions since the Midterm and the following readings:
Berinsky’s book, and
selected chapters from Brooker and Schaefer (chs. 5,
6, 7, 8, 12 & 13). Material from
Brooker & Schaefer will only appear on the multiple choice portion of the
exam.
By Thursday, our last class, I’ll
post terms and concepts that would be useful to know for the exam.
Questions from class
discussion
1.
According
to propaganda researchers, Pratkanis & Aronson, what is propaganda, what is
the “essential modern dilemma,” and why is mindless propaganda so
prevalent?
2.
Distinguish
between educating, misleading and manipulating public opinion, using examples.
3.
What
does research on persuasion have to say about how characteristics of the source
and the message (e.g., visual images and fear appeals) influence political
persuasion? Use examples from the
presidential elections and the run-up to the Iraq war to illustrate your
points.
4.
How
do political predispositions, political awareness and characteristics of the
message interact to influence opinion leadership, according to Zaller’s
theory? What are some of the
implications of this theory? Use
examples to illustrate.
5.
What
are some of the major differences between U.S. and European news media
industries, and how do they help explain important differences in the kind of
news produced here and abroad?
6.
Based
on our class discussions, describe how at least three changes in the news
environment have influenced changes in the news (don’t discuss Prior’s work,
however) and how such changes are likely to influence public opinion.
7.
According
to Markus Prior, how has shifting from “broadcast democracy” in the 70s &
80s to Cable TV & the Internet influenced public opinion and voting
behavior? Explain. Be sure to discuss
the degree of media choice in your essay.
8.
Identify
at least three types of media effects in addition to persuasion, providing
definitions and examples as well as distinguishing between the four types of
media effects.
9.
Group
stereotypes influence domestic policy attitudes, but what about foreign policy
attitudes? How do stereotypes come into
play and how do they influence foreign policy attitudes and elite
rhetoric?
10. Aggregate, over-time
studies of support for presidents and wars suggest a very different
interpretation of how the public evaluates presidents and wars than
individual-level studies based on cross-sectional surveys. Provide a resolution of the two sets of very
different findings. In your essay, be sure to discuss the ecological fallacy
and the fallacy of reductionism.
Questions from Adam Berinsky, In Time of War: Understanding American
Public Opinion from WW II to Iraq
1. General questions: How can we
explain the public’s support for, or opposition to war? Do we need a different
theory to explain foreign policy attitudes and mass responses to war? Does
politics stop at the water’s edge? What are some of the problems associated
with using public opinion data from this time period and how does Berinsky get
around them?
2. Use evidence from WW II and the
Iraq war in Berinsky’s In Time of War
to evaluate the support for two theories of public support for war—the
“event-response” theory and “elite cue theory.” In your essay be sure to
briefly outline the theories before evaluating them with the evidence, and show
me you read the book.
3. What is the “event response
theory” of public support for war? Give
examples of the theory, as presented by Mueller, Larson, or Feaver and Gelpi. What are some of the problems with this theory,
according to Berinsky? How can “event response theory” be wrong when aggregate,
time-series studies seem to show that public opinion is responsive to raw
events?
4. What is “elite cue theory” and
what is the evidence for it, according to Berinsky? What roles do partisanship, group ties, and
political information play in predicting mass responses to war and
international events? How is “elite cue
theory” consistent with aggregate, time-series studies that seem to show that
public opinion is responsive to raw events? And in what ways does Berinsky’s
“elite cue theory” improve upon Zaller’s theory of opinion leadership,
especially when it comes to explaining the patterns of opinion in World War II
and the Iraq War?
5. Evaluate at least four of the
“myths” about World War II by briefly describing the myth, evaluating how each
stand up to the evidence presented in Berinsky’s book, and discussing what the
revised record tells us about the public’s response to World War II and other
wars.
6. What light does the Iraq War
Casualty Survey Experiment shed on the bases of public support for war? What theory
of public response to war does it support, in your view--“event response
theory” or “elite cue theory”? In your
essay, briefly describe the experiment and it’s major findings, and assess its
implications for understanding public support for war.
7. What is the Korean Intervention
Experiment and what does it say about the basis of public support for war? How
does the Iraq war intrude on the results of this experiment?
8. How can we explain public support
for civil liberties during times of war? Under what types of conditions do what
types of individuals support civil liberties in times of war? What are the political implications of
Berinsky’s examination of these questions in Chapter 7?
9. Based on your reading of Berinsky
(especially Chapter 8), take the position of a Machiavellian advisor to
President Obama and explain what the electoral advantages and disadvantages of
going to war are, based on prior research. Under what conditions can
incumbents be expected to gain or lose votes and elections by going to
war? Explain. Where did the Bush
administration go right or wrong in their management of public support for the
war in Iraq? What are some of the perils ahead for Obama’s management of the
war in Afghanistan and public support for it?