Peffley, PS 473, Public Opinion

Lecture Outline:

EMPIRICAL BASES OF PUBLIC OPINION II: DEFINITIONS, CONCEPTS, THEORIES & METHODS

Useful Definitions: Pollster is someone who goes from door to door asking people what they think they think of issues they haven't thought about. Good Citizen is someone who knows enough about his own weaknesses to understand that even honest politicians have to be watched closely. Bigot is someone who hates different people than I do. Alienation is the belief that the paranoids in power are out to get you.

I. DEFINITIONS

A. Attitudes

1. Minimalist definition: An attitude is an enduring predisposition to respond positively or negatively to a particular stimulus (i.e., object) in a particular manner.

a) Political attitudes are those directed toward political objects, such as political candidates, political issues, political parties, and political institutions.

2. Properties: Attitudes are internal and inferred, somewhat stable over time and consistent across situations. They are the building blocks of political behavior: they mediate political perceptions and guide political behavior. Knowing public opinion allows us to explain and predict political behavior.

a) Problems of measurement error (random & non-random) and "nonattitudes."

B. Attitudes versus related concepts. Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behavior are distinct concepts. More generally, the evaluative, cognitive and behavioral dimensions of opinion toward an object are distinct entities and there is no necessary congruence between them (Fishbein and Ajzen). The term “attitude” should be reserved solely for the affective dimension, indicating evaluation or favorability toward the attitude object. The cognitive dimension of attitudes should be considered "beliefs." The behavioral dimension should be considered "behavioral intentions."

Other Definitions

1. Beliefs: beliefs assert the truth or falsity of propositions about the object. They state a relationship between the object and some characteristic. “Bill Clinton/George Bush is a lying liar.”

2. Values: Defined as “each individual’s abstract, general conceptions about the desirable and undesirable end states of human life.” Important life-goals or standards for a person. Ends rather than means. Values are central elements in a person's system of attitudes and beliefs. Examples include:
Individualism (“Everyone ought to get ahead on their own without relying on government for help”)
Equality (“One of the biggest problems in this country is that we don’t give everyone an equal chance.”)
Humanitarianism (“One should always find ways to help others who are less fortunate than oneself”)
Patriotism: (“I am extremely proud to be an American”)

3. Public opinion: “The expressed attitudes and views of ordinary people on issues of public concern.” (B&S)

C. The Structure of Beliefs, Political Attitudes, and Ideologies

1. A belief or attitude system is a set of interconnected beliefs or attitudes, such that we can predict one belief from knowing another and when one belief changes, other related beliefs change as a result.

2. Example: the vertical structure of economic, social or foreign policy attitudes: general orientations (e.g., values, general beliefs, group identifications)àspecific policy preferences.

3. What is your Political Ideology?

D. When do attitudes predict behavior?

Question: To what degree do our inner selves (attitudes) correspond to our outer selves (behavior)?

1.Diagram of expressed attitudes, true attitudes, behavior and other influences.

Other Influences Expressed Attitude

Internal Attitude

Other Influences Behavior

1.Conditions under which we expect a higher degree of correspondence between attitudes and behavior:

a) When "other influences" on expressed attitudes and our behavior are minimized.

b) When the observed behavior is as general as the expressed attitude.

c) When attitudes are "strong" or the situation is "weak." Examples.

II. Measuring Public Opinion

A. Informal and formal ways of measuring public opinion. Quantitative and qualitative methods. (also see Brooker and Schaefer, Chs. 2 & 3)

B. The strengths and weaknesses of different formal methods of studying public opinion: survey research vs. experiments, depth interviews, and focus groups. (class, table)

C. Theories of the survey response: John Zaller & Stanley Feldman’s theory and its implications for public opinion formation (only partially covered in Brooker & Schaefer, Ch 11).