Deck 4: Influences on Beliefs and Actions

Question 1

Political socialization can be defined as

A) the interactions that occur among people with similar political beliefs.
B) the processes through which an individual acquires his or her orientations toward the political world.
C) the decisions of politically-motivated individuals to interact with each other.
D) the development of political groups in a given society.
E) the efforts of political candidates to persuade people to vote for them.

Answer 1

the processes through which an individual acquires his or her orientations toward the political world.

Question 2

Which of the following is most likely to be the state's most valuable agent for political socialization?

A) The family
B) Peer groups
C) The schools
D) Pivotal events
E) Culture

Answer 2

The schools

Question 3

Which of the following was viewed by Mao Zedong as a chief obstacle to effective political socialization in China?

A) The peer group
B) Illiteracy
C) The schools
D) The media
E) The family

Answer 3

The family

Question 4

In modern societies, the major source of political information for most adults is

A) the media.
B) the peer group.
C) the schools.
D) political parties.
E) the family.

Question 5

Which of the following statements is NOT true?

A) Most governments impose major restrictions on the rights of media to communicate political information.
B) Media tend to be neutral in reporting political subjects.
C) Culture can be used to reinforce the state's view of the political world.
D) Politically "subversive" music and literature are present in most societies.
E) Electronic media have increasing political influence in many countries.

Question 6

A substantially higher propensity to vote is associated with which of the following individual traits?

A) Identification with a political party
B) Minority ethnicity
C) Female gender
D) Income level
E) All of the above

Question 7

Which of the following is NOT an example of the political environment?

A) Specific political events
B) One's political knowledge
C) The international political scene
D) Public policies in one's country
E) Public policies in a neighboring country

Question 8

In The Prince, Machiavelli suggests that society tends toward

A) apathy.
B) contentment.
C) ignorance.
D) order.
E) disorder.

Question 9

The media's role in signaling the importance of a particular political issue is termed

A) interest aggregation.
B) the prism effect.
C) media oversight.
D) agenda setting.
E) flagging.

Question 10

When the agents of political socialization are ineffective or provide contradictory messages, an individual's political behavior will tend toward

A) apathy.
B) dependence on peers.
C) independent inquiry.
D) activism.
E) extremism.

Question 11

Who observed that political leaders must sometimes engage in evil actions in order to preserve the state?

A) Hobbes
B) Machiavelli
C) Gandhi
D) Aristotle
E) Burke

Question 12

The effect of culture on a person's political beliefs

A) is generally reinforcing of dominant values in the society.
B) is minimal.
C) is to provoke resistance to dominant values.
D) Might be minimal or reinforce, but not provoke resistance
E) Might reinforce, be minimal, or provoke resistance

Question 13

One observation about much of the empirical research on the agents of political socialization is that

A) the importance of the peer group has not been confirmed.
B) the media are the most important agent for most people.
C) it is difficult to identify precisely which agent has which specific effect on most individuals' political orientations.
D) it is difficult to determine how children react to political socialization in the schools.
E) the agents of political socialization have little effect on most people.

Question 14

Who asserted that civic training is society's most important function?

A) Plato
B) Thomas Hobbes
C) Karl Marx
D) Aristotle
E) John Locke

Question 15

Political personality can be broadly defined as

A) one's concrete set of political likes and dislikes.
B) the psychological factors influencing political activism.
C) propensities within an individual to act in certain ways.
D) a tendency toward interpersonal involvement.
E) a person's primary likes and dislikes.

Question 16

The biographies of Gandhi and Osama bin Laden reveal that

A) people with different backgrounds can choose similar forms of political action.
B) extremist-activists are not different from other people.
C) people with similar backgrounds can choose different forms of political action.
D) Hinduism and Islam encourage political activism.
E) political violence is no more effective than passive resistance.

Question 17

The "bunch of guys" analysis contends that

A) people tend to choose friends from others who share their political views.
B) radical extremism can emerge among alienated males who form a group.
C) men are more likely to become politically active than women.
D) men are more in need of political reinforcement than women.
E) gender-mixed groups are less likely to engage in political action.

Question 18

It is suggested that the personal characteristic most likely to be associated with the top political leaders is

A) age.
B) education level.
C) urban upbringing.
D) those of the socially dominant group.
E) ethnicity.

Question 19

Identify your five most important political beliefs. For each, specify the agent of political socialization that has had the greatest impact on that belief and explain how this occurred. Analyze whether there is a pattern evident regarding the content and sources of your key political beliefs.

Question 20

Compare two groups in the United States that experience significantly different political and social environments. Would you expect their political behavior to differ because of these environmental differences? How and why?

Question 21

Can "personality analysis" provide much explanatory value in the attempt to explain political behavior? Why?

Question 22

If you could interview a prominent political activist (living or dead), who would you select? List six questions that you would ask about that individual's childhood or personality in order to better understand his or her political behavior. Why are these particularly revealing questions?