Improving Public Opinion Surveys (ebook)

Argumento de Improving Public Opinion Surveys (ebook)

The American National Election Studies (ANES) is the premier social science survey program devoted to voting and elections. Conducted during the presidential election years and midterm Congressional elections, the survey is based on interviews with voters and delves into why they make certain choices. In this edited volume, John Aldrich and Kathleen McGraw bring together a group of leading social scientists that developed and tested new measures that might be added to the ANES, with the ultimate goal of extending scholarly understanding of the causes and consequences of electoral outcomes.

The contributors--leading experts from several disciplines in the fields of polling, public opinion, survey methodology, and elections and voting behavior--illuminate some of the most important questions and results from the ANES 2006 pilot study. They look at such varied topics as self-monitoring in the expression of political attitudes, personal values and political orientations, alternate measures of political trust, perceptions of similarity and disagreement in partisan groups, measuring ambivalence about government, gender preferences in politics, and the political issues of abortion, crime, and taxes.

Testing new ideas in the study of politics and the political psychology of voting choices and turnout, this collection is an invaluable resource for all students and scholars working to understand the American electorate.

"This book will be of keen interest to social scientists seeking to understand how today's American National Election Studies is constructed. In the new era of an open and transparent ANES, a catalog of the 2006 pilot study will be essential reading to scholars who wish to become a part of an ongoing process to recreate and preserve this vital public resource."--Kevin Arceneaux, Temple University

"This book is a very impressive collection of essays about the most valuable resource available to students of American politics. The National Election Studies is truly a treasure and the gold standard of survey research. This book centers on the innovations developed out of their 2006 pilot study and contains a great deal of critical information."--John Lapinski, University of Pennsylvania0Part 1 The American National Election Studies: The "Gold Standard" for Survey Research
1.John H. Aldrich and Kathleen M. McGraw: Introduction to the Volume 3
2.Jon A. Krosnick and Arthur Lupia: The American National Election Studies and the Importance of New Ideas 9

Part 2 Individual Predispositions
Introduction to Part 2 25
3.Adam J. Berinsky and Howard Lavine: Self-Monitoring and Political Attitudes 27
4.Julia Albarracín, Wei Wang, and Dolores Albarracín:
Do Confident People Behave Differently? The Role of Defensive Confidence in Partisan Defection, Attention to Politics, and Political Participation 46
5.Shalom H. Schwartz: Basic Personal Values and Political Orientations 63
6.Steven Hitlin and Katherine W. O. Kramer: Value Constellations and American Political Life 83
7.Eric M. Uslaner: Generalized Trust Questions 101

Part 3 Political Orientations and the Media
Introduction to Part 3 115
8.Joseph Gershtenson and Dennis L. Plane: An Alternative
Measure of Political Trust: Reconciling Theory and Practice 117
9.Danielle Shani: Measuring Political Interest 137
10.Scott L. Althaus and David H. Tewksbury: Do We Still Need Media Use Measures at All? 158
11.Stephen Ansolabehere, Marc Meredith, and Erik Snowberg: Sociotropic Voting and the Media 175

Part 4 Perceptions of Political Institutions and Groups
Introduction to Part 4 193
12.Eric A. Whitaker and John M. Fulwider: Perceptions of Similarity and Agreement in Partisan Groups 195
13.Charles M. Judd, Leaf Van Boven, Michaela Huber, and Ana P. Nunes: Measuring Everyday Perceptions of the Distribution of the American Electorate 220
14.Michael D. Martinez, Jason Gainous, and Stephen C. Craig: Measuring Ambivalence about Government 238
15.Kira Sanbonmatsu and Kathleen Dolan: Gender Stereotypes and Gender Preferences in American Politics 260
16.Stephen T. Mockabee, Kenneth D. Wald, and David C. Leege: In Search of a Religious Left: Reexamining Religiosity 278

Part 5 Political Issues
Introduction to Part 5 301
17.L.J Zigerell and Heather Marie Rice: Intense Ambivalence: The New 2006 and 2008 ANES Abortion Attitude Measures 303
18.Ross L. Matsueda, Kevin Drakulich, John Hagan, Lauren K. Krivo, and Ruth D. Peterson: Crime, Perceived Criminal Injustice, and Electoral Politics 323
19.Ruben Durante and Louis Putterman: Attitudes toward the Progressivity of Taxes, Corporate Tax, and the Estate Tax 342

Part 6 Concluding Thoughts and Future Directions
20.Jon A. Krosnick and Arthur Lupia: How the ANES Used Online Commons Proposals and Pilot Study Reports to Develop Its
2008 Questionnaires 363
21.John H. Aldrich and Kathleen M. McGraw: Concluding Thoughts 380
List of Contributors 387