| Term | Definition |
|---|
| agenda setting | Determining which public-policy questions will be debated or considered. |
| consensus | General agreement among the citizenry on an issue. |
| divided opinion | Public opinion that is polarized between two quite different positions. |
| gender gap | The difference between the percentage of women who vote for a particular candidate and the percentage of men who vote for the candidate. |
| generational effect | A long-lasting effect of the events of a particular time on the political opinions of those who came of political age at that time. |
| lifestyle effect | A phenomenon in which certain attitudes occur at certain chronological ages. |
| media | The channels of mass communication. |
| opinion leader | One who is able to influence the opinions of others because of position, expertise, or personality. |
| opinion poll | A method of systematically questioning a small, selected sample of respondents who are deemed representative of the total population. |
| peer group | A group consisting of members sharing common social characteristics. These groups play an important part in the socialization process, helping to shape attitudes and beliefs. |
| political socialization | The process by which people acquire political beliefs and values. |
| political trust | The degree to which individuals express trust in the government and political institutions, usually measured through a specific series of survey questions. |
| public opinion | The aggregate of individual attitudes or beliefs shared by some portion of the adult population. |
| sampling error | The difference between a sample's results and the true result if the entire population had been interviewed. |
| socioeconomic status | The value assigned to a person due to occupation or income. An upper-class person, for example, has high socioeconomic status. |
| Watergate break-in | The 1972 illegal entry into the Democratic National Committee offices by participantsin President Richard Nixon's reelection campaign. |
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