Improving Public Opinion Surveys

Improving Public Opinion Surveys

Interdisciplinary Innovation and the American National Election Studies

Edited by: John H. Aldrich and Kathleen M. McGraw

Princeton University Press | 2012

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400840298

Overview
Contents

About this book

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.

Author information

John H. Aldrich is the Pfizer-Pratt University Professor of Political Science at Duke University. Kathleen M. McGraw is professor of political science at Ohio State University.

Reviews

I highly recommend this volume for students of political behaviour as a contribution to the broad literature on political behaviour, as a source for contemporary avenues of behavioural research and survey methodology, and as an overview of the substantive changes to the ANES Time Series Study introduced in 2008.---Donald M. Gooch, Political Studies Review

"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 Pennsylvania

"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

Frontmatter Free access PDF PDF	i
Contents Free access PDF PDF	v
Part 1. The American National Election Studies: The “Gold Standard” for Survey Research
Chapter 1. Introduction to the Volume John H. Aldrich and Kathleen M. McGraw Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	3
Chapter 2. The American National Election Studies and the Importance of New Ideas Jon A. Krosnick and Arthur Lupia Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	9
Part 2. Individual Predispositions
Introduction to Part 2 Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	25
Chapter 3. Self-Monitoring and Political Attitudes Adam J. Berinsky and Howard Lavine Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	27
Chapter 4. Do Confident People Behave Differently? Julia Albarracín, Wei Wang and Dolores Albarracín Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	46
Chapter 5 Basic Personal Values and Political Orientations Shalom H. Schwartz Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	63
Chapter 6. Value Constellations and American Political Life Steven Hitlin and Katherine W. O. Kramer Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	83
Chapter 7. Generalized Trust Questions Eric M. Uslaner Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	101
Part 3. Political Orientations and the Media
Introduction to Part 3 Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	115
Chapter 8. An Alternative Measure of Political Trust Joseph Gershtenson and Dennis L. Plane Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	117
Chapter 9. Measuring Political Interest Danielle Shani Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	137
Chapter 10. Do We Still Need Media Use Measures at All? Scott L. Althaus and David H. Tewksbury Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	158
Chapter 11. Sociotropic Voting and the Media Stephen Ansolabehere, Marc Meredith and Erik Snowberg Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	175
Part 4. Perceptions of Political Institutions and Groups
Introduction to Part 4 Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	193
Chapter 12. Perceptions of Similarity and Agreement in Partisan Groups Eric A. Whitaker and John M. Fulwider Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	195
Chapter 13. Measuring Everyday Perceptions of the Distribution of the American Electorate Charles M. Judd, Leaf van Boven, Michaela Huber and Ana P. Nunes Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	220
Chapter 14. Measuring Ambivalence about Government Michael D. Martinez, Jason Gainous and Stephen C. Craig Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	238
Chapter 15. Gender Stereotypes and Gender Preferences in American Politics Kira Sanbonmatsu and Kathleen Dolan Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	260
Chapter 16. In Search of a Religious Left Stephen T. Mockabee, Kenneth D. Wald and David C. Leege Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	278
Part 5. Political Issues
Introduction to Part 5 Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	301
Chapter 17. Intense Ambivalence L.J Zigerell and Heather Marie Rice Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	303
Chapter 18. Crime, Perceived Criminal Injustice, and Electoral Politics Ross L. Matsueda, Kevin Drakulich, John Hagan, Lauren J. Krivo and Ruth D. Peterson Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	323
Chapter 19. Attitudes toward the Progressivity of Taxes, Corporate Tax, and Estate Tax Ruben Durante and Louis Putterman Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	342
Part 6. Concluding Thoughts and Future Directions
Chapter 20. How the ANES Used Online Commons Proposals and Pilot Study Reports to Develop Its 2008 Questionnaires Jon A. Krosnick and Arthur Lupia Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	363
Chapter 21. Concluding Thoughts John H. Aldrich and Kathleen M. McGraw Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	380
Contributors Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	387

(Deutsch)

Improving Public Opinion Surveys

Interdisciplinary Innovation and the American National Election Studies

Details

Formats