Introduction to Modern Polling

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

Survey research is used to study a broad range of important parts of politics. These include measuring political preferences in the mass public, predicting elections, and planning and evaluating public policies. This course introduces students to modern methods for conducting and interpreting public opinion surveys, including writing a questionnaire, drawing a survey sample, weighting, and interviewing. This course also covers the psychology of holding political attitudes and answering survey questions, as well as when politicians tend to respond to public opinion, when they ignore it, and when they shape it.