Political Socialization: How Americans Get Their Political Beliefs

Most people are exposed to the same principals and agents of political socialization. Families spread values that support political authorities and can heavily contribute to children's initial political ideological views, or party preferences. Families influence political knowledge and identification depending on variables such as family demographics, life cycle, parenting style, parental level of political skepticism and frequency of political discussions. Demographics such as gender and age also attribute to political socialization. School is another agent of political socialization. Spending numerous years in school, children in the United States are taught and reinforced a view of the world that their text books tell them to trust. Through primary, secondary and high schools, students are taught key principles such as individual rights and property, personal responsibility and duty to their nation. Another is mass media. Mass media is not only a source of political information; it is an influence on political values and beliefs. Various media outlets, through news coverage and late-night programs, provide different partisan policy stances that are associated with political participation. Religions, beliefs, and practices play a role in political opinion formation and political participation. The perspective offered by religious institutions shape judgement regarding public policy, and political decision

Afterall, students tend to lean towards other subjects such as math and science more than history and government. I also believe that politicans should try to reach out to younger voters, those with lower incomes, and the less educated. The government is supposed to protect and represent everybody, which brings light to the problem that those with low incomes and minorites are underepresented. However, I do understand that part of the problem starts at home. Parents have to teach their children the imporatance of their vote, but how do you do that if you did not receive the proper education about politics

I have not had much interest in politics until recently. Before last year, I did not care for anything related to politics; I thought that it was all boring and had little to no affect on me on a personal level. I am more interested in politics nowadays. I know better now that it does affect me and I should care about it. I had learned about the concepts of political socialization, party identification, political tolerance, political trust, political efficacy in government class and how they affect my political beliefs. My personal political belief has been shaped into what it is today and is still being shaped because of those six concepts.

The main place where I have received my political socialization from is from my family. This is logical because I have been with my family since I was born so I was bound to pick up a lot of there beliefs as the years went by. My family

It is very important to be aware of what is going on in the world however sometimes reading can be a better source or information than watching bias television broadcasts. I believe that if children have to develop their own political opinion at a young age then they will attain values and beliefs that are more logical. I had structure growing up as a kid and was directed to what was right and wrong but I was not born into a political dictatorship. My parents were caring people and emphasized that treating others with respect is more important than following some indoctrinated code. I am fortunate to have been given the freedom to develop my own social and political views. Having political guidance from family is important but being told that only one particular political belief system is infallible is not the ideal way to educate. My parents have always preached equality, and that all people should have equal opportunity to pursue their goals despite their religion, race, ethnic background or sexual orientation. At a young age I was taught to recognize that all Americans have an equal opportunity to aspire to an education regardless of their economic condition. My parents were a large influence of how I view freedom of speech. They emphasized that all individuals have the right to express their opinions and advocate their personal beliefs. One of the key political concepts that I was born into was to fight for a clean environment. The environment must be protected and

While there are many hypotheses and theories as to why education is important for democratic citizens, there is common and consistent agreement within the literature since the 1970s. There is consistency in the belief that education provides both the skills to become politically engaged and the knowledge to understand and accept democratic principles leading to correlative effects on party identification on both individual and aggregate levels (Golebiowska 1995; Galston 2004). Angus Campbell and Philip E. Converse (1972) describe education as the universal solvent, strongly and positively correlated with a host of valued civic attitudes and behaviors such as political party or ideology formation.

The main way that people are influenced is by their family. This is the first place that we are introduced to politics. Most kids grow up believing as their parents do as far as political views go. Another place that the public is influenced is through school. Kids learn about the Government and political parties through their history classes. If kids don’t have politically strong parents, then they usually get their ideas for what they want to be from school. Kids are directly influenced by their peer groups. Kids will do anything to be cool, even if that means they go against their beliefs. Friends have strong persuasion over kids. Geographic locations have a strong influence over the way people develop political ideas. For example, if you’re from the south, then you are more likely to be conservative. If you’re from the north, then you are more likely to be Democrat. It isn’t the strongest influence, but it does have some affect over people. Political leaders, for example, also try to convince the public to choose what political party they should side with. Political leaders persuade people to vote for them and their political party and hope they get the vote. Many things affect the way we develop our political views.

Political socialization begins early on in life and is an ongoing process affecting individuals throughout. It is how people eventually identify personal beliefs and expectations in American politics. These political views can include our level of patriotism, faith in the democratic system, standards by which we hold governing bodies, and opinions regarding public policies. From the playground to the classroom, the office to the dinner table, much of our lives affect our political opinions. The most easily identified agents of this are family, schooling, peers, mass media, political parties and religious influences. Furthermore, these means indoctrinate us in the political society through four basic

One interesting find is the theory that we are more susceptible to simple statements at a younger age. These are statements such as broad generalizations and talking points that we hear from people around us. Some examples of these could be “liberals only want to tax people” or “conservatives are very selfish”. Many college students admit that they learn a lot about politics from their families and the media. This has a lot to do where family members and media are located in the United States most of the time. Location is also another

Although the American political culture contains numerous core ideals and values as all American share different views, the vast majority of people support general ideas including equality, liberty, and order. America guarantees each individual political equality, allowing each individual to have their own personal beliefs within the political sphere. However, the environment, combined with the media, has a powerful influence on the views Americans chose to hold. Different generations live through different experiences which significantly shapes the thinking of individuals. Therefore, political beliefs and ideologies form due to the resolutions regarding different conflicts. Even though there seems to be many opposing viewpoints, the American

Most Teenagers my age have a very small grasp on our country's politics and what's actually going on in the country and all around the world. Some of them don't even care because they say it doesn't matter or it won't affect them. But they are wrong because what happens in our country's government will affect every single person's future in some way. So it is much better to keep informed about what's going on so you could decide what you agree and disagree on with some background information on the topics. They could get some of this information from watching the news but mos tteenagers do not. Since some students don't take a political or current events class they lack the knowledge on the differences between our countries to main political

Have you ever thought about why you have the political beliefs and values you do? Where did they come from? Are they simply your own ideas and experiences or have you been influenced by others in your thinking? This process by which individuals acquire their political beliefs and attitudes is called political socialization. In another words, Political socialization is a concept where the study of the developmental processes by which children and adolescents acquire political cognition, attitudes and behaviors. What people think and how they come to think it is of critical importance to the stability of the government. The beliefs and values of the people are the basis for a society's political culture and that culture defines the

Most, if not all, of the political beliefs are manifested during childhood; and are immensely influenced by not only parents, but through media, religion, education, and peers. The parents tend to pass along heritage and tradition, and often link their family name with a political affiliation (Republican or Democrat). Education introduces children to politics and the election process through class elections and courses in government; and by debating issues that affect the schools such as funding and curriculum requirements. The media has become a primary source in educating children through constant news programming, and shows addressing contemporary issues relating to politics such as abortion, crime, and the economy. Peer influence within social groups , though with a limited impact, further contributes to the development of political attitudes by concentrating on common interests focusing mainly on lifestyle issues. Organized religion continues to have an impressionable influence in guiding political thought through religious practices and beliefs; and has traditionally had a strong impact in forming political views in accordance with their respective doctrine.

Citizenship lessons educate young people about morals and principles within society. Teaching politics in schools would also educate and inform young people about political parties’ manifestos. “Data from the 2009 International Civic and Citizenship

The kids in my class, even if I don’t agree with them, often have logic behind why the government was right or wrong on everything from the legality of gun control to hate speech. However, my parental unit and I have gotten in some fairly heated debates when often my father— who I love very much— would repeat the same argument over and over with no new facts. And yet, he can vote. Before this year I was too young to vote, but apparently old enough to best a 50 year old college graduate on the topic of police brutality. At an increasingly lower age, kids are being bombarded with media, so they ask questions and take classes to learn more. This makes them informed voters.