1) What are the (4) four explanatory factors of individual political behavior?a) Environmentb) Agents of political socializationc) Personal characteristicsd) Personality and human nature Page 882) What is political socialization and why is it important?Political Socialization is the process through which an individual acquires their politicalbeliefs and values. From a pragmatic point of view, it is important to understand howindividuals acquire their political ideologies if you wish to have a greater influence ontheir political beliefs. 3) Explain how our environment can affect political actions.Our environment is the broad context in which an individual lives. It encompasses all theexternal stimuli that affect our lives (political elements, economic order, social/culturalsystems, physical features of the environment, etc.) It is hard to use these factors topredict political behavior but they can be useful when explaining past political actions.4) What are agents of political socialization?Agents of political socialization are the factors and influences that shape a person’spolitical beliefs and values. These include the media, family, peers, religion, culture, etc.Although political scientists attempt to analyze these factors individual, it is hard toempirically study these factors as quantifying how much one agent effects our politicalactions is difficult. 5) Which agent of political socialization is the strongest and longest lasting?Generally, the family unit is considered to be the strongest influencing agent of politicalsocialization. This makes sense since the family has the greatest and earliest exposure toan individual. Before an individual is fully integrated into society, they have several yearsof subconscious exposure to the political beliefs of their parents. The family structurecan also have an effect on political beliefs. For example, strong authoritative parentingcan lead an individual to presume that this is an acceptable form of rule from a parentand a government at large. 6) What are personal characteristic and how do they influence our political actions?Sometimes referred to as demographic characteristics, personal characteristics are thedemographics of an individual (race, gender, sex etc.) and the status of the individual(education levels, income, social class, etc.). These are less of factors on our politicalaction but work more as filters that shape how we interpret the other agents of politicalsocialization that we experience from our environment. 7) Define political personality.Political personality is the deeper psychological dynamics inside the individual that affectthat person’s response to political stimuli. Whereas the previous three forms ofexplanatory factors were external influences, political personality is the internal stimulithat affect our political
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