Final Exam Review PUBPOL 101 - Intro to Public Policy

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering Logic Models, Audits, Oversight, Political Behavior, and Group Conflict from the PUBPOL 101 Spring 2026 Final Exam Review.

Logic Model

A picture of how an organization does its work, linking outcomes with program activities and theoretical assumptions.

Inputs

The resources necessary for a program or policy, such as funding and staffing.

Activities

What inputs help facilitate to advance a program or policy, such as the delivery of benefits.

Outputs

The products of supported activities, such as paid food support benefits.

Outcomes

What outputs yield for their recipients, such as fewer individuals experiencing hunger.

Impacts

The longer-term ramifications of sustained outcomes, such as a healthier population.

Descriptive research

Research focused on how things are by describing conditions.

Causal research

Research focused on why things are by explaining conditions.

Random assignment

A key means of controlling other variables so experiments properly assess the influence of specific variables.

Confounding variable

A variable that weighs on both the dependent and independent variables, complicating the understanding of causal relationships.

Reverse causality

A situation where the outcome is actually causing the cause.

Heterogenous effects

When the independent variable weighs on outcome groups to varying degrees.

Social desirability bias

When respondents provide a politically correct response rather than a true response.

Findings

Results from an analysis that have been given broader meaning.

Waste

The careless or negligent use of resources, such as overuse or inefficiency.

Fraud

Intentional misrepresentation for unauthorized payments, including false claims or kickbacks.

Abuse

Improper actions inconsistent with accepted standards, such as billing for unnecessary services.

Yellow Book Standards

Government Accountability Office (GAO) requirements for audit reports, professional qualifications, and organizational quality control.

Green Book

Policies, procedures, and systems management implements to ensure operational efficiency, reliable financial reporting, and legal compliance at the Federal level.

Police Patrol Oversight

Centralized, active, and direct oversight where Congress proactively examines executive-branch activities.

Fire Alarm Oversight

Decentralized and reactive oversight where Congress sets up rules enabling citizens and interest groups to monitor agencies and pull the alarm.

Issue attention cycle

The period when a policy window opens and action must be taken quickly.

Action dispensability

The question of whether an outcome would have happened without a specific action or step.

Actor dispensability

The question of whether any other person in the same position would have taken the same action.

Openness to Experience

A Big Five dimension measuring a person's receptivity to new ideas, unconventional perspectives, and creative pursuits.

Conscientiousness

A Big Five dimension reflecting how organized, dependable, and disciplined a person is.

Emotional Stability

A Big Five dimension (also referred to as Neuroticism) measuring how a person handles stress and emotional triggers.

Egoistic Theories

Theories of decision making that focus on self-interest as the primary motivator, involving the calculation of costs and benefits.

Rational Voter Model

The equation $UVote = PBVote - CVote$ used to evaluate the rationality of voting based on probability, benefits, and costs.

The D term

In the expanded rational voter model $UVote = PBVote - CVote + D$, this captures non-material motivations like civic duty and social pressure.

Symbolic Politics

The affective model where early socialization creates lasting emotional attachments transferred to political objects via association.

Cognitive Misers

The concept that humans prioritize efficiency over accuracy in information processing.

Schemas

Mental knowledge structures used to categorize and interpret information, often operating via heuristics.

Choice architecture

The context in which an individual makes decisions.

Nudge policies

Intentional designs of choice architecture intended to ease decision-making toward well-being without changing available options.

Propaganda

Widely distributed material from supporters or opponents of a cause aimed at influencing beliefs or attitudes.

Minimal effects model

The media model suggesting that media functions in two stages (reception and acceptance) but is challenged by low attention and existing schemas.

Priming

A heuristic through which the most easily accessible information influences a decision or cognitive process.

Framing

The process by which a communication source defines and constructs a political issue or public controversy.

Minimal group theory

The study of the minimum conditions needed to instigate intergroup discrimination.

Contact Hypothesis

The theory that bringing groups together under conditions like equal status and cooperative interactions can reduce intergroup bias.

Firsthand Indicators

Unique insights from those closest to social problems, used to redefine expertise in the Firsthand Framework for Policy Innovation (FFPI).

Social Identity Theory

The theory that groups are vital for maintaining self-esteem by bolstering the relative status of the groups we belong to.

Realistic Group Conflict Theory

The theory that group conflict results from real or perceived competition over scarce resources.

Social Dominance Theory

The theory that conflict results from the desire of dominant groups to maintain their status in the social hierarchy.