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A widely accepted generalization in the social science literature is that women tend to personalize politics & politicians. The meaning of this assertion, however, is not always clear, & varies from study to study. Available United States survey data from 1952 to 1976 are reviewed to determine whether & how women differ from men in their assessments of politicians. No evidence for a consistent sex difference in orientation to candidates versus issues is found. A wider range of categories is needed in analyzing grounds for voting for a candidate, & further research is needed to determine what differences there are between men & women in these categories. 2 Tables, Appendix. Modified HA.

CONSIDERATION OF 'CANDIDATE PREFERENCE FUNCTION' ELEMENT OF ELECTORAL ALGORITHMS HAS BEEN LARGELY IGNORED AND IS HERE EXAMINED. UTILIZING PSYCHOPHYSICAL SCALING AND VALIDATION PROCEDURES THIS PAPER ESTABLISHES THAT INTERPERSONALLY COMPARABLE MEASURES OF CANDIDATE EVALUATION (UTILITY) MAY BE DEVELOPED, & THAT THE CPF SPECIFIES A POWER RELATION BETWEEN CANDIDATE PREFERENCES AND CANDIDATE EVALUATION.

THE AUTHORS DEVELOP TWO COMPLEMENTARY MODELS OF THE DETERMINANTS OF CANDIDATE RECOGNITION AND EVALUATION. IN THE RECOGNITION MODEL, CONTACT WITH VOTERS AND MEDIA EFFECTS ARE OF PRIMARY IMPORTANCE; EVALUATION, IT IS ARGUED, IS A FUNCTION OF PERSONAL CONTACT AND PARTY IDENTIFICATION. INCUMBENCY AS A VARIABLE ADDS LITTLE THAT IS NOT ALREADY CONTAINED IN INCUMBENT RECOGNITION/EVALUATION ADVANTAGES.

THIS ARTICLE IS AN UPDATE ON SCHULMAN AND POMPER'S ORIGINAL (1975) RESEARCH, FILLING IN MISSING SECTIONS AND EXTENDING THEIR ANALYSIS TO INCLUDE THE 1976 ELECTION. IN THESE ELECTIONS, COMPARISON OF THE TOTAL DIRECT AND INDIRECT EFFECT ON VOTER CHOICES OF ISSUES, PARTISANSHIP, AND CANDIDATE EVALUATIONS SHOWS: ISSUES GAINING IMPORTANCE, PARTISANSHIP LOSING, CANDIDATE EVALUATION STAYING STEADY.

Considerable controversy has arisen over the use in political campaigns of short, image-oriented television commercials. This study compared the effect of type (image and issue) and length (5 minute and 60 second) of political television commercials in terms of candidate evaluation, recall of commercial content, and likelihood of voting for the candidate. Issue commercials resulted in higher candidate evaluation while image commercials resulted in greater recall of content. Higher evaluation of the candidate was achieved by five-minute commercials, but no significant difference in content recall attributable to length was present. An interaction between type and length of commercials surfaced on the voting variable, and the 60-second issue commercial appeared to be slightly superior to other combinations.

By estimating path coefficients for voting behavior in the 1960, 1968, & 1976 elections, missing elections in Mark A. Schulman's & Gerald M. Pomper's 1975 original research (see SA 27:2/79J8525) on variability in electoral behavior are filled in, & the analysis is extended to include the 1976 election. Viewing all 6 elections from 1956 to 1976, it becomes obvious that issue voting was abnormally high in 1964 & 1972. Nonetheless, even excluding these 2 elections, comparison of the total direct & indirect effect on voter choices of issues, partisanship, & candidate evaluations shows that issues have been gaining importance, partisanship losing importance, & candidate evaluations holding steady. 1 Table, 2 Figures. Modified HA.

This paper argues that six conditions must be met to conclude that issue voting exists: (1) candidates must take different positions on the issues of the day; (2) the campaign issues must be salient to the voter; (3) voters must have a position on the issue; (4) voters must accurately perceive candidate positions; (5) issue-based candidate evaluations must be consistent with vote intention; and (6) vote intention must be based on a previously established issue evaluation not vice versa. This study estimates the number of voters who were able to meet these conditions for issue voting during the 1972 presidential election campaign.

THE STUDY REEXAMINES SCHULMAN AND POMPER'S FINDINGS THAT THE AMERICAN ELECTORATE IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY ISSUE-ORIENTED IN THEIR VOTING BEHAVIOR. WHILE NOTING THAT ISSUE VOTING WAS ABNORMALLY HIGH IN THE '64 AND '72 ELECTIONS, THE AUTHORS CONFIRM THAT COMPARISON OF EFFECTS ON VOTER CHOICES OF ISSUES, PARTISANSHIP, AND CANDIDATE EVALUATIONS SHOWS THAT ISSUES HAVE BEEN GAINING IMPORTANCE.

This article compares voting for U.S. senator and representative in 1978. Analysis of data from the Center for Political Studies 1978 Election Study reveals that incumbents were better known and more positively evaluated than challengers, but House incumbents enjoyed a much greater advantage than Senate incumbents. The invisibility of most House challengers was a serious obstacle to accountability in House elections. Senate challengers were much more visible to the electorate. In addition, ideology and party identification had a greater impact on evaluations of Senate candidates than on evaluations of House candidates. Evaluations of House incumbents appear to have been based largely on frequent positive contacts between voters and their representative. As a result, ideological voting was more prevalent in Senate elections than in House elections.

Political scientists have assumed that dividing the electorate into issue publics, on the basis of salient issues, leads to a better understanding of the relationships between issues and both candidate evaluations and electoral choice. This portrait accords nicely with the description offered by pluralists of the operation of the electoral arena. Our data suggest that, at least in 1972, the portrait is flawed. Using a variety of multivariate tech niques we show that salience fails to sharpen the impact of issues and that electoral choice was, fundamentally, a question of candidate images.

Past studies have offered diverse estimates of the role of policy preferences, party loyalties, candidate personalities and other factors in voting decisions. Most have postulated recursive (that is, one-way) causal relationships among the central variables.This study specifies a non-recursive simultaneous equation model and estimates its parameters for the 1972 and 1976 elections using CPS data. The estimates differ markedly from those of simple recursive models. Policy preferences appear to have much more influence on voting decisions, and party attachments much less, than was previously thought. Candidate evaluations strongly affect voters' perceptions of closeness to candidates on policy issues. Party identification may be influenced by short-term factors. Differences between 1972 and 1976 reflect the issue-oriented McGovern candidacy.Simultaneous equation models offer no cure-all; in the absence of accepted theory many specifications are open to controversy. But future research must take account of reciprocal causal paths.

Computer-generated displays of traffic information may be available in airplane cockpits within a decade. Many questions exist, however, about the impact of such displays on the air traffic control system. The purpose of the following studies was to design suitable display(s) to be used in simulation research aimed at answering these questions. The initial approach was to solicit opinions from general aviation and airline pilots about display format, information content, and symbology after they had viewed more than 100 candidate displays and display options. The pilots' responses provided a preliminary indication of what information the potential user-population felt should be included in a traffic display. A series of later experiments was conducted to determine whether the features preferred in the pilot opinion survey would contribute to accurate and efficient pilot assessment of the spatial relationship between their own and another aircraft. A series of encounters between two aircraft were simulated in which the speed, heading, altitude, and geometrical relationship between the two aircraft were varied to allow a comparison between several graphic and symbolic formats for presenting information about the two aircraft.

Incomplete understanding of the connection between campaign spending and election outcomes has hindered evaluation of enacted and proposed congressional campaign finance reforms. Reanalysis of the 1972 and 1974 House and Senate campaign spending data using both OLS and 2SLS regression models shows that spending by challengers has a much greater impact on the outcome than does spending by incumbents. A similar analysis of the effects of spending on voters' recall of candidates in the 1972 and 1974 SRC surveys supports the explanation that campaign expenditures buy nonincumbents the necessary voter recognition already enjoyed by incumbents prior to the campaign. The 1974 survey questions on Senate candidates indicate that, although the inability to remember candidates' names does not preclude having opinions about them, voters recalling candidates are much more likely to offer evaluative comments, and these more frequently refer to candidates personally. Aware voters offer more negative as well as positive evaluations (though positive outnumber negative); familiarity is not automatically advantageous. And voters' evaluations of candidates strongly influence how they vote. The implications of these findings for congressional campaign finance policy are readily apparent.