AEPA Social Science NT303 cheat sheet

Colonial era: Jamestown (1607) was founded for profit; Plymouth (1620) by Separatists seeking religious freedom; the Mayflower Compact established self-government by consent.

Constitutional compromises: the Great Compromise created a bicameral legislature (population-based House, equal-state Senate); the Three-Fifths Compromise counted enslaved persons as 3/5 for representation and taxation.

Civil War causation chain: westward expansion disputes over slavery's extension, Dred Scott (1857), Lincoln's 1860 election, Southern secession, Fort Sumter (1861).

Reconstruction amendments: 13th abolished slavery (1865), 14th granted citizenship and equal protection (1868), 15th protected voting rights regardless of race (1870).

Progressive Era reforms: 16th (income tax), 17th (direct election of senators), 18th (Prohibition), 19th (women's suffrage, 1920) amendments; muckraking journalism and antitrust action.

New Deal programs: Social Security Act (1935) created old-age pensions and unemployment insurance; FDIC (1933) insured bank deposits; SEC regulated securities.

Cold War containment: Truman Doctrine (1947) and Marshall Plan (1948) in Europe; NATO (1949); Korean War (1950-53) ended in stalemate at the 38th parallel.

Civil Rights milestones: Brown v. Board (1954) struck school segregation; Civil Rights Act (1964) banned public-accommodation discrimination; Voting Rights Act (1965) authorized federal oversight of elections.

Latitude lines (parallels) run east-west and measure distance north/south of the equator; longitude lines (meridians) run north-south and measure east/west of the Prime Meridian.

Climate controls: latitude determines solar angle; altitude lowers temperature about 3.5°F per 1,000 ft; proximity to water moderates temperature range; ocean currents and prevailing winds shift heat.

Plate boundaries: divergent (seafloor spreading, mid-Atlantic ridge), convergent (subduction, trenches, volcanoes), transform (lateral slip, earthquakes such as San Andreas).

Population measures: arithmetic density = total population / land area; physiological density = population / arable land; doubling time approximated by the Rule of 70 (70 / growth rate %).

Demographic Transition Model stages: high birth/death (Stage 1), falling death rates (Stage 2), falling birth rates (Stage 3), low stable rates (Stage 4); Stage 5 may show below-replacement fertility.

Push-pull migration: push factors include persecution, famine, and unemployment; pull factors include jobs, safety, and family reunification; intervening obstacles reduce flow.

Urban models: concentric zone (Burgess), sector (Hoyt), multiple nuclei (Harris-Ullman); central place theory explains settlement size by range and threshold of goods.

Map scale and projections: large-scale maps show small areas in detail; all projections distort shape, area, distance, or direction (Mercator preserves direction, distorts area at high latitudes).

Separation of powers with checks: Congress legislates and can override vetoes; the President vetoes and appoints; courts exercise judicial review (Marbury v. Madison, 1803).

Federalism layers: enumerated (delegated) powers to Congress, reserved powers to states (10th Amendment), concurrent powers shared; the 14th Amendment applies Bill of Rights protections to states.

Bill of Rights core: 1st (speech, press, religion, assembly, petition), 4th (search/seizure), 5th (self-incrimination, due process), 6th (counsel, speedy trial), 8th (cruel punishment).

Election mechanics: Electoral College has 538 votes, 270 needed to win; each state gets electors equal to House seats plus 2 senators; winner-take-all applies in most states.

Congressional structure: House 435 members, 2-year terms, revenue bills originate there; Senate 100 members, 6-year staggered terms, confirms appointments and ratifies treaties.

Judicial standards: strict scrutiny for suspect classifications (race, fundamental rights); intermediate scrutiny for gender; rational basis for most economic regulation.

Interest groups and media: pluralist theory holds competing groups check power; elite theory holds a small minority dominates; linkage institutions connect citizens to government.

Public opinion and participation: political socialization agents include family, school, peers, and media; voter turnout rises with age, education, and income.

Scarcity and opportunity cost: every choice forgoes the next-best alternative; production possibilities frontier shows trade-offs and efficiency points on the curve.

Supply and demand: a demand curve slopes downward, supply upward; equilibrium price clears the market; price ceilings below equilibrium cause shortages, price floors above cause surpluses.

Elasticity: price elasticity of demand = % change in quantity demanded / % change in price; demand is elastic when substitutes abound or the good is a luxury.

GDP components: GDP = C + I + G + (X − M); real GDP adjusts for inflation; nominal GDP uses current prices.

Money and banking: the Federal Reserve sets monetary policy via open market operations, discount rate, and reserve requirements; selling securities drains reserves and raises interest rates.

Fiscal policy: expansionary policy (spending increases or tax cuts) raises aggregate demand; contractionary policy reduces inflation; automatic stabilizers include unemployment insurance.

Market structures: perfect competition (many firms, homogeneous goods), monopolistic competition (differentiated products), oligopoly (few firms), monopoly (single seller, high barriers).

Macro indicators: unemployment rate excludes discouraged workers; inflation is measured by CPI or GDP deflator; the Phillips curve shows short-run inflation-unemployment tradeoff.

Classical conditioning (Pavlov): a neutral stimulus paired with an unconditioned stimulus acquires the power to elicit a conditioned response; extinction weakens it.

Operant conditioning (Skinner): reinforcement increases behavior, punishment decreases it; positive adds a stimulus, negative removes one.

Piaget's cognitive stages: sensorimotor (0-2), preoperational (2-7), concrete operational (7-11), formal operational (11+); object permanence develops in sensorimotor stage.

Erikson's psychosocial stages: trust vs. mistrust (infancy), identity vs. role confusion (adolescence), intimacy vs. isolation (young adulthood), integrity vs. despair (late life).

Research methods: correlation measures association, not causation; experiments require random assignment and manipulation of an independent variable; the dependent variable is measured.

Social psychology: conformity (Asch line studies), obedience to authority (Milgram), bystander effect (diffusion of responsibility), cognitive dissonance (Festinger).

Sociological perspectives: functionalism stresses interdependence and stability; conflict theory stresses inequality and power; symbolic interactionism stresses meaning in face-to-face interaction.

Memory systems: sensory memory, short-term/working memory (about 7±2 items), long-term memory; encoding, storage, and retrieval are the three processes.

Magna Carta (1215) limited royal power and influenced due-process protections; the English Bill of Rights (1689) further constrained the monarchy.

Articles of Confederation weaknesses: no power to tax, no executive or judicial branch, required unanimous consent for amendment, Shays' Rebellion exposed the failures.

Louisiana Purchase (1803) doubled U.S. territory; the Monroe Doctrine (1823) warned European powers against new colonization in the Americas.

Industrialization drivers: railroads, telegraph, steel and oil industries, and immigration supplied labor; the transcontinental railroad completed in 1869.

World War I U.S. entry (1917) followed unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram; the Treaty of Versailles rejected by the Senate.

World War II turning points: Pearl Harbor (1941) brought U.S. entry; D-Day (1944) opened the western front; atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended the Pacific war.

Great Society (1960s) programs: Medicare and Medicaid (1965), Head Start, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Post-Cold War: Soviet Union dissolved in 1991; NAFTA (1994) created a North American trade bloc; September 11, 2001 attacks launched the War on Terror.

Earth's physical extremes: about 71% of the surface is water; oceans hold roughly 97% of Earth's water; the Pacific is the largest and deepest ocean.

Biomes: tropical rainforest (high rainfall, high biodiversity), desert (low precipitation), tundra (permafrost, short growing season), taiga/boreal forest (coniferous, cold winters).

Wind and pressure belts: global winds blow from high to low pressure; trade winds (easterlies) converge at the ITCZ near the equator, producing heavy rainfall.

Landform processes: weathering breaks rock in place; erosion transports material; deposition builds deltas, floodplains, and moraines.

Economic geography: primary activities extract resources, secondary manufacture, tertiary provide services, quaternary handle information and research.

Political geography: a state has territory, population, government, and sovereignty; a nation is a cultural group; a nation-state aligns both.

Regions and climate types: Köppen classification uses temperature and precipitation; humid subtropical, Mediterranean, and arid are common categories.

Resource distribution: fossil fuels concentrate in sedimentary basins; OPEC coordinates oil production among member states to influence prices.

Constitutional ratification: Federalists supported the Constitution and a strong national government; Anti-Federalists demanded a Bill of Rights as a condition of support.

Amendment process: proposal by two-thirds of both houses or a national convention; ratification by three-fourths of state legislatures or state conventions.

Presidential powers: commander in chief, treaty negotiation (with Senate consent), veto, pardon, and the duty to deliver the State of the Union.

Judicial branch: Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in cases involving ambassadors and states; appellate jurisdiction is set by Congress; justices serve lifetime terms.

Political parties: two-party system reinforced by single-member districts and winner-take-all rules (Duverger's law); third parties often act as spoilers.

Campaign finance: Buckley v. Valeo (1976) treated spending as protected speech; Citizens United (2010) allowed independent corporate and union expenditures.

Civil liberties vs. civil rights: liberties protect individuals from government overreach; rights guarantee equal treatment and participation.

Bureaucracy: executive departments, independent agencies, and regulatory commissions implement policy; the merit-based civil service replaced the spoils system via the Pendleton Act (1883).

Circular flow: households supply labor and capital to firms and receive income; firms produce goods and services; government taxes and spends; the foreign sector trades.

Comparative advantage: trade benefits both parties when each specializes in goods with the lower opportunity cost, even if one is absolutely more productive.

Cost curves: fixed costs do not vary with output; marginal cost intersects average total cost at its minimum; a firm shuts down short-run if price falls below average variable cost.

Externalities: negative externalities (pollution) cause overproduction; positive externalities (education) cause underproduction; taxes and subsidies can correct them.

Public goods are nonrival and nonexcludable, leading to free-rider problems; common resources are rival but nonexcludable, risking the tragedy of the commons.

Money functions: medium of exchange, unit of account, store of value; the money multiplier ≈ 1 / reserve requirement ratio.

Economic growth: driven by capital investment, human capital, technology, and institutions; productivity growth raises living standards long run.

Business cycle phases: expansion, peak, contraction/recession, trough; a recession is commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of declining real GDP.

Neuroscience basics: the neuron transmits signals via dendrites (receive), axon (transmit), and synapses (chemical gaps); neurotransmitters include dopamine, serotonin, and acetylcholine.

Brain regions: frontal lobe (planning, motor control), parietal (somatosensory), temporal (hearing, language), occipital (vision); the cerebellum coordinates balance.

Developmental milestones: language acquisition follows babbling, one-word, and telegraphic stages; attachment styles described by Ainsworth include secure, avoidant, and anxious.

Personality theories: Freud's id/ego/superego; trait theory (Big Five: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism); Bandura's social-cognitive view.

Psychological disorders: DSM-5 classifies disorders; anxiety disorders, mood disorders (major depression, bipolar), and schizophrenia are major categories.

Sociological research: surveys, participant observation, experiments, and secondary analysis; reliability means consistency, validity means accuracy.

Social stratification: caste, class, and status systems; social mobility measures movement between strata; conflict theorists link stratification to power and resource control.

Cultural concepts: norms (rules), folkways (mild norms), mores (strong norms), sanctions (rewards/punishments); ethnocentrism judges others by one's own culture.

Ancient river civilizations: Mesopotamia (Tigris-Euphrates, cuneiform, Hammurabi's code), Egypt (Nile, hieroglyphics), Indus Valley (planned cities), China (Yellow River, dynastic cycle).

Classical Greece and Rome: Athenian direct democracy; Roman Republic's Senate and consuls; Roman law influenced Western legal codes.

Middle Ages: feudalism (lords, vassals, serfs), manorialism, and the Catholic Church's influence; the Crusades increased European trade with the East.

Renaissance and Reformation: humanism revived classical learning; Martin Luther's 95 Theses (1517) challenged indulgences and sparked Protestantism.

Age of Exploration: Columbus (1492), Magellan's circumnavigation (1519-1522), and the Columbian Exchange transferred crops, animals, and diseases across the Atlantic.

Enlightenment thinkers: Locke (natural rights), Montesquieu (separation of powers), Rousseau (social contract, popular sovereignty) shaped revolutionary thought.

French Revolution phases: 1789 storming of the Bastille, Reign of Terror (1793-94), rise of Napoleon (1799), and the Napoleonic Code's legal reforms.

Industrial Revolution: began in Britain with textile mechanization, the steam engine, and factory systems; urbanization and labor movements followed.

Earth-Sun relations: the tilt of 23.5° causes seasons; solstices mark maximum/minimum daylight; equinoxes have equal day and night everywhere.

Time zones: Earth rotates 360° in 24 hours, so each 15° of longitude equals one hour; the International Date Line roughly follows 180° longitude.

Water cycle: evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and runoff; watersheds drain into common outlets; aquifers store groundwater.

U.S. regions: Northeast (manufacturing, finance), South (agriculture, growing population), Midwest (farming, Great Lakes), West (arid interior, Pacific coast).

Migration patterns: rural-to-urban movement accompanies industrialization; suburbanization followed highway construction after World War II (Sun Belt growth).

Cartographic terms: absolute location uses coordinates; relative location uses reference points; site is physical setting, situation is regional context.

Natural hazards: earthquakes at plate boundaries, hurricanes along warm-ocean coasts, tornadoes in Tornado Alley, and floods on floodplains.

Agriculture types: subsistence vs. commercial; intensive vs. extensive; von Thünen's model locates land use by distance from market and transport cost.

Types of government: democracy (rule by people), republic (representative), monarchy, oligarchy, authoritarian, and totalitarian regimes differ in accountability and power distribution.

Legislative process: bill introduction, committee action, floor debate, passage in both chambers, conference committee reconciliation, presidential signature or veto.

Gerrymandering and reapportionment: House seats redistributed every 10 years after the census; districts must meet one-person, one-vote standards (Baker v. Carr, 1962).

Key landmark cases: McCulloch v. Maryland (implied powers, supremacy), Gibbons v. Ogden (commerce), Plessy v. Ferguson (separate but equal, later overturned).

Foreign and defense policy: treaties need Senate ratification by two-thirds; the War Powers Resolution (1973) limits presidential military action without Congress.

State and local government: most states have bicameral legislatures except Nebraska (unicameral); governors hold veto power; local charters define city authority.

Voting rights expansion: 15th (race), 19th (gender), 23rd (D.C. presidential vote), 24th (abolished poll tax), 26th (age 18) amendments.

Policy process: agenda setting, formulation, adoption, implementation, and evaluation; iron triangles link agencies, congressional committees, and interest groups.

Demand shifters: income, tastes, prices of substitutes and complements, expectations, and number of buyers; supply shifters include input costs, technology, taxes, and subsidies.

Consumer and producer surplus: surplus measures welfare; total surplus is maximized at competitive equilibrium; deadweight loss arises from taxes or price controls.

Elasticity and revenue: raising price increases revenue when demand is inelastic and decreases revenue when demand is elastic.

Comparative advantage formula: opportunity cost of good X = units of Y forgone / units of X gained; specialization follows lowest opportunity cost.

Inflation causes: demand-pull (excess aggregate demand), cost-push (rising input costs), and monetary growth; inflation redistributes wealth from lenders to borrowers.

Fiscal vs. monetary policy: fiscal is Congress and the President (taxing/spending); monetary is the Federal Reserve (money supply and interest rates).

International trade: tariffs tax imports, quotas limit quantities; a depreciating currency makes exports cheaper and imports more expensive.

Labor market: derived demand for labor depends on productivity; wages rise with demand for output and worker productivity; minimum wage above equilibrium creates unemployment.

Sensation vs. perception: sensation is receptor detection of stimuli; perception organizes and interprets sensory input; absolute threshold is the minimum detectable stimulus.

Learning schedules: variable-ratio reinforcement produces the highest, most resistant response rates; fixed-interval schedules produce scalloped response patterns.

Cognitive biases: confirmation bias favors supporting evidence; availability heuristic judges likelihood by ease of recall; anchoring relies on initial values.

Motivation theories: Maslow's hierarchy (physiological to self-actualization); intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation; drive-reduction theory explains homeostasis.

Group dynamics: groupthink suppresses dissent for consensus; social facilitation improves performance on simple tasks; deindividuation reduces accountability in crowds.

Research ethics: informed consent, confidentiality, and debriefing are required; Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) oversee human-subjects research.

Statistical concepts: mean, median, mode measure central tendency; standard deviation measures spread; normal distribution has about 68% of scores within one SD.

Sociology of institutions: family, education, religion, economy, and government perform socialization and social-control functions; education reproduces and can reduce inequality.

Early U.S. political parties: Federalists (Hamilton, strong central government, pro-British) vs. Democratic-Republicans (Jefferson, states' rights, pro-French).

Jacksonian democracy expanded white male suffrage; Indian Removal Act (1830) and the Trail of Tears displaced southeastern tribes.

Manifest Destiny: annexation of Texas (1845), Oregon Treaty (1846), and Mexican Cession (1848) after the Mexican-American War expanded U.S. territory to the Pacific.

Abolition and sectional tension: Missouri Compromise (1820), Compromise of 1850, Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) repealed the 36°30' slavery line.

Gilded Age: rapid industrial growth, laissez-faire policies, labor unions (AFL, Knights of Labor), and political machines in cities.

Imperialism: Spanish-American War (1898) gained Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines; the Open Door Policy addressed China trade.

Interwar era: Prohibition (18th Amendment, 1919) and its repeal (21st, 1933); the stock market crash of 1929 triggered the Great Depression.

Civil rights and Cold War overlap: Brown v. Board fueled desegregation; the space race began with Sputnik (1957) and led to NASA and the 1969 moon landing.

Continents and oceans: seven continents; five oceans-Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern, Arctic; Asia is the largest and most populous continent.

Major rivers: Nile and Amazon are longest by flow/volume measures; the Mississippi-Missouri drains the central U.S.; the Amazon has the largest discharge.

Mountain systems: Himalayas form from the India-Eurasia collision; Andes from oceanic-continental subduction; Rockies from past plate convergence.

Climate factors: rain shadows create dry leeward slopes; coastal upwelling cools adjacent land; continentality increases temperature extremes inland.

Population distribution: most people live in temperate coastal lowlands; the ecumene is the permanently inhabited area; dense clusters in East and South Asia.

Economic indicators by region: developed regions have high GDP per capita and low fertility; developing regions often have younger populations and rapid urbanization.

Map types: physical maps show terrain, political maps show boundaries, thematic maps show data (choropleth, dot density, isoline).

Environmental issues: deforestation in tropical regions, desertification at arid margins, and sea-level rise threaten low-lying coastal areas.

Constitutional principles: popular sovereignty, limited government, separation of powers, checks and balances, federalism, and individual rights.

Bill of Rights incorporation: the 14th Amendment's due process clause selectively incorporated most Bill of Rights protections against states (Gitlow, 1925 onward).

First Amendment tests: speech restrictions face strict scrutiny; obscenity uses the Miller test; establishment clause uses Lemon test (1971) or endorsement analysis.

Criminal procedure: Miranda v. Arizona (1966) requires warnings before custodial interrogation; Gideon v. Wainwright (1963) guarantees counsel in felony cases.

Congressional oversight: committees conduct hearings, confirmations, and investigations; the Government Accountability Office and CBO provide analysis.

Presidential succession: 25th Amendment clarifies vacancy and disability procedures; the Vice President and Speaker of the House follow in succession order.

Public policy types: distributive (benefits to groups), regulatory (rules on conduct), and redistributive (transfer of resources).

Comparative politics: presidential vs. parliamentary systems differ in executive selection and accountability; federal vs. unitary systems differ in power distribution.

Opportunity cost and trade-offs: the PPF's bowed-out shape reflects increasing opportunity cost; points inside the curve are inefficient, outside are unattainable.

Price controls: rent ceilings create housing shortages and reduced quality; agricultural price floors create surpluses requiring government purchase.

Tax incidence: the burden falls more on the less elastic side of the market; elasticity determines who bears the tax.

Monopoly: profit maximization occurs where marginal revenue equals marginal cost; monopolies restrict output and charge higher prices than competitive markets.

GDP limitations: excludes nonmarket work, underground economy, and environmental costs; per-capita GDP is a rough living-standard proxy.

Unemployment types: frictional (job search), structural (skill mismatch), cyclical (downturn); full employment includes frictional and structural unemployment.

Federal Reserve tools: open market operations are most-used; the discount rate and reserve requirements are less frequently changed; the Fed targets inflation and employment.

Balance of payments: the current account records trade in goods/services; the capital/financial account records investment flows; they balance in principle.

Classical conditioning terms: unconditioned stimulus elicits an unconditioned response; conditioned stimulus elicits a conditioned response after pairing; generalization and discrimination modify responses.

Memory phenomena: primacy and recency effects shape recall order; chunking expands working memory; the spacing effect improves long-term retention.

Intelligence theories: Spearman's g factor, Gardner's multiple intelligences, and Sternberg's triarchic theory (analytical, creative, practical).

Developmental research designs: cross-sectional compares age groups at one time; longitudinal follows the same individuals over time; cohort effects complicate cross-sectional results.

Social influence: compliance (direct request), identification (group attraction), and internalization (value adoption) describe increasing depth of attitude change.

Attribution theory: dispositional attributions explain behavior by personality; situational attributions explain by context; the fundamental attribution error overweights disposition.

Social institutions and change: modernization, urbanization, and globalization drive social change; social movements mobilize collective action for reform.

Measurement in social science: operational definitions specify how variables are measured; sampling must be random for representativeness; correlation coefficient ranges from -1 to +1.

Pre-Columbian societies: Maya (writing, astronomy), Aztec (Tenochtitlan, tribute empire), Inca (Andean road system, quipu record-keeping).

Colonial economies: New England relied on trade and fishing; the Middle Colonies on grain; the Southern Colonies on cash crops (tobacco, rice, indigo) with enslaved labor.

American Revolution: Declaration of Independence (1776) drew on Locke; Treaty of Paris (1783) recognized U.S. independence and set boundaries to the Mississippi.

Early republic: Washington's precedents, Hamilton's financial plan (national bank, assumption of debt), and the Whiskey Rebellion tested federal authority.

Westward expansion: Homestead Act (1862) granted land to settlers; transcontinental railroad (1869) linked coasts; Indian Wars and reservation policy displaced Native peoples.

Reconstruction: Radical Republicans imposed military districts; Black Codes and later Jim Crow laws restricted African American rights despite constitutional amendments.

Progressive presidents: Theodore Roosevelt (trust-busting, conservation), Taft, and Wilson (Federal Reserve Act 1913, Clayton Antitrust Act 1914).

Modern era: Great Depression relief through New Deal; post-1945 U.S. leadership in the UN (1945), NATO, and Bretton Woods economic institutions.

Earth's structure: inner core, outer core, mantle, and crust; tectonic plates float on the asthenosphere; earthquakes and volcanoes cluster at plate margins.

Rock types: igneous (cooled magma), sedimentary (compacted deposits), metamorphic (heat/pressure altered); the rock cycle transforms among them.

Climate zones: tropical (0-23.5°), temperate (23.5-66.5°), polar (66.5-90°); altitude and ocean currents modify zonal patterns.

Cultural geography: language families spread through migration and conquest; universalizing religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism) seek converts; ethnic religions stay localized.

Political boundaries: natural (rivers, mountains) vs. geometric (latitude/longitude lines); boundaries can be antecedent, subsequent, or superimposed.

Urbanization trends: more than half the world's population lives in cities; megacities exceed 10 million; primate cities dominate national urban systems.

Resource and trade geography: developed economies import raw materials and export manufactured goods; newly industrialized countries shift the pattern.

Geographic tools: GPS provides location; GIS layers spatial data; remote sensing uses satellites to observe land cover and change.

Federalism types: dual federalism (layer cake) vs. cooperative federalism (marble cake); grants-in-aid include categorical (specific purpose) and block (broad purpose).

Commerce Clause expansion: Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) and Wickard v. Filburn (1942) broadened federal regulatory power; U.S. v. Lopez (1995) limited it.

Election administration: primaries select nominees; general elections choose officeholders; the 12th Amendment separated presidential and vice-presidential ballots.

Public opinion measurement: random sampling, sampling error, and question wording affect polls; exit polls estimate voter behavior on election day.

Mass media roles: agenda setting (what to think about), framing (how to interpret), and priming (criteria for evaluation).

Civil rights legislation: Equal Pay Act (1963), Civil Rights Act (1964), Voting Rights Act (1965), and Americans with Disabilities Act (1990).

Judicial decision-making: precedent (stare decisis), originalism vs. living constitution interpretation, and judicial activism vs. restraint describe approaches.

International organizations: UN (peacekeeping, General Assembly), NATO (collective defense), WTO (trade rules), and IMF (monetary stability) serve distinct functions.

Aggregate supply and demand: short-run aggregate supply slopes upward due to sticky wages; long-run aggregate supply is vertical at potential output.

Multiplier effect: spending multiplier = 1 / (1 − MPC); a change in spending changes equilibrium output by the multiplier times the initial change.

Money supply measures: M1 includes currency and checkable deposits; M2 adds savings deposits and money market funds.

Interest rates and investment: lower interest rates raise investment and consumption; the Fed lowers rates to fight recession and raises them to fight inflation.

Comparative vs. absolute advantage: absolute advantage means producing more with the same resources; comparative advantage means lower opportunity cost and drives trade.

Market failure: monopoly power, externalities, public goods, and asymmetric information justify government intervention; regulation and antitrust address monopoly power.

Income distribution: Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient measure inequality; progressive taxes take a larger share from higher incomes.

Economic systems: traditional, command, market, and mixed economies differ in who answers the three basic questions (what, how, for whom to produce).

Research designs: naturalistic observation, case studies, surveys, correlational studies, and experiments vary in control and generalizability.

Experimental controls: random assignment, control groups, and double-blind procedures reduce bias; confounding variables threaten internal validity.

Emotion theories: James-Lange (body first), Cannon-Bard (simultaneous), Schachter-Singer two-factor (arousal plus cognitive label).

Stress and health: the general adaptation syndrome stages are alarm, resistance, and exhaustion; chronic stress suppresses immune function.

Therapy approaches: psychoanalysis (insight), behavior therapy (conditioning), cognitive-behavioral therapy (thought patterns), and biomedical (medication).

Social identity: in-group favoritism and out-group bias; stereotypes (beliefs), prejudice (attitudes), and discrimination (behavior) are distinct.

Socialization agents: family (primary), school, peers, and media; resocialization occurs in total institutions.

Demographic measures: birth rate, death rate, infant mortality, and life expectancy; the dependency ratio compares nonworking to working-age populations.