AEPA Social Science NT303 flashcards
AEPA Social Science NT303 · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Mayflower Compact
- 1620 agreement among Plymouth settlers to govern themselves by majority consent, an early example of self-government in colonial America.
- Great Compromise
- 1787 constitutional agreement creating a bicameral Congress with population-based representation in the House and equal state representation in the Senate.
- Reconstruction Amendments
- The 13th (abolished slavery), 14th (citizenship and equal protection), and 15th (voting rights regardless of race) amendments ratified after the Civil War.
- Marbury v. Madison
- 1803 Supreme Court decision establishing judicial review, the power of courts to declare acts of Congress unconstitutional.
- Electoral College
- Body of 538 electors chosen by states; a candidate needs 270 votes to win the presidency, with electors equal to House seats plus two senators per state.
- Checks and balances
- Constitutional design letting each branch limit the others, such as presidential vetoes, congressional override, and judicial review.
- Strict scrutiny
- Highest judicial standard applied to laws classifying by race or burdening fundamental rights; the law must serve a compelling interest narrowly tailored.
- Federalism
- System dividing power between a national government and state governments, with enumerated national powers, reserved state powers, and shared concurrent powers.
- Opportunity cost
- The value of the next-best alternative forgone when a choice is made; it underlies the production possibilities frontier and trade decisions.
- Price elasticity of demand
- Percentage change in quantity demanded divided by percentage change in price; demand is elastic when the absolute value exceeds one.
- GDP formula
- Gross domestic product equals consumption plus investment plus government spending plus net exports (exports minus imports), measuring domestic output.
- Comparative advantage
- A country's ability to produce a good at lower opportunity cost than a trading partner, the basis for mutually beneficial specialization and trade.
- Open market operations
- Federal Reserve buying or selling of government securities to change bank reserves and thereby influence short-term interest rates and the money supply.
- Classical conditioning
- Pavlovian learning in which a neutral stimulus paired repeatedly with an unconditioned stimulus comes to elicit a conditioned response.
- Operant conditioning
- Skinnerian learning in which consequences shape behavior: reinforcement increases a response and punishment decreases it.
- Piaget's stages
- Four cognitive stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational, describing how children reason from infancy through adolescence.
- Bystander effect
- Tendency for individuals to be less likely to help in an emergency when others are present, explained by diffusion of responsibility.
- Confirmation bias
- Cognitive tendency to seek, interpret, and remember information that supports existing beliefs while ignoring contradictory evidence.
- Latitude and longitude
- Coordinate system where latitude measures distance north or south of the equator and longitude measures east or west of the Prime Meridian.
- Plate tectonics
- Theory that Earth's lithospheric plates move over the asthenosphere, causing earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain building, and seafloor spreading at boundaries.
- Demographic transition model
- Model tracing population change through stages as birth and death rates fall with economic development, shifting from high growth to stability.
- Rule of 70
- Formula estimating population doubling time by dividing 70 by the annual percentage growth rate.
- Push and pull factors
- Conditions driving migration: push factors encourage leaving a place, pull factors attract migrants to a destination; obstacles can block movement.
- Rain shadow
- Dry conditions on the leeward side of a mountain range because moist air releases precipitation as it rises on the windward side.
- Columbian Exchange
- Post-1492 transfer of crops, animals, people, and diseases between the Americas and Afro-Eurasia, reshaping diets and populations.
- Magna Carta
- 1215 English charter limiting royal power and establishing due-process principles that influenced later constitutional thought.
- Containment policy
- Cold War strategy of limiting Soviet expansion through economic aid, alliances, and military deterrence, exemplified by the Truman Doctrine and NATO.
- Lemon test
- Three-part standard from Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) for establishment clause cases: secular purpose, no primary religious effect, and no excessive entanglement.
- Miranda v. Arizona
- 1966 ruling requiring police to inform suspects of rights to silence and counsel before custodial interrogation.
- Deadweight loss
- Loss of total economic surplus when a market is not at competitive equilibrium, caused by taxes, price controls, or monopoly.
- Phillips curve
- Curve showing an inverse short-run relationship between unemployment and inflation; shifts with expectations and supply shocks.
- Social stratification
- Sociological concept describing hierarchical ranking of groups by wealth, power, and status, with mobility measuring movement between strata.