ORELA Social Science NT303 flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Primary source

A document or artifact created during the period under study by a participant or eyewitness, such as a letter, diary, photograph, or official record. It offers direct evidence but reflects the creator's perspective.

Secondary source

An account created after the events by someone who did not witness them, such as a textbook, biography, or scholarly article. It interprets and synthesizes primary evidence.

Separation of powers

The division of government authority among legislative, executive, and judicial branches so that no single branch holds all power. Each branch has distinct functions and can limit the others.

Federalism

A system in which power is constitutionally divided between a central government and regional governments, each with authority the other cannot abolish. The U.S. Constitution embodies this arrangement.

Checks and balances

Procedures allowing each branch to limit the others, such as presidential veto, legislative override and impeachment, and judicial review of laws. They prevent concentration of power.

Bill of Rights

The first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1791, protecting individual liberties such as speech, religion, due process, and fair trial against government overreach.

Judicial review

The power of courts to declare legislative or executive acts unconstitutional, established in Marbury v. Madison (1803). It makes the judiciary a check on the other branches.

Reconstruction Amendments

The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, ratified after the Civil War, abolishing slavery, guaranteeing citizenship and equal protection, and protecting voting rights regardless of race.

Industrial Revolution

The transition from hand production to machine manufacturing beginning in late 18th-century Britain, driven by steam power, factories, and urbanization. It reshaped labor, class, and global trade.

Decolonization

The post-World War II process by which colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean achieved independence from European empires, often through nationalist movements and sometimes armed struggle.

Enlightenment

An 18th-century intellectual movement emphasizing reason, natural rights, and government by consent, influencing the American and French Revolutions. Thinkers include Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau.

Absolute location

A position stated precisely using a coordinate system such as latitude and longitude, for example 40 degrees north, 75 degrees west. It is independent of the observer's viewpoint.

Relative location

A position described by direction, distance, or relationship to other places, such as north of the river or near a port. It depends on context and the reference point chosen.

Five themes of geography

Location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, and region. These themes organize geographic inquiry by connecting spatial patterns with human activity and environmental change.

Coriolis effect

The apparent deflection of moving air and water caused by Earth's rotation, to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and left in the Southern. It shapes winds, currents, and storm rotation.

Climate versus weather

Weather is short-term atmospheric conditions at a place; climate is the long-term average and variability of those conditions, typically assessed over 30 years or more.

Push and pull factors

Conditions that drive migration: push factors such as conflict or unemployment repel people from a place, while pull factors such as jobs or safety attract them to another.

Scarcity

The condition in which resources are limited relative to unlimited wants, forcing individuals and societies to make choices. It is the foundation of economic analysis.

Opportunity cost

The value of the next-best alternative given up when a choice is made. It measures the true cost of a decision beyond the money spent.

Supply and demand

The relationship in which quantity demanded falls as price rises and quantity supplied rises as price rises. Their intersection sets equilibrium price and quantity in a competitive market.

Gross domestic product

The total market value of final goods and services produced within a country's borders in a given period. It is a standard measure of economic output.

Inflation

A sustained increase in the general price level, reducing the purchasing power of money. It is commonly measured by changes in a consumer price index.

Monetary policy

Central bank actions managing money supply and credit, chiefly through interest rates and reserve requirements, to influence inflation, employment, and economic growth.

Fiscal policy

Government use of taxation and spending to influence the economy. Expansionary policy increases spending or cuts taxes; contractionary policy does the reverse.

Market structures

Models describing competition: perfect competition has many sellers and identical products; monopoly has one seller; oligopoly has few; monopolistic competition has many sellers with differentiated products.

Independent variable

In an experiment, the factor deliberately manipulated or varied by the researcher to observe its effect on outcomes. It is the presumed cause in a causal design.

Dependent variable

The outcome measured in an experiment, expected to change in response to the independent variable. It is the presumed effect being studied.

Correlation and causation

Correlation means two variables change together; causation means one produces the other. Correlation alone cannot establish causation because confounding variables may explain the association.

Random assignment

Placing participants into experimental or control groups by chance so groups are comparable on average. It supports causal inference by reducing systematic bias.

Socialization

The lifelong process through which individuals learn norms, values, roles, and skills of their society, primarily through family, peers, schools, and media.

Social stratification

The hierarchical ranking of groups by unequal access to resources, power, and prestige, shaped by class, race, gender, and other statuses. It affects life chances.

Cultural relativism

The principle that beliefs and practices should be understood within their own cultural context rather than judged by another culture's standards. It is a core method in anthropology.