US Constitution and Federalism

Government and Politics

• The Mayflower Compact established a government based on the rule of law.
• The principle of federalism is a system of government where powers are shared between the national and state governments.
• The powers not delegated to the US by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states or to the people.
• The system of checks and balances in the US government allows each branch to restrain the power of the other two branches.

US Government

• The process of legislation in the US involves introduction, passage, and approval by the Senate and House, and finally, presidential approval.
• The Federal Trade Commission is responsible for protecting consumers from unfair business practices, including preventing deceptive advertising and regulating credit.

Supreme Court

• In McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), the Supreme Court ruled that states have no power to impede or control the operations of the federal government.

Trials and Proceedings

• In criminal proceedings, the burden of proof is greater than in civil trials, requiring a unanimous jury vote and proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

State Governors

• Most state governors have a greater ability to shape legislation than the President due to their line-item veto power.

Redistricting

• The purpose of redistricting is to realign state and congressional legislative district boundaries to reflect changes in the size and spatial distribution of the state's population.

Geography

• Absolute location is determined by latitude and longitude coordinates.
• A culture hearth is a geographic area where a particular culture originated and from which it spread.
• Remote sensing is a geographic tool used to measure rates of deforestation, such as in the Amazon rainforest.
• Earthquakes are most likely to occur in geological regions where two tectonic plates converge.

Demography and Population

• The continued use of indigenous languages in Latin America is a reflection of the persistence of distinct cultural identities among many indigenous groups.
• Industrialization and urbanization lead to a decline in birthrates and a shift in population distribution.
• The primary focus of trade in Australia and Oceania has shifted from European to Asian markets.
• Most Canadians live within 200 miles of the US border due to the harsh climate and unsuitable natural environment of most of Canada.

Energy and Environment

• Hydroelectric power has a significant environmental impact, including the destruction of plant and animal life and the alteration of natural waterways.
• Climate change would lead to dramatic changes in which regions are suitable for food production.
• The technology required to generate alternative energies, such as hydroelectric power, has an environmental impact.

Economics

• Economies of scale occur when a firm is able to increase production at a lower cost per unit of output.
• Market economies are characterized by consumer decisions based on price, quality, and personal preference.
• A multinational corporation relies on local subsidiaries to perform human resource management at overseas plants.
• The Environmental Protection Agency limits negative externalities, such as air and water pollution.
• Personal income is a coincident indicator that changes at the same time as shifts in general economic activity.

International Trade

• Comparative advantage is a concept that describes a country's ability to produce a product at a lower opportunity cost than another country.
• A decrease in the foreign exchange value of the US dollar increases the price of foreign goods in US markets.
• The International Monetary Fund helps debtor nations rebuild their international currency reserves.

Anthropology

• The holistic perspective in anthropology posits that all cultural institutions are related to one another.
• The various elements of a culture are interdependent, and changes in one element can lead to changes in others.

Additional Notes

• Wealth was not distributed equally among all members of late Paleolithic societies, as evidenced by the varying types of items found in burial sites.### Sociological Perspectives

• The value of objects found in graves correlates with the wealth of the individual buried, indicating unequal wealth distribution in society.

• Emile Durkheim's work focused on how societies maintain coherence during periods of social change, with an emphasis on organic solidarity, which explains how specialization and interdependence create social bonds in industrializing societies.

Group Dynamics

• As small groups grow larger, their intensity tends to diminish due to the addition of new members who are less emotionally invested in the group.
• New members may divide their energies among several groups, and the group becomes less important to their identity.

Deviance and Strain Theory

• Strain theory proposes that deviance occurs when societies provide unequal means of obtaining widely promoted goals, leading to a conflict between accepted norms and social reality, and ultimately, to anomie and antisocial behavior.

Psychoanalytic Theory

• Freudian psychoanalysis examines how internal psychological forces influence human behavior, emphasizing the role of unconscious drives and impulses in shaping behavior.

Psychosocial Development

• According to Erik Erikson's theory, adolescents face a conflict involving identity versus role confusion, and must establish a stable sense of personal identity.

Memory and Cognition

• The three major stages of memory are encoding, storage, and retrieval, with information being processed, stored, and recalled in response to cues.

Therapeutic Approaches

• Cognitive-behavioral therapies recommend teaching patients to identify and alter negative thinking associated with depression and other mood disorders.

Bias and Social Perception

• The view that a group of people lack time discipline and are uninterested in self-improvement is an example of out-group homogeneity bias, where outsiders are viewed as more similar than they actually are.

Research Methods

• Scatterplots are used to show the correlation between two variables in an experiment, graphically displaying the relationship between variables.