Chapter 7 - Emerging Adulthood and Early Adulthood

• It is the age of identity exploration. It is during emerging adulthood that people are exploring their career choices and ideas about intimate relationships, setting the foundation for adulthood.
• Arnett also described this time period as the age of instability. Exploration generates uncertainty and instability. Emerging adults change jobs, relationships, and residences more frequently than other age groups.  
• This is also the age of self-focus. Emerging adults focus more on themselves, as they realize that they have few obligations to others and that this is the time where they can do what they want with their life. 
• This is also the age of feeling in-between. When asked if they feel like adults, more 18 to 25 year-olds answer “yes and no” than do teens or adults over the age of 25.
• Emerging adulthood is the age of possibilities. It is a time period of optimism as more 18 to 25 year-olds feel that they will someday get to where they want to be in life. 
• Body mass index (BMI), expressed as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared (kg/m2 ), is commonly used to classify overweight (BMI 25.0–29.9), obesity (BMI greater than or equal to 30.0), and extreme obesity (BMI greater than or equal to 40.0).
• gender is the cultural, social and psychological meanings associated with masculinity and feminity.
• A person’s sense of self as a member of a particular gender is known as gender identity.
•  Because gender is considered a social construct, meaning that it does not exist naturally, but is instead a concept that is created by cultural and societal norms.
• For many adults, the drive to adhere to masculine and feminine gender roles, or the societal expectations associated with being male or female, continues throughout life. 
• Consequently, many adults are challenging gender labels and roles, and the long-standing gender binary; that is, categorinzing humans as only female and male.
• Two-spirit which is a modern umbrella term used by some indigenous North Americans to describe gender-variant individuals in their communities
• People often confuse the term transvestite, which is the practice of dressing and acting in a style or manner traditionally associated with another sex (APA, 2013) with transgender. 
• Human sexuality refers to people's sexual interest in and attraction to others, as well as their capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. 
• Sexual motivation, often referred to as libido, is a person's overall sexual drive or desire for sexual activity.
• The sexual response cycle is a model that describes the physiological responses that take place during sexual activity. 
• The excitement phase is the phase in which the intrinsic (inner) motivation to pursue sex arises. 
• The plateau phase is the period of sexual excitement with increased heart rate and circulation that sets the stage for orgasm. 
• Orgasm is the release of tension, and the resolution period is the unaroused state before the cycle begins again.
• The hypothalamus is the most important part of the brain for sexual functioning. This is the small area at the base of the brain consisting of several groups of nerve-cell bodies that receives input from the limbic system.
• Oxytocin, also known as the hormone of love, is released during sexual intercourse when an orgasm is achieved.
• Follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) is responsible for ovulation in females by triggering egg maturity; it also stimulates sperm production in males. 
• Luteinizing hormone (LH) triggers the release of a mature egg in females during the process of ovulation.
• Vasopressin is involved in the male arousal phase, and the increase of vasopressin during erectile response may be directly associated with increased motivation to engage in sexual behavior.
• Estrogen and progesterone typically regulate motivation to engage in sexual behavior for females, with estrogen increasing motivation and progesterone decreasing it.
• Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) or venereal diseases (VDs), are illnesses that have a significant probability of transmission by means of sexual behavior, including vaginal intercourse, anal sex, and oral sex. 
• A person's sexual orientation is their emotional and sexual attraction to a particular gender.
• Heterosexuality, which is often referred to as being straight, is attraction to individuals of the opposite sex/gender, while homosexuality, being gay or lesbian, is attraction to individuals of one's own sex/gender. 
• Bisexuality was a term traditionally used to refer to attraction to individuals of either male or female sex, but it has recently been used in nonbinary models of sex and gender (i.e., models that do not assume there are only two sexes or two genders) to refer to attraction to any sex or gender.
• Alternative terms such as pansexuality and polysexuality have also been developed, referring to attraction to all sexes/genders and attraction to multiple sexes/genders, respectively.
• Asexuality refers to having no sexual attraction to any sex/gender.
• The fraternal birth order effect indicates that the probability of a boy identifying as gay increases for each older brother born to the same mother.
• The United States is heteronormative, meaning that society supports heterosexuality as the norm. Consider, for example, that homosexuals are often asked, "When did you know you were gay?" but heterosexuals are rarely asked, "When did you know you were straight?"
• homophobia which encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). 
• Recognized types of homophobia include institutionalized homophobia, such as religious and state-sponsored homophobia, and internalized homophobia in which people with same-sex attractions internalize, or believe, society's negative views and/or hatred of themselves.
• Adults are also not as influenced by what others think. This advanced type of thinking is referred to as Postformal Thought
• Adolescents tend to think in dichotomies; ideas are true or false; good or bad; and there is no middle ground. 
• This ability to bring together salient aspects of two opposing viewpoints or positions is referred to as dialectical thought and is considered one of the most advanced aspects of postformal thinking.
• Consequently, a number of young people have become NEETs, neither employed nor in education or training.
• Sexism or gender discrimination is prejudice or discrimination based on a person's sex or gender.