Heredity and Hormones Essay

Heredity and hormones play a very important role in human life to the extent that they can define human behavior. At the same time, the arguments concerning the impact of heredity and hormones are very controversial because the views on their impact various consistently. On the one hand, heredity is viewed as a dominant power that defines the behavior of a person, while, on the other hand, there is the opposite view that hormones play more important role and affect the behavior of an individual consistently. In such a situation, it is really important to clearly define what actually the impact of heredity and hormones on human behavior is.

Speaking about heredity, it should be pointed out that, in spite of the fact that heredity was traditionally viewed as one of the major factors that determine the behavior of an individual, this phenomenon is still not fully researched.

To put it more precisely, the recent development of genetics revealed a lot of new information concerning the impact of the DNA, which bear the hereditary information about an individual, on the behavior and development of an individual. In fact, the researchers of the DNA revealed the fact that people can be genetically predisposed to some diseases, including psychiatric ones, which can significantly affect their behavior. Moreover, it is even argued that the DNA may produce the impact on the formation of the character of a person and define some traits of the character.

At the same time, the supporters of the idea of the determinant influence of heredity on the behavior of an individual often referred to empirical knowledge. In this respect, it should be said that heredity was viewed as the factor that defines the behavior of an individual in such a way that the behavior of children will more likely to be similar to the behavior of parents. Or else, the supporters of the significant role of heredity in human behavior referred to examples when people inherited similar professional qualities or skills from their parents and in general often inclinations of children were often similar to those of their parents. In such a situation, the conclusion was made quite definite that heredity determines human behavior.

However, at this point it is possible to argue concerning the extent to which heredity can affect the behavior of an individual. It is obvious that a person cannot live in an isolation and, therefore, children from the date of their birth are susceptible to the influence of their social environment. As their social environment is represented by their parents it is possible to argue that it is not some inherited factors that make the behavior of children similar to that of their parents, but it is rather the social experience that makes children act as their parents do because they learn from them the models of behavior which children at the early age attempt to follow.

At the same time, it is impossible to deny the fact that heredity influences human behavior, but it is not the only factor that defines human behavior. In this respect, it is possible to remind about the existence of hormones which produce very serious impact on the functioning of human body and on human behavior as well. It should be pointed out that hormones can stimulate the change of the mood of a person as well as influence his/her behavior. For instance, endorphins can contribute to the formation of positive emotions and feelings of a person, while the male testosterone can, in contrast, provoke the aggressiveness of an individual and lead to some unpredictable or aggressive actions.  Depending on the quantity of such hormones in human body, the behavior of an individual can change consistently.

The impact of hormones on human behavior may be easily traced when adolescents are observed and examined. It is a well-known fact that adolescence is the period of significant physiological changes of human body and it is a transitional stage between childhood and adulthood. It is in this period of life the hormonal activity of the human body is the highest. This means that the human body produces hormones in consistently higher quantities than the body of an adult or a child. It is under the impact of hormones physiological changes occur. At the same time, the behavior of adolescents is absolutely unpredictable and the role of hormones, in this regard, is very significant because the discharge of a large number of hormones stimulates the rapid and unexpected changes of the behavior of an adolescent. As hormonal activity decreases, the behavior of a person becomes more stable and predictable.

Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is possible to conclude that heredity and hormones influence the behavior of humans. At the same time, it is necessary to underline that neither heredity nor hormones solely can determine the behavior of an individual. In fact, the behavior of an individual is defined by a variety of internal and external factors, among which heredity and hormones are really very important.



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