Heredity and Hormones essay

In spite of the progress of modern science, human behavior still often remains inexplicable. The motives and reasons forcing individuals to act in a particular way are often hidden from researchers and individuals themselves.

Nevertheless, specialists researching human behavior attempt to find the logical and scientific explanation to the basic trends and characteristics typical to human behavior. In this respect, it is possible to single out two major trends in modern science which explain human behavior either by influence of heredity or by the influence of hormones.

At first glance, heredity and hormones have nothing in common and, what is more, even the fact of their influence on human behavior is argued by psychologists and other specialists, especially those who support the idea of the dominance of social and other external factors on the behavior of individuals. Nevertheless, the fact that both heredity and hormones are internal forces that define in a way the behavior of individuals is one of the common features of these views. To put it more precisely, both supporters of the influence of heredity and the influence of hormones underline that it is human body, which under the impact of heredity or,  alternatively,  hormones,  defines the behavior of an individual.

At the same time,  it should be said that heredity and hormones influence human behavior in different ways. The mechanism of the influence of heredity is quite complicated but, in general, it is based on the principle of the domination of inherited features in the character and behavior of an individual. In this respect, it is possible to refer to a variety of hereditary factors that influence human behavior. For instance, the hereditary information may be encoded in DNA determining individual’s behavior. It is not a secret that the recent researches concerning DNA and heredity reveal the correlation between DNA and human behavior to the extent that DNA may define some traits of character and inclinations of an individual. For instance, it is argued that DNA may be responsible for individual’s aggressiveness. However, it is a well-known fact that an individual’s DNA can increase the risk of some diseases, including mental illnesses, or else, it is argued that obesity may be also inherited since inherited DNA may increase the predisposition of an individual to this health problem. This is why, in such a context, it is possible to speak about a significant influence of heredity on human behavior. In such a situation, the arguments concerning the existence of the gene of geniality seem to be particularly noteworthy, though they have not been scientifically proved yet.

Nevertheless, often children of outstanding people proved to be gifted too that may be explained by heredity.

Unlike, heredity, which is simply received by an individual from the past generations, and rather predispose an individual to certain type of behavior, the mechanism of the influence of hormones on human behavior is quite different. To put it more precisely, hormones are not directly received by an individual from his parents like DNA, for instance. In stark contrast hormones are rather universal components which are similar for all people but their quantity and combinations may vary depending on an individual. In such a way, even if it is possible to speak about certain correlation between heredity and hormones then it is possible to speak about heredity only in terms of humans as the entire biological species. Moreover, the development of hormones substantially depends on the external factors. Even though some hormones, such as those typical to men, like testosterone, are the characteristic of some part of human population and their quantity and, therefore, the influence may vary depending on an individual, still they may be influenced under the impact of external factors but act, i.e. influence human behavior from within. For instance, nowadays, there exist medicaments that can influence hormones, stimulating or depriving their development. Consequently, under certain conditions hormones’ influence on human behavior can be regulated from outside through the regulation of hormones in human body that is practically impossible in the case of heredity for people cannot change the DNA code of a human at the present moment. What is more, in many countries such experiments with DNA are totally forbidden.

Furthermore, it should be said that hormones and therefore their influence on human body can vary. For instance, in the period of perturbation, the human body undergoes radical changes, to a significant extent, under the impact of hormonal changes that gradually decreases as an individual matures. This is why, under the influence of hormones in this period, human behavior change dramatically that leads to the numerous problems in their relationships with adults and peers, unpredictable and rapidly changing behavior. In stark contrast, heredity implies that human behavior is defined from the moment of birth till the end of the life and an individual can vary his behavior only when some inherited traits are not fully realized or underdeveloped.

Thus, in conclusion, it is possible to say that heredity and hormones can really influence human behavior. Basically, both heredity and hormones relate to the internal world of an individual but, nevertheless, their influence may vary that is particularly obvious in the rapid changes of behavior of teenagers under the impact of hormones while heredity impact is more stable and it is not susceptible to radical changes. Nevertheless, the impact of heredity does not exclude the impact of hormones and vice versa, instead, these impacts rather complement each other.



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