There are a lot of factors which influence the way human behavior develops, Some of this factors include hormones and heredity. The way we react to various things and experiences in our life solely depends on heredity and hormones. Nature and the way we were brought up affect our behavior.
When an individual is born he or she inherits some genes from his or her parents. These genes which usually undergo combination during fetus development end up resulting to an offspring who has unique genetic make up from each of his or her parents. It is this uniqueness that results due this combination which makes an individual to have certain physical traits later in his or her life. These traits can also be blended by environmental influence (Morris et al, 2005).
There are several behavioral traits which are attributed to heredity. A family line which is associated with certain tendencies such as diabetes, mental disorders, depression, anxiety and many more can possibly be passed on to the next generation and even to the proceeding ones. Various researches have found out that certain behavioral and disorders can be inherited, Maisto and Morris in the year 2005 found out that conditions such as depression, anxiety suffering from schizophrenia always have a family lineage follow up, this researchers also found out that children of individuals suffering from schizophrenia are eight times more likely to develop the condition than those children who were born of normal parents (Maisto, 2008).
Maneuvers to link the behavioral aggression to the gene that causes it has never yielded sufficient findings. This is made hard because of the part that environment also plays in shaping an individual’s behavior. The only studies which have yielded substantial evidence are those which show the association of extra or missing chromosomes with the incidences of certain disorders and physical malformations.
Hormones influence many human bodily functions such as development and growth, reproduction, sexual desire and metabolism. Apart from these functions they impact a lot on human behavior development and manifestation especially the behavior of having different moods. Hormones also have a huge impact on human behavior especially the manifestation of different moods.
At puberty stage, hormones play a critical role in the behavior development of individuals. At this stage in a person’s life the body develops rapidly and undergoes through many chemical and physical changes. A good example of the hormones which changes a persons behavior are Estrogen which causes ladies to start developing sexual desires and attraction to men and testosterone which makes boys at the puberty stage to start getting attracted to girls and develop sexual desires towards girls. The hormone, called testosterone also causes the development of aggression in boys and men. This makes the men and boys to become hyper and regard themselves with higher ego. Depression in women is sometimes caused by the drop in the levels of estrogen; this drop is usually resulted due to the offset of ovulation (Russell, 2001).
Hormonal changes in a human body can cause many shifts of human behavior and as we have already seen the hereditary factor is also an important factor as far as human behavior is concerned as long as the environment also makes it conducive for these factors to come into play. Hormones on the other hand do not necessarily depend on environmental influences so as to have affects on behavior. Hormones and heredity work in conjunction with each other to help in creating personality which is very unique in each individual.
References
Maisto, A. Morris, C. (2008).Understanding Psychology. USA: Pearson Education Publisher.
Morris, C. and Maisto, A. (2005). Psychology: An Introduction. USA: Prentice Hall publishers.
Russell G. G. (2001). Human aggression. Buckingham: Open University Press.