Hormones and Behaviors

The endocrine system secretes hormones through the blood this takes a varying amount of time to take effect. Hormones carry messages. Certain hormones can affect aspects of the human body at different times. One such time is during puberty. This is the time in an individual’s life that the body changes. Hormones activate behaviors such as aggressiveness and sleepiness (Morris,Maisto, 2005). Mood, emotional reactivity, learning, and resistance to diseases are also attributed to hormones. The thyroid gland produces thyroxin, from this gland an individual’s metabolism is controlled. Therefore hormones determine the size, energy, and alertness of an individual. The pineal gland secrets melatonin a hormone that helps regulate the sleep and wake cycles of an individual. Gonads and ovaries both secrete testosterone and estrogen. Testosterone is considered to be the male hormone and is give traditionally male attributes such as aggressiveness. Estrogen is the female hormone and traditionally gives female attributes (Morris, Maisto, 2005)
The endocrine system allows for the body to keep itself in check and know what is going on in the world. Humans pass on their genes to their offspring; offspring are not exactly like the parents but certain traits are repeated. Chromosomes are the way in which genes are passed down, they come in pairs. An offspring gets half of the father’s chromosomes and half the mother’s chromosomes. There are recessive and dominate genes. The dominant gene is the strongest trait and typically the norm of a family. The recessive gene is why some families with all dark haired members may have a fair haired member down the line because the gene for light hair is in the mix.
Heredity does not work in the same time frame has hormones do. The hormones may take a matter of seconds or minutes while heredity may not show itself for years. This lag in heredity can have affects on the behavior of an individual. A man that has a family that has hereditary