Beh 225 Week 2 Assignment

Hormones and heredity are a very important factor in a person’s behavior. Traits get passed down through family’s generations. Thought process and habits, good and bad, are hereditary. The nervous system and the endocrine system maintain chemical balance in each person. Hormones are created from a chemical substance that is released from the endocrine glands and carried through the blood stream. Behavior changes drastically once hormones start to take over.

The endocrine glands that these hormones are produced through are as follows; pancreas: produces insulin and glucagon which work to maintain blood sugar levels, adrenal glands: produces ephedrine which affects a person’s reaction to stress and raises heart beats, pineal glands: produces melatonin which controls a person’s sleep cycles, parathyroid gland: produces thyroxin which control metabolism, and ovaries and testes: produce estrogen and androgens which control sexual reproduction. Each gland has a different role in shaping bodily behaviors. For instance, the pineal gland controls the body’s sleep and wake cycle by creating a hormone called melatonin. When melatonin is thrown off track, excessive tiredness may occur and in some cases the inability to fall asleep may occur. The inability to fall asleep or feel excessively tired may or may not be something a person can control and a person’s behavior may change drastically because of it. In another case, the pancreas which produces a hormone called insulin that works to remove glucose from the blood stream may become thrown off track due to unhealthy eating habits or may even be hereditary. Once the pancreas is unable to create enough insulin to remove glucose from the bloodstream, diabetes will occur. When glucose levels get too high a change in behavior is to follow, usually a negative one. Choosing a healthy diet to prevent this is a person’s choice, but on the other hand if diabetes is hereditary there is nothing a person can do about it....