My initial thinking was that most of the things that form us as a person are environmental based. However I did see that today after watching all the presentations ( 18/09/17) that who we are starts off genetic determined and shapes over time. Meaning that the things we are exposed to can effect us as people or even the way that we are bought up can shape us in certain ways. For me it is hard to say, and I personally don’t think that there is a right answer to this question, of course there are statistics and experiments done but I think it comes down to one thing and that is how you were shaped over time. It is a confusing topic to cover that has many perspectives but if I had to answer the question of “do genetics determine your characteristics” I would say that when we are born we can inherit our parents genes however it is how we shape these characteristics over time ( e.g. personal encounters, trauma and other situations can trigger certain fears, anger or happiness, this can then shape our feelings towards certain things)