Prompt: Research indicates that the characteristic we are born will have many much more influence on our personality and development than any experiences we may have in life. Which do you consider to be the major influence?

Recently studies found that human behavior is more influenced by the nature of genes than experiences in life. While others argued that heredity affects personality, I believe that the experiences is the prime determiner of personality and development. Ċ On the one hand, I agree that innate characteristics determine a person's behavior. It is more likely related to genetic code, as well known as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) which is inherited from our parents. Thus, each individual has his own identity. In the field of behavioral genetics, Kazuo Murakami, Ph.D found that genes comprised of positive and negative genes which control human behavior completely. The activation of positive genes will lead genetic mutations to perform good behavior, and the opposite occurs while the negative ones active. However, the result also show that environment is the determinant factor to ignite both type of genes. Ċ Nevertheless, I believe that experiences gained from environment have a greater impact on individual personality. One of the main powerful factor is family. A person might be born as a sanguine person, but raise in a broken home family. As the consequence, he could become a pessimistic person when he grew up. Educational institutions also able to influence individual characters. Some badly behaved children registered to religious school for trained to be a well-qualified individual. This environment could change their behavior, since they performed a good personality in society after finished their study. Moreover, human interactions in community provides many experiences that able to sharpen our talent and ability. Ċ To sum up, it is evident that although heredity as one of determinant factor, I strongly believe that experiences has a greater impact to our behavior. Therefore, people have to choose the appropriate environment in order to plan a better-qualified future.