In agreement with the concepts we learned in class, my decisions and behaviors seem to be influenced both by my personality and by the

situation I am involved in. This is very apparent when I'm in different settings. For example, when I am in class, I am more focused on listening to the lectures and taking notes, and my responses to different things are really following the pace of the professor. I become curious when he presents new information, think about the questions he poses as he does so, and much of my personality is not apparent. In this case, the situation I'm involved in largely set the responses I have to situations. Things are different when I am at my leisure or interaction with just a few friends. When asked "what do you want to do now?" I'm freer to let my personality influence my responses. For example, if I had free time, I can decide to do things that I really enjoy. Those things, in turn, are likely to be determined by my personality. In addition, with little environmental "requirements" or constraints, I will be more likely basing my decisions are behaviors on my internal states, such as emotions, values, and experiences. For example, when I was done with classes, I decided that I would message my friends and go eat lunch together. This decision is partly determined environmentally. I decided to go eat lunch because I had no classes to attend and could spend time doing so. But my decision to message my friends and eat with them is largely determined by personality traits (such as extraversion) and more personal factors such as experiences or emotional states (essentially, I felt like doing so, without being prompted or pushed). In this case, my personality was a large part of my responses. This is also visible when I think about the decisions I have made in a day. I was asked about what I am studying for my major. I replied Biology. Then I realized that in order to study biology, I would have to follow the departmental requirements and take classes out of the list of approved courses. Even though the selection of classes are really determined by factors out ide myself, the choices I make regarding whether or not I want to take a class largely depends on my personality and personal factors. The biology department maybe requiring me to take a class on Ecology, but whether I find a certain ecology class interesting largely depend on my interests, experiences, knowledge, and perhaps even genetic makeup. I may have decided to study Biology because something in my personality finds the subject interesting. This would be largely due to personal factors. However, my need to take the ecology class is largely environmental. It was determined by someone else, and is present in my response as a "I have to choice" situation. Even if I chose to study Biology, the requirements are not something I get to choose. This reverses when I decide on the specific classes, however. Ecology is a requirement, but my decision to take ecological evolution rather than ecological conservation largely depend on my interested and some knowledge about what these classes cover. But overall, the response I have here is still a combination of both personal and environmental factors. In this case, it is almost a 50:50 split. In summary, I have found that most, if not all, of my responses to situations have been a combination of personality and situational influences. There is never a case where I am completely free from the influences of things around me. Even when I am sitting alone, I may be influenced by the way objects are placed around me, or the lighting, among other things. However, there is also never a case where my personality is completely ignored. Even in a very structured setting such as the classroom, my responses to my professor is somewhat different from those of other students. This is likely a result of differences in our personality. I am very curious and active during learning, so I may ask more questions than someone who prefer thinking about things internally first. The way I comprehend my professor also depends on my mood, knowledge, and experiences. So the bottom line is clear: my responses are always a combination of personality and environment, and the degree to which I am influences by the environment or my personality can also vary quite a bit depending on the situation.