The role of genetics is a hard to describe, but many people realize that our genes make up a part of who we are. While scientists do not know how big of a part that is, I believe that every single part of whom we are, from physical traits to how we react or perceive the world, is somewhat influenced by genes, while they are merely affected more or less by the environment in which we live.
If we were to look at physical traits, we would find that a child would look partially like the mother, and partially like the father, (and even other relatives). However, some traits, like height, would need a mixture of both the parents’ genes and the environment. If a child has extremely short parents, it would be very unlikely for them to be extremely tall, and vice versa. However, the environment the child lives in would determine the amount of nutrients and hours of exercise the child gets and that would change the height of the child. The less of these things the child receive, the more unlikely they will reach their full height in which their genes will allow, and the more of these things they receive, the more likely they will reach their full height. This is not the only environmental factor that influences the height of a child though. If the child is always extremely stressed or nervous because of social issues, they might not be able to obtain all the nutrients they eat, and that may also prevent the growth of the child. Other multifactorial traits may include intelligence, flexibility, and even how athletic one is.
Our mental and behavioural traits would also depend on both our genes and our environment. Using adoption as an example, I believe that the adopted child will grow up to behave and think more like their family than biological family, leading to behaviour mainly influenced by the environment. The child will have certain characteristics that came from their genes, for example curiosity, sociability, aggressiveness, and physical characteristics like...