Both, I do believe we make the choices by ourselves however we make the choices based on previous events. According to my physics studying brother the only random the universe is in quantum mechanics. So people base their actions on previous events. However it is our choice what to do with this information still. If I would have a stick and a person standing with his back to me in front of me. I could choose to hit him or not to hit him, but I would be influenced by what I know of that person and what he had done in the past.