Because individuals embody a plethora of habits or action tendencies, so they can be many things. Their actions can take on a different character depending on the situation, and on the nature of the relevant interaction. It is the practical difference that makes a difference. However, institutions vary to the degree that they nurture the liberation of an individual's capacities for inventiveness, resourcefulness, and responsibility. Institutions that liberate capacities related to creativity, curiosity, and initiative change individuals from within.
Institutions inhibit growth when the organization is treated as an end in itself.
15 Institutions that are democratic capitalize on the diversity of individuals within them. 16 Rather than ask blind allegiance of any individual to the institution at the expense of personal actualization, individuals within democratic institutions would divide the labor within the institution to allow unity in diversity. Given the effect of different situations on individuals' growth, nonessentialist institutions would provide a variety of contexts and opportunities for practical interactions among community members. Educational Implications of Populational Thinking When teachers and administrators practice essentialist thinking, they categorize on the basis of their preconceived notions. In their study of teachers' interpretations of students' behavior, Hugh Mehan, Alma Hertweck, Sam Edward Combs, and Pierce Julius Flynn found that teachers do think typologically and that this affects their judgment.