Maia Butler Social Psychology Essay 1 Swearingen Indoctrination as a Tool of Coercion and Self-Mastery as Inoculation Insofar as a person can be defined as merely his or her thoughts and actions, it could be argued that we are each quite literally different people at any given moment than we were at any other moment in time. A person does not ever repeat the same actions in precisely the same way or have exactly the same thoughts; the neurons fire a tiny bit differently each time. This difference can be observed even when a person is engaging in obsessive thinking, where the same thought or phrase is repeated again and again, or when performing a sequence of movements so familiar that conscious thought does not have to enter into the process, such as performing martial arts kata (basic forms) or shuffling from bed to toilet in the middle of the night. We have learned and formed new neural connections since the last time we had that thought or performed that sequence of movements. Different brain chemicals are present in varying quantities and we are changed. But our capability to learn and form new neural connections, far from constantly reinventing us as new people, is but one facet of personhood. We cannot be defined, as people, by our thoughts and actions alone. Because the daily challenges of life are dynamic, our responses to these challenges must likewise be dynamic. This dynamism in responsive behavior draws on a wealth of biological reflexes, physiological needs and drives, personal memories, unconscious biases, judgments and assumptions, conscious thought processes, habits, behavior patterns, demeanor, emotional influences, personal coping mechanisms, personality traits and other rational and irrational motivations. These myriad, interrelated responses can in some ways define us but, as the Realist position states, personhood is more than just the sum of these parts. (The Structure of Social Groups, p.33) Being humans and thus social creatures,...