Sheldon Cooper -- agree to disagree!

As for now, we know how Sheldon scores in terms of openness to experiences and neuroticism. Today, we will add to this list agreeableness -- the next trait on the Big Five list. Agreeableness is a tendency to be pleasant and accommodating in social situations.

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Thus, is Sheldon an agreeable person or not?

To answer this question we need to take a look at his behaviors and thoughts when he is in some kind of interaction with other people. It seems that a good relationship to consider is his friendship with Leonard, his roommate. Sheldon is a very atypical housemate, not only because of his 'customs' and habits, but due to his 'roommate agreement'. The latter is a very detailed legal document specifying the probable and less probable occurrences in life of both guys. It not only specifies when is the 'bathroom time' of each of the guys, but also what they are obligated to do if one of them is invited to Switzerland to see the CERN supercollider.
In case there is a tie, the agreement holds that Sheldon breaks the tie; when Leonard objected to this provision, Sheldon broke the tie to get his way. This example depicts really well that Sheldon is not a very agreeable person, he agrees only to things which are in his favor. In other cases, typically his 'roommate agreement' becomes handy to enforce his will.

Taking into account that Sheldon is always right, he can be seen as a person who agrees to disagree. Besides this, sometimes Sheldon gets what he wants by behaving in a childish way (e.g. by walking away and hiding in a comic book store, or by threatening to disclosure delicate information, like the relationship between Leonard and Priya to her parents).

Sheldon threatening Leonard and Priya with email disclosure

We should add that Sheldon is also the person, who shapes the most of his life events among the whole group. The reason for this is, as Howard told Rajesh: 'Nobody cares where you're gonna sit, you're not crazy', when he had to gave his place to Sheldon.


People low on agreeableness are not concerned with others' well-being and primarily like to compete rather than cooperate, which is at the core of Sheldon's character. Therefore, taking all these into account we would suggest that Sheldon has a very low score on this subscale of the Big Five.


Next week, drop in to read more about the extraversion trait of Sheldon's personality.

Sheldon Cooper, PhD (actually 2 times PhD) and his personality

Today, we will continue to analyze the characteristic traits of the most complex figure in 'The Big Bang Theory' sitcom. In the CheeseCake Factory menu for today this time we have Neuroticism!

What does neuroticism mean in personality terminology?

The name of this trait was based on the Greek Mythology, and the story of Narcissus - a man, who got in love with his own reflection in the water. The strength of this affection was so great, that it resulted with Narcissus death, because he was unable to part with his beauty. In psychology, this term is associated with self-admiration and belief in one's perfectionism. However, in the Big Five this trait has a different meaning, it can be described as emotional instability with experiencing a wide range of negative emotions and states (e.g. anxiety, anger, depression, envy). People with high levels of neuroticism are prone to be easily upset, irritated and vulnerable to experience stress, which is hard to cope with. Also, they can interpret daily life situations as threatening and try to avoid them. Neuroticism correlates with negative psychological states like lower intelligence, poorer memory, impulsiveness, lower feelings of self-efficacy or self-confidence. Finally, neuroticism can be linked to a tendency to analyze self and the world in a critical manner, resulting in a more depressing view.

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Now, how do the personal behaviors and attitudes of Sheldon fit the above description?

Firstly, based on almost 5 finished seasons, it is rather hard to say that Sheldon expresses a lot of negative affect. Sometimes he behaves cynical, unemotional or even contemptuous, but he does not seem to be envious, aggressive or depressed. It is true, however, that his life is based mostly on rationality and not on emotions. Maybe he is afraid of them, because he can't cope with negative emotions? An example for this can be found within the scene when Penny and Leonard are arguing, whereas Sheldon turns on the blender to drown their quarrel with noise (Series 3 Episode 07 – The Guitarist Amplification).


Similarly, Sheldon doesn't seem to be irritated easily or have difficulties with stress in daily life. Although, he has a social phobia, which causes him a lot of nerves when he has to speak in public (see the Series 3 Episode 18 – The Pants Alternative). A lot of specific anxiety can be also observed in his functioning, as Sheldon has developed a variety of routines to prevent himself from using public transportation, shaking peoples' hands (a type of germophobia and hypochondria mix), being in the same place as sick people, or using public restrooms. He is scared by birds, dogs and teddy bears. Still, he has a reasonable explanation for each of his 'specific routines'. 

Sheldon using Lysol

Lastly, Sheldon does not see the world in an overly depressive manner, but sometimes he feels sad. One reason making him emotional is 'stupid people' ('I cry because people are stupid and that makes me sad'). All in all, Sheldon seems to be a mildly neurotic person, mainly because of his exaggerated fears, but his emotional stability stops him from scoring too high on this dimension.

Till next week!

We will investigate Sheldon's agreeableness
(dust-off your notes about 'the roommate agreement') :-)
This should be fun!

To have a Sheldon Cooper as a friend - is his personality attractive?

If you enjoy watching episodes of a certain hilarious sitcom, The Big Bang Theory, this post can give you a hint about the personality of the most controversial character of the series: Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper, PhD.

What can be said about his personality based on observational data from various comments and behaviors of this character? To describe Cooper I will use 5 personality traits, known as The Big Five. These traits are: Openness to experience, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, and Extraversion.

So, let me take a closer look at Dr. Cooper's openness to experience. Most of the BBT fans would agree that Sheldon does not express too much openness to experiences in his life, especially new ones that are not part of his daily or weekly routine. Simply try to envision his great opposition to any kind of change, novelty, or even brief departure from a plan. He is unable to eat anything different than oatmeal on Mondays, even if he thinks that the alternative food being offered to him is very tasty. What's more, he prepared a "roommate agreement", which contains clauses for almost all possible situations and the rules for dealing with them. Obviously, he hates surprises and in general tries to be ready for anything the world can bring. There is also probably no need to mention his attachment to "his spot" on the couch.

Here you can introduce yourself with his detailed weekly schedule (http://wiki.the-big-bang-theory.com/wiki/Schedule):

Monday: Oatmeal for breakfast. Thai takeout night - Sheldon orders mee krob and chicken satay with extra peanut sauce from Siam Palace.

Tuesday: The boys eat at The Cheesecake Factory; Sheldon always has the barbecue bacon cheeseburger; barbecue, bacon and cheese on the side.

Wednesday: Halo Night, beginning at 8:00 pm, and Comic Book Night.

Thursday: used to be Souplantation night, but Sheldon apparently changed it to Big Boy night when he discovered the barbecue burger at The Cheesecake Factory. In 2008, this changed to pizza from Giacomo's; Sheldon orders his with sausage, mushrooms, and light olives. In April 2008, the boys decided to make the third Thursday of every month "Anything Can Happen Thursday", but Sheldon's digestive system had a little problem with the change.

Friday: Chinese food and Vintage Game Night.

Saturday: Sheldon eats a bowl of cereal with 1/4 of a cup of 2 % milk for breakfast while watching Doctor Who on BBC America. Sheldon's laundry night, 8:15 pm.

 

As you see, trying to assess Sheldon's openness to experience, we would say that he is placed very low on this dimension. But openness to experience is also characterized by the ability of being creative, intelectually curious and having a rich imagination, all being a good representation of Sheldon's cognitive style. That's why at the end of the day Sheldon probably would be scored more near the middle or high areas of the openness dimension, even though that assessment would be mostly from the perspective of Sheldon himself rather than others: for example, Sheldon would consider himself to be open to new ideas, but only when he came up with them or considers himself unaware of the topic (learning languages, swimming, or social conventions); in contrast, when he believes himself to be an expert on the topic, he disregards opinions of others even if they are correct (case in point: Raj's contribution to Sheldon's research that got Raj's hired by Sheldon). Additionally, even when Sheldon does not consider himself an expert, he gets discouraged very rapidly if he cannot learn the topic quickly enough, concluding that the topic is hokum or that others know less than he does; good examples of that are his studies of acting and driving.

 

The questions is: Is it hard to live with such a closed attitude? I would envision that it is most difficult, promoting a lot of frustration for both Sheldon and his friends. Should we expect any change in his predisposition for openness to experience? I don't think so, as personality traits are not prone to being changed, especially if one does see them as his positive and adaptive characteristics. Citing Sheldon: 'I have spent my entire life, trying to bring order into the universe.' I believe he will be still doing it.

But is he happy with himself? Probably, yes. If we think of happiness as the opportunity and ability of following one's beliefs, attitudes and visions. Definitely, Sheldon seems to be one of the happiest people on this planet.

 

Wanna know about Sheldon's 4 other traits? Check in here next Saturday and share your opinion about Dr. Cooper and his attitude to novelty in the comments section!

How do you feel with others' emotions?

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A lot of recent research highlights the impact of one's social network on their life. Why is that we are influenced by people who sometimes we even do not know? Is there some kind of benefit underlying the emotional contagion between human beings?

Sure, there is, and it has been with us for ages. But first, to define this phenomenon we will be following the idea presented in the article of Elaine Hatfield, John T. Cacioppo and Richard L. Rapson that emotional contagion is 'the tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of another person's and, consequently, to converge emotionally'. From the evolutionary point of view, the spread of emotions is beneficial and important for survival, because – for example – when a predator is coming the emotional arousal can spread from animal to animal, enabling them to runaway and find a safer place. Recently, researchers at University of Chicago observed that rats became distressed when they saw other rats in distress, or they displayed pain behavior if they saw other rats in pain, suggesting that the most principal form of empathy is well known to other species. But emotional contagion serves human beings as well, it was helpful to our ancestors, enabling them to understand each other in a time before verbal communication was possible.

People share emotions, both positive and negative ones. In fact, we do so even through use of electronic devices, spreading our emotions with phone calls, emails or tweets, affecting the moods of others. When one is smiling at you, you smile back, even if it is a stranger. This is known as imitation. If someone cries, you experience more or less sadness and/or urge to help. In small children such contagion is irresistible, you can ask a kindergarten staff to hear that one crying kid means all kids will be in tears, in just a few minutes. As adults we are more developed in emotional management, we've learned how to live with our emotions and control them. But different people can stand on different levels of their ability to catch others' emotions. Not everyone will feel the same emotion as you and in same magnitude, even if it is your best friend.

If you would like to see how contagious are others' emotions for you, log into our website: www.beyondthepurchase.org and take the Emotional Contagion Scale.