Megan S
Case Study Paper
October 21, 2013

Sheldon Cooper is a character in the fictional television show, “The Big Bang Theory”. Sheldon is extremely knowledgeable and brilliant in the things he knows and is passionate about, but everything else that doesn’t interest him, he completely ignores. Sheldon is a theoretical physicist at Caltech, having earned his B.S., M.S., M.A., Ph.D., and Sc.D. He lives with his roommate and Caltech colleague, Leonard Hofstadter, an experimental physicist. Having lived together for 10 years, the two have become best friends. Leonard often times feels obligated to explain Sheldon's behavior and serve as a mediator between him and the people he is interacting with. The two are usually hanging out with …show more content…

Anytime something happens that relates to anything in the roommate agreement, Sheldon is, within seconds, pulling out his copy of the agreement and reading aloud what should be done, questioning why is wasn’t done in that particular manner. When we are first introduced to Sheldon, his OCD is very clear. He is very particular about “his seat” on the couch. He always has to sit in the same spot and if someone else is sitting there, it drives him crazy. When asked about it he says, “In the winter that seat is close enough to the radiator to remain warm, and yet not so close as to cause perspiration. In the summer, it's directly in the path of a cross-breeze created by opening windows there and there. It faces the television at an angle that is neither direct, thus discouraging conversation, nor so far wide as to create a parallax distortion. I could go on, but I think I've made my point." A person with OCD is also very rigid, as is Sheldon. He has a daily food routine, and when messed with, causes much distress. For example, Monday is Thai food, Tuesday is a Big Boy Burger from the Cheesecake Factory, Thursdays are Pizza night, etc. He also says that he only drinks hot chocolate during the months that have the letter “r” in them. Another obsessive compulsive part of Sheldon’s personality is how he knocks on a door. For example, when he goes across the hall to Penny’s apartment to ask her a question, he knocks three times and then says