Character Analysis of the Big Bang Theory

From the perspective of psychology, the very concept of normalcy is a paradox in itself. It is difficult to establish a measure of normality upon which people to adjudged people. The TV show Big Bang Theory primarily focuses on characters of above-average intelligence most of whom are very different from normal. Indeed, the comedic essence of the said TV series focuses on how the characters are abnormal despite the fact that they are both highly intelligent and educated. To shine a light on the abnormalities exhibited by the geniuses, the program also includes some seemingly ordinary individuals. However, even the seemingly ordinary individuals also have some extreme and abnormal character straits. On the other hand, even the most abnormal of genius characters such as Sheldon Cooper still exhibits a variety of ordinary traits. More importantly, interactions between the characters in the series as it progresses to create positive and negative changes in their characters. Further, the series also provides narratives, which seek to explain some of the characters traits found in many of its characters. The TV series thus presents the ideology that as far as character is concerned, normalcy is a fluid notion, and further that nature and nurture combine to influence human character.

Leonard Hofstadter 

Based on his portrayal in the series, Dr. Leonard Hofstadter comes out as a hybrid between the abnormalities of the genius and general normalcy in the populace. Hofstadter is a Ph.D. level trained physicist and a researcher. For a start, Hofstadter is to some extent open to new experiences and does not shy away from dating. With regard to conscientiousness, he tends towards the easy-going side, a fact that creates a distinction between himself and the other geniuses in the sitcom. When it comes to extraversion, Hofstadter is a pretender. He is most comfortable staying away from the limelight but will always seek to present himself as extremely sociable. On the issue of agreeableness, Hofstadter is both friendly and compassionate more so towards his primarily awkward genius friends. Finally, with regard to Neuroticism, Hofstadter manifests bravado but is, in essence, shy and sensitive more so when he is with company.

According to the sitcom, Hofstadter has an IQ of 173, which qualifies him as a genius. His above-average brain makes learning very easy for him, as he does not have to study rigorously to understand complex issues like most people. Even when carrying out complicated research, complex phenomenon is easy for him to understand. With regard to abnormal behavior, Hofstadter is what common parlance refers to as a geek. He retains many science fiction paraphernalia from programs such as star wars. He also enjoys playing with these sci-fi gadgets, although he hides this fact in order to appear normal, more so to his romantic interests.

Hofstadter’s relationships take a tripartite dimension. The first is a complicated and frosty relationship between him and his family, mainly represented through how he relates with his mother. This relationship causes him a considerable amount of stress. The second is a cordial and mutually beneficial relationship with his friends who are mainly geniuses like him. Finally, there is his romantic relationships with a number of women, key among this his girlfriend Penny who eventually becomes his wife. Hofstadter is reliable in relationships and does his best to be good to his relations. He is also adept and committed to resolving conflicts that either involve himself or affect those around him. His social life is primarily limited to those closest to him and those that he works with; hence, he lacks an expansive social life.

Sheldon Cooper 

Dr. Sheldon Cooper exhibits excessive abnormal behavior as compared to all the geniuses in the sitcom. Cooper is a Ph.D. level trained physicist and as child prodigy who attained his doctorate as a teenager. He is eventually idiosyncratic as he lives by his own rules most of which are socially peculiar. From the perspective of openness to experience, Cooper is extremely consistent and cautious. He prefers to do things his own way no matter what anyone else prefers. Regarding conscientiousness, Cooper is meticulously organized and uses a comprehensive process to carry out day-to-day activities. Dr. Cooper also prefers to be solitary and reserved, interacting with people only when he has to. Cooper also scores poorly with regard to agreeableness and will not shy away from offending others in order to have his way. With regard to Neuroticism, Cooper is secure and confident, a hilarious fact since he is extremely awkward socially.

Despite being a genius with an IQ of 187, Cooper’s awkwardness in life also manifests in his cognitive traits. Although normal phenomena are easy for him to understand, he employs weird approaches when seeking to understand complex subjects. For example, when seeking to solve a complex equation on a whiteboard, he will try to look at it from different angles physically as a means of understanding it. Surprisingly, his weird approaches normally work. Further, Dr. Cook normally exhibits abnormal behavior as he has his own peculiar way of undertaking even the most mundane activities. His idiosyncratic behavior constantly places him in conflict with others. However, he ignores the conflicts to the detriment of others, including those closest to him such as his girlfriend. His lack of care about how others feel ensures that he is mostly not stressed.

Cooper has a close relationship with his best friend Hofstadter, his mother, and in the latter parts of the sitcom, with his girlfriend/wife Amy Fowler. Cooper normally listens to his mother who has a massive and positive influence on his life. Hofstadter and Fowler try hard to influence Cooper but he mainly ignores them. In most cases, they are only able to relate with Cooper by adjusting to his peculiar behavior. From a social perspective, Cooper has also no interactions due primarily to his idiosyncratic behavior.

Penny Hofstadter 

Penny Hofstadter, simply going by the name Penny for most of the sitcom is the manifestation of modern normalcy in the sitcom. Penny is a young woman without a college degree who travels to California in the hopes of making it big in showbiz. She happens to be a neighbor to Cooper and Hofstadter. Despite their differences in character and academic achievements, she is able to befriend the two Ph.D.’s and ends up marrying one. Penny is inventive and curious, as she is ready to interact and learn from others. She is also easygoing and careless jumping in an out of relationships easily and willing to get drunk regularly. Penny is also outgoing and energetic. What she lacks in academic prowess, she makes for in streets smarts. The streets are her informal school and she takes to them with gusto. Further, Penny is friendly and even manages to develop a comfortable relationship with the awkward Dr. Cooper. Finally, Penny is sure and confident in herself, as despite her lack of advanced education, she is able to relate positively with geniuses.

For most of the sitcom, Penny’s cognitive traits entail learning the hard way through experience. Her street smarts come from a process of trial and error. Similarly, her acumen in relationships comes from failed relationships including a nullified marriage. Penny is mostly normal, with her primary abnormal behavior being her propensity to take too much wine and being comfortable rather than worried about her drunken tendencies. Penny shares little about her background, which may be a mark of strained family relationships. Her recurring relational motif in the sitcom is her long term on and off relationship with Hofstadter that eventually results in marriage. Her relationship with Hofstadter also manifests a lot of conflict and stress in her life. However, Penny shows an advanced ability to overcome both conflict and stress to attain her goals. Penny also has the most flowery social life in the sitcom, complete with numerous friends and romantic interests.

Howard Wolowitz 

Howard Wolowitz, an aeronautics engineer falls within the relatively normal side of the character curve in the sitcom Big Bang Theory. Despite being an engineer, Wolowitz’s friends consider him to be of limited intelligence and education, having only attained a master’s degree from the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Wolowitz is inventive and curious both in his private life and due to his professional pursuit as an engineer. He is even willing and capable of working in the Space Station, an undertaking that requires a lot of adjustment on his part. Further, Wolowitz is easy-going and careless. He considers himself a womanizer, thus exhibiting carelessness in his private life. Similarly, despite having a sensitive job, creating equipment for use in space, Wolowitz never takes it seriously, leading to numerous errors. He is also outgoing and energetic as he considers himself a womanizer, although most women reject him. However, Wolowitz is friendly and kind to his close friends, more so his close friends Cooper and Hofstadter alongside his best friend Rajesh Koothrappali. Finally, Wolowitz is extremely sensitive and looks down upon himself. He considers his friends as better than him because they are geniuses. Wolowitz also indicated that he was too ugly to be a father.

Wolowitz is an engineer whose cognitive traits resemble those of Penny, a waiter. Instead of seeking to study and learn formally, Wolfowitz prefers to monkey around and learn things the hard way. Indeed, his friends at one time had to whisk him to the emergency room after trying to masturbate using a robotic arm. Due to his easygoing way, he is in constant conflict with his friends, colleagues, and acquaintances but he never seems to learn from his mistakes. His social and personal bonds are also weak, due to his poor social skills. However, as the show progresses, Wolowitz’s social skills improve slightly and even manages to get married.

Raj Koothrappali 

Raj Koothrappali is a Ph.D. trained astrophysicist and a genius in his own right. He is of Hindu heritage but does not adhere to the dictates of the faith. Further, Raj is exhibits metrosexuality despite being fully heterosexual. Raj is extremely consistent in life having developed comprehensive approaches to carrying out even mundane activities. He is also efficient and organized, seeking to limit his social circles as opposed to his best friend Howard. With regard to extraversion, Raj exhibits nuance, as sometimes he will prefer being alone while at others, he will be outgoing. Rah is also friendly and considerate both towards his close friend Howard, Cooper and Hofstadter and towards their female friends. Finally, Raj is extremely sensitive and nervous and this has contributed towards his selective mutism.

From the perspective of cognitive bias, Raj is extremely intelligent and is able to learn complex subjects with relative ease. He does not need to work hard at anything due to his genius minds. Among his abnormal behaviors, include his selective mutism, which exponentially complicates his life. One the one hand, Raj cannot talk to a woman unless he is drunk, yet he says awkward and embarrassing things when he is drunk. How abnormalities place him in conflict with both family and friends even as it causes him anxiety and stress. However, Raj is always willing to go out of his way to solve the conflicts he creates. From a social perspective, Raj is beloved by almost everyone due to his positive personality when he is sober. He has no serious love interests but is successful in wooing several women for casual sexual liaisons. His girly ways also endear him with the girls who treat him as one of their own.

Amy Fowler 

Army Fowler is like a feminine version of Dr. Cooper, whom she eventually marries towards the end of their sitcom. She has a Ph.D. in neurobiology and is so congruent to Cooper that a computerized dating up pares them together. Fowler also exemplifies the ability of transformation in character traits as the series progresses. Fowler begins as consistent and cautious but loosens up as the show progresses. She is organized and meticulously efficient, just as Cooper. Fowler is initially solitary and reserved by gradually, she becomes easy-going to the extent of having Penny as her best friend. Despite being a genius, Fowler is compassionate but aloof, although her aloofness gradually thaws. Finally, Fowler is secure and confident in herself as the beginning, but her romantic internet in Cooper gradually makes her insecure.

From the perspective of cognitive traits, Fowler is a traditional scientist who prefers to learn through experimentation. Her research involves weird subjects such as substance abuse among primates. Fowler’s abnormal behavior is mainly allied to her work, which she discusses often. Having a desire to get wild animals addicted to narcotics is clearly abnormal. Fowler is not into conflicts as she behaves sociably towards people. However, she gets into ugly fights with Cooper, some of which affect her psychologically but she is always willing to work them out with him. Little is known about any social life in Fowler’s past but she is able to develop a functional social life with Cooper’s friends.

Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz 

Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz is akin to the opposite of Amy Fowler’s transformation. Fowler begins as an aloof academician who ends up as close friends with the like of Penny. Bernadette begins as a friend and colleague of Penny the waiter but ends up as an aloof scientist. She uses hard work and circumspection to get what she wants in life, including a Ph.D. level education and Howard Wolowitz for a husband. Bernadette is also a pretender who is willing to act as the situation demands instead of acting naturally. For example, after she begins dating Wolowitz, she acts dumb in order to fit into the traditional stereotype of women being dumber than the men in their lives are. Bernadette is inventive and curious, a waiter to works her way into being a leading scientist. She is also efficient and organized to the point of being conniving. Bernadette is also outgoing and with a rich social life, which she uses to her advantage. However, she is detached emotionally, treating others as a means to an end. Finally, Bernadette is secure and confident though she will sometimes act sensitively when it suits her purposes.

Whereas Bernadette is sharp and intelligent to some extent, she has to work very hard to attain the levels of academic she has attained. Her cognitive trait is thus rigorous. She exhibits limited abnormality per se but will act abnormal such as pretending to be dumb in order to attain something. Bernadette has profound personal and social relations but she sometimes uses them as a means to an end. She is seldom stressed but will get into conflict with others due to her conniving ways. Bernadette is eventually a good wife to Wolowitz and a good mother to their children.

Conclusion 

The character traits of the main characters in the sitcom Big Bang Theory both shed light to and complicate an understanding of human personality. On the one hand, there are geniuses with awkward and complicated traits who, through interacting with others develop a semblance of normalcy. Cooper, Hofstadter, and Fowler fall in this first category. Others such as Penny may be brass and crude but through interacting with refined individuals find a level of refinement. Yet there are those like Raj and Wolowitz who remain almost the same throughout the sitcom. On the other hand, there are those like Bernadette who undergo a complete metamorphosis in status, without changing in character. It is evident from the above that to some extent, human character depends on nature as some people are predisposed to act in a certain way. However, nurture also plays a significant role as reflected by those who keep on changing due to environmental factors.