Archive of June 2008
2008.06.19
Schemas and Normality
Sorry for my extreme lack of posting. The end of the semester became quite hectic and was full of late nights, long days, really long papers, and lots of scurrying on my behalf. Despite all that, classes got out about a month ago -- and for at least the first half of that month, I have no excuse. My laptop's video card went out about 2 1/2 weeks ago, and I am awaiting HP for it to be fixed. This, so far, has been a long process. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the techie I talked to when explaining my problems.
I don't know about others, but I have a somewhat negative view whenever something of mine stops working and I have to talk to a techie. For one thing, they have to go through their rigmarole to ensure that they are dealing with someone who is having a genuine hardware / software failure. I understand this -- but at the same time, I can't help but feel impatient when techie-dude asks his set of standard questions.
Fortunately for me, the techie I talked to listened. That actually surprised me as, according to my previous experiences, the techies wouldn't begin listening until every standard solution had been tried. This techie did try one solution in order to ensure that I wasn't being silly when I was talking about how I first noticed the problem with video-out. When that didn't work, and I explained further that my laptop would power-cycle because the video card wasn't booting (among all of the other things I tried before contacting him) he decided that it was indeed a hardware failure.
So now, until my laptop is fixed, I am left computer-less most of the day until my boyfriend gets home and I can steal his away from him. The disconcerting thing is that we have generally the same laptop -- but with completely different settings and layouts. So whenever I use his, I keep thinking that it is mine (since it feels and looks like mine) but then only a few things will actually respond "normally."
Then I started thinking about "normal." What is normal? (What are cows?) The simplest explanation I could come up with is that it is a schema each of us has for how things should be. And, between individuals, there is obviously going to be some variation -- sometimes this variation can be quite a lot. But one thing that I've realized (I don't know if anyone else really has, so please speak up if you have -- even if you haven't) is that the more things are the same between individuals, the more the minor differences stand out and seem all the more jarring. As with my boyfriend's laptop, I keep expecting certain things to be in certain places, a specific set of settings, and so on. When these do not line up, it seems especially jarring to me -- because his laptop is nearly identical to mine: same screen size, same make, etc. The only physical differences is that his laptop has a web-cam at the top, something which is easy to ignore since it is small and built into the machine.
However, when I use a different machine, I don't balk at the differences. After all, it looks different, so I'm not expecting it to be anything like mine. Therefore, when something doesn't match up, it's more of an annoyance which makes me wish I had my machine -- but it's not jarring. I don't immediately think about how it isn't my machine because it clearly is nothing like mine. Therefore, the differences are not jarring. In other words, the differences are expected because I do not forget that this isn't my machine.
That's when schemas become really apparent to me. And where I find merit in Script Theory. I find it to be fairly simple and easy to understand. It's something that is easily recognizable once you know how to look for it. I believe it also has the potential for explaining habits and why forming new ones and breaking old ones takes concerted effort -- especially as one grows older.
For more information / an interesting read, see also: Cognitive Dissonance, A list of Cognitive Biases, and Stereotype Inevitability