Just call me Ms. Monk

I am a creature of habit to say the least. As much as I hate to admit it, I am OCD (or CDO – OCD in the correct order). I am a very neat and organized person to the point that my mother calls me Ms. Monk, after the main character Mr. Monk, the OCD detective in the television show Monk. To this point, my family will even go into my room and move stuff around on purpose to see if I notice and to get a rise out of me. This ‘order’ within my life even extends outside of my home. Even when I run errands I prefer to do them in a certain way.

            Every Sunday, my mother, sisters and I venture to Target. When we arrive at Target we have a set route of how we walk around the store. We start by going through the clearance aisles (got to get those deals) and then proceed through the rest of the store hitting the different sections of the store in a specific order. I don’t know how this predetermined route came to be, but it is something that I naturally do, it has become second nature to me. Unbeknownst to me, this was an event schema or ‘script’. A script is something that helps us understand different situations in order to be better able to foresee the various goals, behaviors, and outcomes that result from a particular situation (Abelson 1981; Read, 1987). In other words, a script is something that helps us understand or predict how a situation will occur (Abelson 1981; Read, 1987). As such, my route or normal routine that I take while walking through Target is something that helps me to better organize my shopping trip that also helps me to ensure that I won’t forget anything (i.e., so I can anticipate all of my Target needs).

            Although I knew that I preferred to walk a certain route while in my local Target, I never know how important this script was or how strong I was on my event schema for this particular activity. The strength of my script only became apparent when I was asked to deviate from my normal routine while shopping at Target. Specifically, one day my friend needed to go to Target and asked me to accompany her. Like the good friend I am, I obliged her without hesitation. Once we arrived at our local Target I, as usual, started to head down the aisle that I normally do. I hadn’t gotten further than the card section (i.e., a few feet) before my friend grabbed my arm and said, “What the hell are you doing??” Not registering what I did wrong I promptly remarked, “Shopping at Target.  What are you doing?” Based upon the look on her face I could tell this routine of mine was not normal for her. After a moment of awkward facial expressions we promptly deviated from my script and got the items she need and left. 

(n=500) 

**I just hope my script never becomes strong enough to do this**

**....or let a cat make my bed**

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Abelson, R. P. (1981). Psychological status of the script concept. American Psychologist, 36, 715-729. 

PrankvsPrank (2012, November 23). BLACK FRIDAY EMPLOYEE PRANK. Retrieved on February 18, 2013, from http://youtu.be/vtNTgwzt7iY. 

Read, S. J. (1987). Constructing causal scenarios: A knowledge structure approach to causal reasoning. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 288-302.