Expectancy Violations Theory Paper

Communication is defined as ‘a transactional process involving participants who occupy different but overlapping environments and create relationships through the exchange of messages, many of which are affected by external, psychological and physiological noise’ (Adler, R and Proctor, R. 2010). Communication doesn’t just mean verbal communication, as non-verbal communication is just as, if not, more important as verbal communication. According to Albert Mehrabian, only 7% of a message is communicated through verbal communication, 38% is communicated through your tone of

Communication involves the exchange of messages and is a process which all individuals participate in. Whether it is through spoken word, written word, non-verbal means or even silence, messages are constantly being exchanged between individuals or groups of people (Bach & Grant 2009). All behaviour has a message and communication is a process which individuals cannot avoid being involved with (Ellis et al 1995).

A theory is a set of systematic informed hunches about the way things work. A good theory goes beyond accepted wisdom and offers explanations and speculations about phenomena. Additionally, a good theory consists of a system of concepts which means that the theorist were able to make connections among his ideas. A theory tends to shape our perception of reality and behaviour and guides us through unknown areas.

According to Dyer (2013), the most commonly violated expectations are communication, decision-making, and conflict resolution and processes. The communication is a method to deliver messages between member to member in which communicating is necessary to accomplish the task effectively and obtain desire goal. The expectation of communication is easily violated because the members could have used a delivery method that violates the expectation of the member. In the Department of Defense (DoD), personal information that includes social security number and any personal sensitive information must be transmitted via encrypted message when sending the information electronically in accordance with 32 CFR 806b.29 (U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2013, p. 45). All members of the DoD expect the personal information be transmitted via encrypted message; however, the violation mostly occurs unintentionally. Thus, the sender who sent the personal sensitive information via unencrypted email has violated the expectation of the receiver and the sender has violated

Communication can be defined as a social interaction where at least two interacting agents share a common set of signs and a common set of rules (Schramm, 1954). There are different forms of communication, verbal and non-verbal. Verbal communication can be defined as a

Every day we make predictions. Its subconscious, but we do. Imagine meeting someone for the first time and you predicted shaking the person’s hand. In fact, you may have even extended your hand out, if the person you were meeting took the hand and pulled it into a hug, you have just experienced a violation of what you expected to happen. This is called expectancy violations theory. The expectancy violations theory was developed by Judee Burgoon. The theory is an in-depth look into how people respond to an offense to what they perceive as a social norm. Individuals make predictions based on their past interactions and have compiled their own expectations.

Lastly is Public distance, which is 10 feet and beyond. The Public distance can be described as the public distance, giving you plenty of space between the message sender and receiver. In this distance, effective communicators adjust their nonverbal behavior to conform to the communicative rules of their

When it comes to talking about theories of communication, it is easy to overlook the impact they have on our day-to-day lives. Often times when people think of theories they think of long boring explanations that have little meaning or pertinence to their lives. This, however, is not always the case. It may surprise some to find out that the interactions they have whether at work, with their loved ones, or even with a stranger all relate back to theories that explain why they do the things they do. This not only includes the face-to-face interaction we have in real life, but also through the relationships we see portrayed in television shows and movies. An example of this is how the uncertainty reduction theory plays into the relationship development between Belle and the Beast in the newest movie version of Beauty and the Beast.

“Expectancy violations exert significance on people’s interaction patterns, on their impressions of one another, and on the outcomes of their interactions” (Burgoon 1993:40). In other words, Judee Burgoon, founder of the expectancy violation theory, concluded from various experiments that people evaluate communication with others in a negative or positive regard, based on their expectation of the interaction and their opinion of the communicator. When people do not act in accordance with ones expectations, one resorts to evaluating their communication behavior, be it verbal or non verbal as well as how this behavior makes one feel. The following essay will further explore and explain the

It is difficult enough to interpret words accurately, in fact, there are no doubt more misinterpreted messages than not (Cherney and Tynan, 1990). When the element of nonverbal is incorporated, the rate of misinterpretations increases dramatically (Elgin, 1980).

In all communication events, unless there is a relationship between actions and words, the message can be wrongly interpreted. I observed a conversation between a bartender and a customer in busy and crowded bar. The customer wanted the buy one more double bourbon but the bartender refused to sell to him. This resulted in a series of communication theories, which will be analysed later.

This paper will go over the basic tenets of Expectancy Violations Theory (EVT) of communication and analyze how this theory is applied and tested in other communication studies. First, we shall define what the EVT is and it’s implications for communication studies using the two studies, “Being unfriended on Facebook: An application of Expectancy Violation Theory” and “The presence of cell phones in romantic partner face-to-face interactions: An expectancy violation theory approach”. Next we shall examine the study “A Psychophysiological Examination of Cognitive Processing of and Affective Responses to Social Expectancy Violations” on the neurological effects of negative expectation violations. The study “Why Emotions Matter: Expectancy

This theory has been subject to many articles and studies in the communication and social departments. Indeed, studying this theory can help us understanding human relations in interpersonal communication. Each of us has been one day confronted to uncertainty, whereas in initial encounters, or moving to a new a new place, or beginning a new work.

We have all heard the maxim “stick to the status quo.” The desire to adhere to societal norms influences our everyday actions and largely shapes how we interact with others. What happens when we stray from the norm and do something unexpected? For this assignment, Professor Striley, after explaining the expectancy violations theory, challenged her students to apply its concepts to violate a stranger’s expectations in public and record the subsequent response. Through this activity, I learned firsthand that low communicator reward valence potential could cause a seemingly ambiguous violation to seem negative. In this paper, I will first explain the expectancy violations theory and describe the expectancy my group violated for the assignment. Next, I will apply four concepts from the expectancy violations theory to my group’s violation. Finally, I will address my own reactions to my group’s violation and how it has further shaped by understanding of communicator reward valence and the expectancy violations theory as a whole.

Throughout the semester, we have studied numerous communication theories. Their purpose is to help understand exactly what happens when we interact with others. We might not necessarily agree with all of the theories, but the idea is to develop tools to evaluate situations we may encounter. Often, when the theories are explained in the readings or lecture, it is beneficial to apply the concepts to a "real life" situation. Using this approach, I will use a situation that many of us have faced, or will face, and analyze it according to a particular communication theory.