Nonverbal Expectance Violation Theory

Expectancy Violations Theory is a theory that studies how individuals react when cultural norms that are held within a society are broken. A time when I experienced someone breaking a nonverbal norm with me occurred 4 months ago while I was dating my now ex-boyfriend Khaled, a man from the country Kuwait. Kuwait’s culture is dramatically different from the culture I have grown accustomed to in the United States, therefore, the cultural norms held within our societies differ greatly as well. In the United States we are usually expected to eat our meals with utensils, our own plate, and sit at a table with chairs. This is an example of an expectancy. As defined by our textbook, expectancies are “thoughts and behaviors anticipated in conversations.” (131). While eating at a table with utensils is considered a cultural norm in the United States, in Kuwait this is

Also, the environment represents the interpersonal distance between the two people. For those who are having a blind date, it is neither proper for them to stay closely like the official couples, nor to keep long distance like acquaintances. Sense of awkwardness can also appear when the two stay too close to each other at the first date. According to Expectancy Violations Theory by Judee Burgoon, a communication scholar at the University of Arizona, personal space is invisible and variable that defines people’s preferred distance from the others (Griffin, Ledbetter, Sparks, 2015). Edward Hall, an anthropologist at Illinois Institute of Technology attached great significance to respecting others’ personal space and adjusting nonverbal behavior

Steven A. Beebe, Susan J. Beebe, Mark V. Redmond ,Terri M. Geerinck . Interpersonal Communication: Relating to Others, Pearson Education Canada; 5 edition (Feb. 15 2010)

There are many variables in interpersonal communication; sex and gender, race and ethnicity, age and social class, just to name a few. The variables in which were most present in

Knapp, M. L., Vangelisti, A. L. (2005). Interpersonal Communication and HumanRelationships. (5th ed.) Boston: Pearson.

Through the Social Learning Theory, one can absorb new behaviors from others or one can form attitudes toward something that can in turn influence behavior. The attitudes we acquire may sometimes be implicit or explicit and depending on the strength of these attitudes and environmental factors, behaviors may come about. If implicit attitudes are strong and an opposing explicit is weak, the behavior will portray the implicit attitude unconsciously.

I decided to go to Panda Express at 5:30 pm for my observations, while there I was able to observe just how much people rely on nonverbal communications to get their point across. Although I witnessed several encounters of unique body language, there were also a few actions that reoccurred several times in several different people. For example, when a customer would approach the counter where employee served the food, the employee would raise her eyebrows and smile at the customer. The employee’s smile, however, did not reach her eyes suggesting that while it is her job to smile and be welcoming to the customer, she most likely did not want to be at work. Additionally, I noticed that when customers approached the counter about 90 percent of them had their arms crossed. The act of crossing ones arms usually means that a person is trying to put a barrier between them and a situation that they either don’t like, or are uncomfortable with. This may mean that the customers were displeased with having to wait in line to get their food, on the other hand it may be that they were simply comfortable folding their arms. Once they reached the front of the line, every customer pointed to the food they wanted along with verbally telling the employee. This made their communication more effective as it helped to overcome the barrier of sound because the restaurant was noisy.

This week I decided the behavior I’d choose to violate would be physical appearance and space. I decided on violating these specifically because I felt like these specific nonverbal communication behaviors would generate the most amounts of different reactions from those around me. I also took this as a bit of a challenge for myself as I see myself as someone who is very aware of my physical appearance at all times as well as respectful with it comes to others personal space, so breaking two of my own nonverbal behavior “rules” would be something different and out of character for me.

Expectancy Violation Theory, or more commonly referred to as EVT, is the study of attempting to explain one’s reactions to unexpected behavior of their peers, and the various meanings that people attribute to the violation, or infringement, of their personal space. Judee Burgoon defines personal space as the invisible, variable volume of space surrounding an individual that defines that individual’s preferred distance from others. I will explain to you the communication phenomenon of EVT, theories, behaviors and context of EVT, as well as how to apply them.

There are three theories that make up the behaviorist approach, which are classical and operant conditioning, Social Learning and information transmission. Classical conditioning is concerned with a classical, neutral and conditioned

“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

EXPECTED BEHAVIORS -Understanding that a range of hidden rules exist in every situation and people are responsible for figuring out what those rules are and then following them. By doing so, we keep other people thinking good thoughts about us. Doing what is expected is different based on where we are and whom we are presented. (A Social Thinking Curriculum, Michelle Garcia)

For seven consecutive days I stood the opposite way in an elevator and realized how we, as a society, expect everyone to face the doors when riding an elevator. Of the seven times I stood in an elevator facing the opposite direction, each time was just as uncomfortable, and people glanced over awkwardly. Each time I rode the elevator it was completely silent and I felt extremely awkward, everyone who rode the elevator with me made nonverbal gestures with their eyes and unnecessary facial expressions. The rules of society which specify how someone should behave and how it is socially accepted is biased, as shown by using the social conflict approach theory and the social norm viewpoints. Norms, are the rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members (Macionis pg.53).

She was tasked to rate the quality of the interaction with the participants. Indeed, the unobtrusive attitude measures correlated significantly with the experimenter’s interaction ratings (based on the friendliness and interest of the participant). However, such measure remains a form of self-report liable to subjective biases and rating errors. The researchers also offered no explanation as to whether the experimenter had been trained on what criteria of rating was to be used. This issue may be crucial as such ratings have been used extensively to distinguish between the unobtrusive measure and the MRS, and to attest to the former’s ability to predict actual prejudice behavior (i.e. predictive

Expectations do not always align with the reality of a situation. Attempting to predict an individual’s response or reaction can be difficult due to the fact that a reaction takes into account pre-existing and external factors. Burgoon’s Expectancy Violations Theory analyses people’s reactions to unanticipated violations of social norms or expectations. This theory discusses many of the different factors that play a role when individuals form their expectancies such as context, relationship, communicator characteristics, and nonverbal communication.