Uncertainty Reduction Theory “the Vow” and “Meet the Parents”

Every relationship is based on the foundation of its underlying communication. Besides on a verbal level, the smallest of non-verbal cues, pauses, movements or gestures also determine the construction or destruction of a relationship between two or more people. In the film, Meet The Parents, interpersonal communication is one of the subtly placed themes that revolve around the story. Interpersonal communication can be defined as the reciprocal message processing, when two or more individuals mutually take account of and adjust to one another’s verbal or non-verbal behaviors. The relationship between Greg Focker and Jack Byrnes is one that develops at a gradual pace, though not necessarily always in a

This means that the sender has to think and assess the circumstances that they are placed in before they start to communicate. The sender transmitting the message needs to think about what and how they are trying to say the message. For example, in a doctor’s surgery, an idea will occur as the practitioner thinks about how he/she will communicate with the current patient. This allows him to communicate more

To function effectively in today’s society people must communicate with one another. Yet for some individuals communication experiences are so unrewarding that they either consciously or unconsciously avoid situations where communication is required. (McCroskey & Richmond, 1979) The term ‘communication apprehension’ was coined by James McCroskey (1976a) and is defined as “an individual’s level of fear or anxiety associated with either real or anticipated communication with another person or persons” (McCroskey, 1984). In the last two decades communication apprehension and related constructs, such as reticence and unwillingness to communicate, have received extensive research and theoretical attention by scholars in communication and

There 's no real major conflicts at the beginning of the film. But through Carla 's stay Rachel 's parents are very awkwarded out by

Rachel is anxious about her birthday which is shown by how many times she says the word “and” in the first four paragraphs. This is something that children often do when they are nervous, they repeat and stumble upon their words. We witness Rachel’s immaturity again later in the story when she keeps repeating “not mine, not mine, not mine.” The tone throughout this paragraph is frantic and uncontrolled. Rachel overreacts and begins to feel sick, much like a child would. However, she still keeps her composure on the outside by reassuring herself that everyone’s waiting for her at home and that everything will be okay. The experience definitely provided newfound knowledge for Rachel and she will know how to better conduct herself if she finds herself in a similar

Moreover, by pretending that her relationship was healthy she realizes that she was deceiving herself to try to make her husband love her again. Throughout the beginning of the novel, Rachel consistently doubts and restrains

To describe Andie and Ben’s first interaction, the uncertainty-reduction theory is an appropriate concept in this case. Uncertainty-reduction theory is how we use information as we endeavor to reduce our uncertainty, especially people we aren’t familiar with. In order for one to reduce their uncertainty, they are encouraged to communicate. In the movie, this concept takes place at the bar where the two actors hit it off. Benjamin is sitting

The song “Take Your Time” by Sam Hunt relates to the Uncertainty Reduction Theory found in Chapter 9. This song is about a man who decides to talk to girl he has seen in the bar several times. We know he already knows a little bit about her from the lines “I know your name/'Cause everybody in here knows your name/ And you're not looking for anything right now.”

“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

Today people are led by what they think rather than what they know. It is our human nature to fear the unknown and it makes sense that we want to be certain of what's coming to be prepared. Having certainty allows a person to have satisfaction and confidence in what there doing, but if we were certain of everything would we doubt anything? Doubt is an interesting concept because it means one might have doubts on what's certain. Doubt is the key to knowledge, without doubt everything would be certain, if it hasn't been proven wrong that who says it isn't right. Doubt is what enables us to question and challenge the perfection of certainty. A person should have the ability to see the faults and weaks spots in things that seems perfect, they

In the beginning, it seems that Rachel is in a codependent relationship with Dean. When she first starts speaking to Zelda, the topics they seem to only discuss are Dean and science. In addition, Rachel wants to present her abstract at NOORB with Dean. Zelda does not believe he is involved in the idea at all, so she does not want Dean to receive the credit for her daughter's work. The disagreement causes Zelda and Rachel to argue, which they end up constantly doing. Their arguments always involve using the past to justify current events. However, Rachel uses Zelda’s past to remind her how her birth mother abandoned her. Garvey states that Treem does not go into the dramatic conflict of maternal abandonment because of the possibility of Treem’s feminist audience becoming upset. Therefore, the possibility of a fixed relationship between the two women does not exist (Garvey). However, Rachel and Zelda’s relationship improves a lot by the end of the play. One reason the change in their relationship is possibile could be because Dean eventually breaks up with Rachel. Rachel becomes more open when she is single because she has no one else. The audience realizes that the relationship between these two women is healed when Zelda cries at the end of the play. Zelda ends up crying when Rachel tells her birth mother how she would call her a queen. Rachel’s words cause Zelda to become emotional because she cares about her daughter, and she realizes that Rachel cares about her too. Rachel’s words prove that as a kid she did not hate her birth mother for giving her up. Zelda and Rachel communicate to fix their relationship, and Rachel uses her theory to converse with

This theory comes to explain the uncertainty among people who communicate with each other and how different types of communication will help to reduce the uncertainty. As a starting point, the developers of this theory (Charles Berger and Richard Calabrese) stated that uncertainty is an unpleasant feeling, which people prefer to avoid as much as they can. Every person has been confronted with the feeling of uncertainty, rather if it was when arriving to new a destination or more commonly when meeting a new person. In order to reduce the unpleasant feeling, people tend to seek information about the uncertain and by that creating more comfortable feelings, and more predictable relationships in case of

By acknowledging the two different types of uncertainties one may face in interpersonal communication, the Uncertainty Reduction Theory translates this information into three situational parameters that enhance people’s desire to reduce such levels of uncertainty (Berger, 1975). The first condition is deviation, which claims that when an individual violates our expectations, we wish to reduce uncertainty as a way compensating for what we least expected. The second parameter is anticipation of future interaction, which means individuals seek to reduce uncertainty with someone whom he/she knows they may see again. And lastly, control over resources, or sometimes known as incentive value, explains that one wishes to reduce uncertainty because that individual has something you want or need (Knobloh, 2008). According to the Uncertainty Reduction Theory, if these three conditions apply to a situation, one will do almost anything in their power to make sense of who he/she is as an individual.

Uncertainty reduction theory could be applied to long-term relationships as well as initial encounter (Berger, 1979). Berger presented that uncertainty may happen on two different levels: behavioral and cognitive. He stated that reducing uncertainty in behavior increases the predicting ability of how a person will act when he/she is facing a situation. In the mean time, cognitive uncertainty affects the ability to explain the main rational reasons for that certain action.

Uncertainty is an unpleasant feeling and because of this feeling, people are motivated to reduce this uncertainty by means of communication. Uncertainty reduction theory (URT) was developed to describe the interrelationships in any type of communication exchange using seven factors: verbal communication, nonverbal expressiveness, information-seeking behavior, intimacy, reciprocity, similarity, and liking (Berger & Calabrese, 1975). During the beginning stage information about ones sex, age, socio-economic status, along with other demographic information can be obtained. The exchange of information during this beginning stage of communication is usually