FSU SPC 3210 - Chapter 8 Expectancy Violation Theory

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Chapter 8 Expectancy Violation Theory Developed by Judee Burgoon Examines the influences that nonverbal communication has on message Basic premise people in general have certain expectations about the behaviors both verbal and nonverbal of others EVT examines expectations and what happens when expectations are production violated Proxemics the use of personal space and distance in conversations Humans have two competing needs when it comes to space o Affiliation the need to belong to a group o Personal Space the invisible variable volume of space surround an individual which defines a comfortable level of distance from others 4 Primary zones of personal space o Intimate Distance 0 18 inches intimate relationships Ex Significant other o Personal Distance 18 inches 4 feet family and close friends Ex Mom dad brother sister best friend o Social Distance 4 12 feet casual social settings ex At a bar at a club probably not in Tallahassee o Public Distance 12 feet formal meetings discussions Ex You wouldn t want to be at a conference with the speaker standing right in front of you comfortable distance where the speaker is speaking to everyone and not singling anyone out o Confusion disturbances to these zones creates discomfort Ex Sidewalk dance European distances Altman 1975 came up with three types of territories person s ownership of an area or object o Primary exclusive domain of an individual and are usually marked to indicate ownership THESE THINGS ARE ALWAYS GONNA BE SPECIFICALLY YOUR S Ex Assigned parking spot your bedroom your bike o Secondary signal some sort of personal connections with an area or object not exclusive to an individual however the individual does identify with them YOU MAY FEEL OBLIGATED TO STAKE IT OUT TO MAKE CLAIMS ON IT AND FEEL PARTICULARLY ANNOYED WHEN THERE S CHANGES TO IT BUT THERE S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT Ex Seat in class favorite spot at a park beach your school o Public involve no personal affiliations and include those areas that are open to all people Ex Public restroom Territoriality is frequently accompanied by Prevention behaviors in the form of warnings used to prevent other people or groups from invading a territory o Can be simple polite offensive derogatory o Ex Gangs tags sign on personal home lawn that says Seminole Reaction the resulting response to an attempt to prevent access to an object Parking Only or area o Ex When restaurants have a bar section that allows first come first serve seating your response to run for every open table so you don t have to wait for table in the dining room ASSUMPTIONS OF EVT Expectations drive human interactions o They expectancies are the cognitions and behaviors that we think will happen in conversations interactions with others verbal and nonverbal o They are a result of social norms stereotypes gossip individual o The two types of expectations are preinteractional and idiosyncrasies interactional Preinteraction is thinking about what you re gonna do before you do it Interactional is in the moment o Cultural background also has an influence on what our expectations are and how we believe we should act Expectancies are learned o We learn from social interactions situations o Learned interactions create expectations for future interactions People make predictions about nonverbal behaviors o Nonverbal behavior is ambiguous and can be interpreted in many ways so it s important to understand that our predictions evaluations which may be based on attractiveness posture personal space etc may be different or inaccurate from somebody else s intentions predictions or evaluations Reward Valence the positive or negative characteristics that an individual brings to an interaction When people deviate from expectancy their reward value is changed o reward value the perceptions that someone may reward or punish you in the future because of your behavior ex People with high reward value people you want to be rewarded by may be your boyfriend girlfriend parents professors People with low reward value people you don t care to be rewarded by is a person you don t find attractive interesting a manager that you hate a behavior performed by a high reward source is interpreted as positive while the same behavior performed by a low reward source could be considered negative o ex In slides slide 15 the story about cool Jimmy whose actually a weirdo slob Arousal the consequences associated with deviations from expected behavior basically just your reaction to deviation from expectancy Causes the person to focus more on the source of the behavior than the behavior itself o Ex Reconsidering your significant other as a person after they burp in front of you for the first time Arousal can be cognitive or physical o Ex You may stop talking to someone or feel physically grossed out by them physically moving away from them o Ex Burt Reynolds offending FSU professor by touching her boobs Threat Threshold the distance at which you feel uncomfortable physically and psychologically in the presence of someone who has violated your expectancies aroused them Ex You catch someone reading your texts over your shoulder on the bus so when you both get off at the same stop you speed away and keep your distance because your creeped out that feeling of being creeped out is due to excessive account to your threat threshold Ex being in an elevator and someone walking in and facing an awkward direction Violation Valence the positive or negative evaluation of an expectancy violation Violation valences are often hard to judge and occur on a positive negative continuum Sometimes we used reward valence as a tool to help us decide the violation valence o If we like the person regard them highly and they have a high initial REWARD valence then if they do something to arouse us yes it will cause discomfort but we consider it positive VIOLATION valence because we still like them even if they do something weird o If we don t like the person regard them lowly and they have a low initial REWARD valence then if they do something to arouse yes it will cause discomfort and we will consider it a negative VIOLATION valence because we don t like them and they ve furthered our contentment of them It is important to understand that an expectancy violation may not always be negative sometimes the violation is a pleasant surprise from normal behavior o Hence while if people we like do something weird or surprising we consider it a violation while still maintaining a


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FSU SPC 3210 - Chapter 8 Expectancy Violation Theory

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