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| Author: Judee Burgoon (pronunciation: ber goon)

Application: This theory is one way of testing people’s reactions to you. Could you be behaving in ways they do not expect? One instructor noticed he had an adverse reaction to some students but not to others. This affected his willingness to help them. It was simple to find out why when he looked at his expectations for how close they stood to him. Those students who stood to close for comfort violated his expectations of how they should use the space. He subconsciously felt negatively toward these students. Once he understood how the theory applied to his experience, he could make changes so he was able to help all his students without ill feelings. Think about what expectations a potential employer has when they interview you for a job (Story from Griffin, Em. A First Look at Communication Theory. 8th Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2012. p. 84).

Context: Intrapersonal and Interpersonal because behavior deviations occur between people (interpersonal) but the sense of what expectations are violated are determined internally (intrapersonal).

Approach to knowing: Empirical/Objective because the researchers looked for patterns in the factors that influence expectations and deviations of those expectation and how they can predict communication in all contexts.

Goal: Predict how a person’s expectations of another person’s behavior can be violated and if the person viewing the violation sees it as a reward or punishment.

Expectancy Violations Theory, or EVT, is a theory of communication that analyzes how individuals respond to unanticipated violations of social norms and expectations. EVT suggests that people hold expectations about the nonverbal behavior of others.

| For the readings this week, you will look at chapter 8, pp. 129-143.

As you read, look for:

- How “space” is used by people in their conversations
- How expectancies drive human interaction
- How expectancies for human behavior are learned
- How people make predictions about nonverbal behavior

Here’s a clip from the popular TV show, The Big Bang Theory. In this clip, Sheldon is not quite sure what to expect from Penny for Christmas. He has tried to prepare for any type of gift that Penny might give him for Christmas by buying many different kinds of presents to be able to give her in return. How he responds to Penny’s gift is a classic example of EVT.

Many of us feel this way from time to time. What we are actually experiencing when we agree with the Sheldon’s response is Expectancy Violation Theory. Sheldon, who is famously avoidant of personal contact and highly aware of violations in his personal and shared space, is confronted with a violation of expectations. Penny “violates” his expectations of their usual interactions by performing an act (gettting Sheldon a gift that is far beyond his expectations from her) that Sheldon feels the need to respond with an appropriate and similar violation of expectations by hugging her. Something Sheldon has never done, which is evident by Penny’s reaction.

Communication concepts and theories include many terms that can be unfamiliar, but they are important to memorize and understand. This page lists the vocabulary terms you will need to know for this theory. On the following page, you will have the chance to use flashcards to practice these terms.

Proxemics | study of a person’s use of space
Territoriality | person’s ownership of an area or object
Expectancies | thoughts and behaviors anticipated in conversations
Arousal | increased interest or attention when deviations from expectations occur
Threat Threshold | tolerance for distance violations
Violation Valence | perceived negative or positive assessment of an unexpected behavior
Communicator Reward Valence | the sum of the positive and negative characteristics of a person and the potential for them to carry out rewards or punishments
personal Space | individual’s variable use of space and distance
intimate distance | very close spatial zone spanning 0-18 inches
personal distance | spatial zone of 18 inches to 4 feet reserved for family and friends
social distance | spatial zone of 4-12 fett, reserved for more formal relationships such as those with co-workers

There is no assignment associated with this section about these two controversial experiments; however, the message is profound if you choose to watch. To see the shocking Stanford Prison Experiment and Milgram Obedience Experiment associated with Cognitive Dissonance Theory, read the background and check out the video links below.

Background of Milgram Obedience Experiment

Stanley Milgram, a professor of psychology at Yale, wanted to understand how the German people could willing participate in the Holocaust, torturing and killing so many people. He set up an experiment to study authority and obedience. Participants (from all walks of life) were told that psychologists found pain increases a person’s ability to learn. The participants were asked to administer increasingly powerful volts of shocks to another participant when the participant got an answer wrong. Before you see the clips, consider if you would be willing to participant in such an experiment.

Background of Stanford Prison Experiment

The Stanford prison experiment was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. College student participants were paid $15/day. The experiment was conducted from August 14 to 20,1971 by a team of researchers led by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University. It was funded by a grant from the U.S. Office of Naval Research and was of interest to both the US Navy and Marine Corps in order to determine the causes of conflict between military guards and prisoners.

Twenty-four students were selected out of 75 to play the prisoners and live in a mock prison in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. Roles were assigned randomly. The participants adapted to their roles well beyond what even Zimbardo himself expected, leading the "officers" to display authoritarian measures and ultimately to subject some of the prisoners to torture. In turn, many of the prisoners developed passive attitudes and accepted physical abuse, and, at the request of the guards, readily inflicted punishment on other prisoners who attempted to stop it. The experiment even affected Zimbardo himself, who, in his capacity as "Prison Superintendent", lost sight of his role as psychologist and permitted the abuse to continue as though it were a real prison. Five of the prisoners were upset enough by the process to quit the experiment early, and the entire experiment was abruptly stopped after only six days. The experimental process and the results remain controversial. The entire experiment was filmed, with excerpts made publicly available.

You can explore The Stanford Prison Experiment website if you would like to.

This documentary discusses the experiment in detail.

This experiment tells you about Cognitive Dissonance and human nature. With new research regulations the Stanford Prison and Milgram Shock experiments would not be approved today. However, there are still roles people inhabit that give them power. We all think we are immune to behaving unethically when we have power, however, you now know differently. Even the most mild mannered participants were willing to hurt people. Knowing about Cognitive Dissonance can help you prevent the negative outcomes in the Prison or Shock experiment.

## Accordion

The communication models help us to build theories of communication. As you read in the text, because there are so many different theories in communication, scholars have constructed different ways of categorizing them to aid in understanding the theories better. There are three main Models used in the study of communication. A brief description of the main points of each tradition can be seen by selecting each bar.

### Linear Model of Communication

In 1949, Claude Shannon, a Bell Labs scientist and professor at MIT, and Warren Weaver, a consultant on projects at the Sloan Foundation, described communication as a linear process. They were concerned with radio and telephone technology and wanted to develop a model that could explain how information passed through various channels. The result was the conceptualization of the linear model of communication.

(Source: http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/an-introduction-to-organizational-communication/section_06/20ed98da45a6e49b18ecd2272e8d223b.jpg)

### Interactional Model of Communication

The linear model suggests that a person is only a sender or a receiver.

Wilbur Schramm proposed that we also examine the relationship between a sender and a receiver. He conceptualized the interactional model of communication, which emphasizes the two-way communication process between communicators. In other words, communication goes in two directions: from sender to receiver and from receiver to sender. The circular process suggests that communication is ongoing. The interactional view illustrates that a person can perform the role of either sender or receiver during an interaction, but not both roles simultaneously.

### Transactional Model of Communication

The transactional model of communication (Barnlund, 1970; Frymier, 2005; Wilmot, 1987) highlights the simultaneous sending and receiving of messages in a communication interaction. To say that communication is transactional means that the process is cooperative; the sender and the receiver are mutually responsible for the effect and the effectiveness of communication.

In the linear model of communication, meaning is sent from one person to another. In the interactional model, meaning is achieved through the feedback of a sender and a receiver. In the transactional model people BUILD shared meaning. The transactional model also takes into account how greatly an interaction is influenced by past experience. For example, in the transactional model, an interaction between an older student and a younger student is directly influenced and shaped by each other’s past experiences, culture, and heredity.

(Source: http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/an-introduction-to-organizational-communication/section_06/9f09ad23ac20c510ddc89a232668eac8.jpg)