Expectancy Violation Theory (Paper Rough Draft) 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. Expectancy Violations theory was created by Judee Burgoon in 1978. Since that time, Burgoon and a number of her associates ----go more in detail here---- Next we will discuss the Core concepts of EVT. EVT offers a soft determinism rather than hard-core universal laws. Burgoon does, however, hope to link surprising interpersonal behavior and attraction, credibility, influence, and involvement. ----go more in detail here---- Expectancy is what is predicted to occur rather than what is desired. Expectancy is based on context, relationship, and communicator characteristics. Burgoon believes that all cultures have a similar structure of expected communication behavior, but that the content of those expectations differs from culture to culture. ----go more in detail here---- Violation valence is the positive or negative value we place on the unexpected behavior, regardless of who does it. If the valence is negative, do less than expected. If the valence is positive, do more than expected. Although the meanings of most violations can be determined from context, some nonverbal expectancy violations are truly ambiguous. For equivocal violations, one must refer to the communicator reward valence. ----go more in detail here---- Communicator reward valence is the sum of the positive and negative attributes that the person brings to the encounter plus the potential he or she has to reward or punish in the future. ----go more in detail here---- Puzzling violations force victims to search the social context for clues to their meaning and that’s when communication reward
