Summay-EVT

The Expectancy Violations Theory
of Judee Burgoon

Judee Burgoon generated the Expectancy Violations Theory. She defined personal space as the "invisible, variable volume of space surrounding an individual that defines the individual's preferred distance from others".

She stressed out that the size and shape of this personal space, varies depending on each person's cultural norms.

The Following are the Core Concepts of EVT as presented by Griffin:

EXPECTANCY

The author of the EVT as well as her colleagues described the term "expectancy" as somethings predicted to happen rather something wanted or desired.

Context
Begins with cultural norms. This means each culture has its own preference in terms of distance and approach of communicators. Therefore, cultural differences between communicators are very vital. For example, the distance between communicators in a certain country might be different to the cultural norm in another country. Also, context includes the setting of the conversation, whether the communication happened in a mall, school, bathroom or in a movie house.
Relationship
This includes the similarity, familiarity, liking, and relative status. Age gaps and social status of communicators also contribute in this factor.

Communicator Characteristics
These include all of the age/sex/place-of-birth and even the physical appearance of the communicator/s.

VIOLATION VALENCE

This refers to the positive or negative value we place on a specific unexpected behavior, regardless of who does it. First, humans would interpret the action/behavior then later decides whether he/she likes it or not. For example, you have this acquaintance, you are not that so close with this person, when this person talks to you about your very personal things, you would feel not comfortable since you don't have any close established relationship with this person. However, if a very close friend would do such action, there would be no negative reaction from you.

COMMUNICATOR REWARD VALENCE

Burgoon uses this term to label the results of our mental audit and likely gains and losses. The reward valence of the communicator may be in a positive(reward) or negative(punishment) form. One good example here is the one shown in the movie "How to lose a guy in 10 days", the leading man in the movie, tolerates all the violations done by the leading lady to make her fall in love with him, thus he achieved this and then got the both of them in a romantic relationship.

West's View:

West coined the term proxemics as the study of the another person's use of space. He regarded EVT as always present in non-verbal communication.

Ethical Reflection: " Is a powerful tool to develop a respect for the concerns of others and has long been recognized as an important goal of character education".

Littlejohn's View:

Key Points:

Free Will--survey and interpret

One Truth--these are norms for all communication activities

Value-neutral--how humans react when their expectations are violated.