Thats MY spot!

How many times have you predicted something will happen and been wrong about it? Did this make you feel violated? If so than this theory will be useful! This week I will be writing about the Expectancy Violations Theory (EVT) by Judee Burgoon. Expectancy is what someone thinks will happen, instead of what they want to happen. Violation valence is the positive or negative aspect to a person’s expectations being wrong. Together, expectancy theory is the positive or negative aspects of what someone thinks will happen with an unexpected behavior no matter who is violating these expectations.

For this blog, I will be reflecting on past violations and referring these same violations to one of my own personal experiences and one of my favorite TV shows: The Big Bang Theory. I performed an experiment that is similar to a situation that happens often on the show. I took someone else’s seat in class and saw their reaction. 

This is "Sheldon's spot" from The Big Bang Theory. He is the only person allowed to sit here. When other people sit in his spot... Be prepared for them to get an earful of information they don't really want to get. 

The violation happened in COMM 321 during week 3 or 4. Generally by this time in the term everyone has “their” seat that they sit in (especially in a class of 28 students). The day had come for me to change things up a bit and take someone else’s spot. I generally sit in the back left corner (that is where I feel most comfortable) and today I was going to sit on the opposite side of the class closer to the front of the room by students I don’t know very well. I got to class early and took the unsuspecting students spot. One by one my classmates started filing into the class room. I got plenty of strange looks and I was even asked what “George” was going to do when he came into the class and saw that I was in his seat. I honestly didn't know how he was going to react. I hadn't ever talked to him before, but I had another friend sitting by me, so we were in this together! When “George” walked in he was shocked. He wasn't expecting anyone to be in his spot. He got flabbergasted and the class started to giggle a little. He then exclaimed “Now what am I supposed to do?! I can’t learn like this!” This again made the class laugh including our professor. And I told him I was violating his expectations by taking his seat in class. He didn't say much after that and took a different seat. 

This experiment turned out to be negative for both of us. We were both uncomfortable because he wasn't sitting in his normal seat and I wasn't sitting in mine. Our learning opportunities were hindered some because we were used to our routines and they both drastically changed for that class.

Even when I am in classes with more students, I generally have the seat that I sit in every single day. When I have to sit somewhere else because someone took my spot, I get a little dismayed. That is the seat that I found to be perfect and have sat there since the class started. Who do they think they are just taking someone else’s seat? I can’t get mad about it though because that isn't actually MY seat. My name isn't on it anywhere, so whenever someone else takes my seat, I feel violated and from now on I think of EVT.

In the pilot episode of The Big Bang Theory is the first of many times that viewers see EVT. Penny has just moved in across the hallway from Lenard and Sheldon and they invite her over for dinner. This then proceeds to happen…

As you can see, both Sheldon's and Penny's expectations have been violated. Sheldon didn't expect anyone to sit in his spot, and when it happens, he doesn't know where to sit or what to do.  Penny wasn't expecting for it to be such a big deal about where she sat, but she obviously expected wrong. I will show another clip of EVT between Sheldon and Penny. This one not relating to someone taking Sheldon's spot on the couch. You can skip to 2:40 if you don't want to watch the entire 3 minute video. 

Whenever Sheldon knocks on Penny's door, it always goes like this, *knock knock knock, "Penny", knock knock knock, "Penny", knock knock knock "Penny". It has become expected of Sheldon to always knock like that and for Penny to answer after the third "Penny". When Penny Violates these expectations, by knocking back to Sheldon and responding with his name, he is lost for words and doesn't know what to do. So he just keeps his routine going until she opens the door. 

There are countless number of clips that I could show you about EVT and The Big Bang Theory (mainly between Sheldon and Penny), but that would take hours upon hours for you to watch them all. I would just suggest watching all of the seasons! 

As you can see, EVT is important in communication. It is important to take each situation one at a time and not over or under react to each situation. If this happens, then another element of EVT can form; Communicator reward valence. This is the positive or negative traits that can bring a reward or punishment in the future.  In my case for taking another persons spot, my punishment could be not learning the material form that days class as well because I wasn't in a comfortable spot to learn. For Sheldon, his punishment/reward is his friends either never sitting in his spot or they sit in his spot on purpose to make him uncomfortable. 
Overall, EVT is probably my favorite theory because I can recognize it almost anywhere and everywhere. I hope after reading this blog you can too. Until next time! 


Katie

No Phone? No problem!

For today’s blog, I will be discussing CMC- Computer Mediated Communication. CMC is a part of the Social Information Processing Theory (SIP).  SIP is a theory that involves how individuals communicate with one another. This can be from social media websites, newspapers, media, phones, to face to face interactions. CMC specifically is referring to social websites, email, texting, this blog, and other ways we communicate to others through text over face to face interactions. CMC can be very useful, especially if there is something someone needs to know quickly, but it talks out those nonverbal interactions. It is hard for someone to tell what emotions someone is using through text messages or emails. I have been confused about whether someone was mad at me or not because they were texting me about their issue they were having and I couldn’t tell what their tone was. CMC takes out that interpersonal element that helps us identity other people emotions; unless they use emojis and smiley faces, but even then it doesn’t send the entire message across.

Dr. Gallagher presented my Comm. 321 class with a challenge: Go 48 hours without using any form of CMC. This meant no text messages, social media, emails, or internet. We were however allowed to use our phones to make phone calls but that was about it. In a nutshell she wanted us to not rely solely on technology and communicate with others in face to face situations. I gladly accepted this challenge.

I strategically planned out when I would be without technology: Over Dad’s weekend here at OSU. I figured it would be easier for me to be without technology while my dad was here because I was supposed to be spending time with him, not being consumed by the internet or talking to my friends. I originally was going to start on Friday morning and go till Sunday morning, but I had forgotten and texted one of my classmates about a Question and Answer with Dick Butkus that we were going to take our fathers to. After that was over I decided to start over (whether it was against the rules or not). After this incident, it wasn’t extremely difficult to go without CMC. I had turned the internet off on my phone to take away the temptation of Facebook and Twitter and I rarely text people unless it is about something important. It was also easier because of the OSU vs USC football game. The combination of game day taking away cell service and the actual game to encompass me and obtain my full attention, I wasn’t too concerned about what I was missing.

It wasn’t until the next day that I started to have issues. Once my dad left on Saturday I caved. It didn’t help that one of my friends was out of town and having some problems that she wanted to talk about, but because she was out of town she was unable to call me so CMC was our only way of communicating. 

I learned that I can probably be less reliant on some forms of CMC such as Facebook or Twitter, but when it comes to e-mail and text messaging, I have become “addicted” to those luxuries. They are fast and easy ways to communicate with other people, but they aren’t always the best option. Whenever possible communication should be done through face to face (or tone to tone for cell phone conversations) ,that way people still see different non-verbal interactions and different tones being used. Seeing how reliant as a society we have become on CMC it would be difficult to take it away completely. That’s why moderation is the key. It’s okay to use CMC, but it is also important to interact with one another in person. 

Cognitive Complexity

Well it has been a while since my introduction post. Sorry about that! One thing that I forgot to mention in my introduction post is that I am writing this blog for my Comm 321: Introduction to Communication Theory class here at Oregon State University. As we are about to enter our 5th week into the term, this is by far one of my favorite classes I have taken here at OSU. I find myself going home to my roommates and informing them about all of the interesting things that have happened in class. They don't seem to into it, but hey! It helps me learn the material better and whether they like it or not they are learning a little something too. Let’s get back to the main reason why I am writing this blog tonight: Cognitive Complexity.

Cognitive Complexity is “The mental ability to distinguish subtle personality and behavior differences among people” (Griffin p. 99). In layman’s terms, cognitive complexity is the process of determining the differences of what people say, how they act, and how they respond in different social situations.

This is the first step of the overall process of Constructivism. This is a communication theory that explains the differences about how people skillfully communicate in social situations. Everyone has different communication skills and some are better at communicating and understanding. 

One of my friends, lets call her Jamie for confidentiality purposed, has a very high level of cognitive complexity. I have another, lets call her Kelsey, has a very low level of cognitive complexity. Jamie is able to tell the differences among people and she knows that everyone communicates and reacts in different ways.  

Kelsey on the other hand sees things in a very black and white manor. She believes that everyone will react to a certain situation in the same way as she would. One time when I was hanging out with Kelsey and a couple of our friends of the opposite sex, she believed that they were flirting with us because they were engaging us in conversation and being friendly. When in reality, they were just being our friends. Because of Kelsey’s lack of cognitive complexity, she was unable to distinguish personality and behavioral differences among our friends.  If she had a higher cognitive complexity, then she might be able to realize that men and women can be just friends without the intention of something else. This is very similar to the movie "He's Just Not That Into You" when Gigi doesn't understand why a man wouldn't call her back after getting her number. 

Cognitive Complexity is relevant to communication because without it we would think everyone thinks and acts in the same way. It helps us determine our own differences from other people. Cognitive complexity also helps with social perception skills. Or knowing and being aware of how people will interact in different social situations. Without it, individuals wouldn't know how to intermingle with others or know what the right thing to do in different situations; similar to the interaction with Penny and Sheldon in the Big Bang Theory when Penny gets Sheldon an awesome Christmas gift. Sheldon is flabbergasted and is unaware of how to interact with Penny along with how he should thank her.

As you can see, Cognitive Complexity is a key element in the overall understanding of how to interact with others and distinguish differences among others. From how people do act in social situations, to how they should have acted in them, social skills are important to communication and must be understood among others and one’s self to completely grasp a conversation. 

References:

Griffin, E. A. (2012). A first look at communication theory (8th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.