This past summer I came up with the wonderful idea of driving from Texas back home to California. I had done the drive before with my mom before the start of my sophomore year. We completed whole 24 hours, from the central valley into the mojave desert, spent the entire time in the car looking out at dry ground, flat land, and rocks. It’s not a very scenic drive, but I had to get my car to Baylor somehow! This time I would be traveling with myself and my six moth old Aussie, Luka. I planned on splitting the trip into two days. I’d drive the 14.5 hours to Flagstaff, wake up early the next morning and finish off with a 10 hour drive home. My parents were of course very concerned with my decision to drive alone, there was so much that could go wrong! I was convinced i’d be alright. A 20 year old college girl drives 24 hours alone through the desert in a 2000 Toyota 4Runner with over 200,000 miles, what could go wrong? So I set off on my adventure! The first day went very well, I maintained a quick pace and managed to dodge any traffic. The second day however, was almost a disaster. I filled up my tank in the morning, grabbed a coffee and hit the road. I noticed I was running low on fuel when was about to enter the desert, I tried not to panic and looked on my maps app to find the nearest gas station. The closest was 20 miles away, in the heart of the Mojave Desert. I told myself I could make it, and I did! Barely. I rolled into the gas station just in time, whipped out my debit card to fill up, DECLINED. I thought I may have put my card in the wrong way so I tried again, DECLINED. There was no way, I made sure I had plenty of money in my account for gas before I left. Then it hit me, I had passed 2 state lines in 2 days, my bank must have blocked my card for fraud. I pulled out my phone to try to call but of course, theres no service in the middle of the Mojave. I was stuck. While all of this was happening a homeless looking middle aged man was sitting outside of the gas station in the middle of the heat. He must’ve noticed I was having trouble and decided to walk my way. “Great” I thought.. “Now this is the part where I get abducted”. Definitely should have listened to mom and dad. The man came up to me, shook his head and said “Now young lady, a little birdy told me you’re having some trouble. Can I help ya?”. I was shocked and quite surprised he hadn’t asked me if I could help him. Afterall, he seemed to be in a bit worse situation than me. I explained to him that i was going home and that I thought my card had been blocked for fraud. The man then put his hands in his pockets, pulled out a wrinkly 2o dollar bill and said “It’s all I got but it’ll get you out of the desert to call your folks.” I was amazed at his generosity. I would have never expected someone I’d never met, and who seemed to have so little do so much for me. I thanked him greatly, filled my tank with the 20 and went on my way. I was able to make the phone call to my parents and the bank, and made it home safely that afternoon.
Expectancy Violations Theory by Judy Burgoon describes our reactions to situations like mine, when people do the unexpected. The theory has three parts, our expectations, the violation, and the character reward. Our expectations can be based off of the situation, relationship history with the person, and the person’s characteristics. The situation I was in was being in need of help, or more specifically, money. The last thing I expected was a man I’ve never met, who seemed to have many unmet needs of his own, to meet mine. Violations can be described as positive, negative, or neutral. In my case, the man violated my expectations positively by his act of generosity. The communicator reward is the calculation of how much the person you’re interacting with can help or hurt you. This is based on a newt score of positive and negative attributes by the violator and the overall view on the person. With my story, I did not think the the homeless man could do much for me positively. I expected him to either take up time that I didn’t have, ask for money that I didn’t have, or harass me in some way. So overall I gave him a negative reward valence. Now the negative reward valence plus the very positive violation left me with a positive impression of our interaction.
Expectancy Violations theory is an objective theory, it provides a road map that predicts reactions to certain situations where our expectations are violated. For an objective theory however, the key variables in the theory such as “violation valence” and “reward valence” can’t be validly measured and therefore accurately reproduced. I think in reality, this theory is not as objective as I’d like it to be. There are so many factors at play in every interpersonal encounter that to assume a consistent pattern of reactions is a bit unreasonable. Every persons expectations are just as unique as their personal backgrounds, culture, epistemology, and life experiences. Likewise, every situation is unique as well. An article by Shelley Campo and Kenzie Cameron describes the complexity of expectancy violations and social norms. Though i believe my story very much compliments the working of this theory, I would assume many others don’t follow the predictions.
(2004) Social norms and expectancy violation theories: assessing the effectiveness of health communication campaigns, Communication Monographs, 71:4, 448-470, DOI: 10.1080/0363452042000307498