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Proxemics and kinesics of expectancy violations theory

The next step of the Nonverbal Expectancy Violation model deals with the idea of Proxemics and kinesics. This part of the theory explains the notion of “personal space” and our reactions to other who seem to “violate” our sense of personal space. What we define as personal space, however, varies from culture to culture, and person to person. The “success” or “failure” of violations are linked to perceived attraction, credibility, influence and involvement. The context and purpose of interaction are relevant, as are the communicator characteristics of gender, relationships, status, social class, ethnicity and culture. When it comes to different interactions between people, what each person expects out of the interaction will influence their individual willingness to risk violation. If a person feels comfortable in a situation, they are more likely to risk violation, and in turn will be rewarded for it.

Introduced by Edward Hall in 1966, proxemics deals with the amount of distance between people as they interact with one another. Based on how close people are during interaction, can be an indication of what type of relationship the people involved have.

There are 4 different personal zones defined by Hall. These zones include:

1. Intimate Space: (0-18 inches) - This distance is for close, intimate encounters. Normally family, close friends, lovers, or pets.
2. Personal Space: (18 inches – 4 feet) - Reserved for conversations with friends, associates, and group discussions
3. Social Space: (4–10 feet) - This space is reserved for strangers, newly formed groups, and new acquaintances you may have just met.
4. Public Space: (10 feet to infinity) - Reserved for a public setting with large audiences, speeches, and theaters.

Depending on the persons culture or personal views these zones may differ. Burgoon describes invading personal space as a 'threat threshold'

examples of Phoxemics actions

• Intimate space- Hugging, holding hands, standing next to each other, Whispering
• Personal space- Usually still involves interaction with each other but not as close as intimate, also some people may feel uncomfortable with people they do not know too close to them
• Social space- There is no psychical contact, a distances at people can talk to each other
• Public space- There is no psychical contact, Public speaking, tone of voice is louder

Across the Phoxemic Zones the actions can be different across different cultures. For example in Japan, Japanese people address different people in different ways but addressing someone wrong in Japan can cause an expectancy violation. Japanese people do not address people by their first name unless they have been given permission, calling someone by their first name in Japan is seen as an insult. In the Japanese culture, they address people by using their last name and 'san', which is equivalent to 'Mr.','Mrs.' and 'Ms.' in the English language. The way Japanese people address each other is an example of a verbal Phoxemic zone. For example, when the Japanese allow a person to call them by their first name is an example of intimate space, because only someone very close to them is allowed the privilege to address them this way.

Related theories

As mentioned above, EVT has strong roots in Uncertainty Reduction Theory. The relationship between violation behavior and the level of uncertainty is under study. A research does indicates that violations differ in their impact on uncertainty. To be more specific, incongruent negative violations heightened uncertainty, whereas congruent violations (both positive and negative) caused declines in uncertainty. The theory also borrows from Social Exchange Theory in that people seek reward out of interaction with others. Two other theories share similar outlooks to EVT – Discrepancy-Arousal Theory and Patterson’s Social Facilitation Model. Like EVT, DAT explains that a receiver becomes aroused when a communicative behavior does not match the receiver’s expectations. In DAT, these differences are called discrepancies instead of expectancy violations. Cognitive Dissonance and EVT both try to explain why and how people react to unexpected information and adjust themselves during communication process. Social Facilitation Model has a similar outlook and labels these differences as unstable changes. A key difference between the theories lies in the receiver’s arousal level. Both DAT and SFM maintain that the receiver experiences a physiological response whereas EVT focuses on the attention shift of the receiver. EVT posits that expectancy violations occur frequently and are not always as serious as perceived through the lenses of other theories. Anxiety/Uncertainty Management Theory is the uncertainty and Anxiety people have towards each other, relating to EVT this anxiety and uncertainty can differ between cultures. Causing a violation for example violating someones personal space or communicating ineffectively can cause uncertainty and anxiety.

Further use and development of the theory

The concept of Social Norms Marketing follows expectancy violation in that it is based upon the notion that messages containing facts that vary from perception of the norm will create a positive expectancy violation. Advertising, strategic communications, and public relations base social norms campaigns on this position.

Interaction Adaptation Theory further explores expectancy violations. Developed by Burgoon to take a more comprehensive look at social interaction, IAT posits that people enter into interactions with requirements, expectations, and desires. These factors influence both the initial behavior as well as the response behavior. When faced with behavior that meets an individual’s needs, expectations, or desires, the response behavior will be positive. When faced with behavior that does not meet an individual’s needs, expectations, or desires, he or she can respond either positively or negatively depending on the degree of violation and positive or negative valence of the relationship.

Previous project

Machinima has potential to become the development of computer graphics. Machinima is made up of three types of skills filmmaking, animation and 3D game development. During the film making of the Machinima, the 3D game developers interact with the vitrual enviroment of a game to create a performance for the directors to record the actions of a game until they have enough footage for a narrative to create a film/video. Animation can also be added to the footage of the Machinima to create different styles of characters, animation or Background. Machinima's purpose is to show passive entertainment of game engines, in result of this it widens the gaming audience. When machinima.com was released 5th January 2000, it made this art form rise in popularity and an audience became more aware of the capabilities that this type of computer graphics could do. Many types of computer graphics cost thousands of pounds to create and alot of hard training and time to create, while Machinima as a form of computer graphics, can be created in any environment with low cost and is time consuming. Plus game engines provide all the sound effects and animation together, while shooting in live action, this enables the machinima film maker to focus more on the narrative then how to make the video/film. Machinima can be used to create many different types of videos/films for many different reasons for example adverts to promote games, tutorials of games to help gamers, music videos and stories for entertainment etc.