Theories Of Uncertainty Violation Theory

By deciding to go to JMU, I also decided to be surrounded by over 20,000 people. In consideration with the small fraction I knew from my hometown, that equals to a massive amount of people I have never met. College gives a great outlet to form new relationships and to expand your circle of friends Communication is vital to starting new relationships and sustaining relationships. Theories either help us explain or understand how communication is conducted in our everyday lives. The situation I have choosen for my critical incident is a simple interaction, but allows to apply two key theories. These theories will be Uncertainty Reduction Theory and Expectancy Violation Theory. These two theories will be explored through my situation and later …show more content…
URT was created by Charles Berger and follows the socio-psychological tradition. (Griffin 108) URT explains how communication is used to reduce uncertainties between strangers engaging for their first time. Uncertainty reduction follows a pattern of developmental stages which, goes from entry, personal, and exit. The first stage is known as entry where basic information is exchanged. In my situation, Molly and I initially shared where we were from as a starting point. The conversation did not end at the entry phase, so the conversation went to personal. Through our conversation we found we had many similarities such as we were both involved in campus ministries and lived in Grace Street Apartments at JMU. The exit stage can be related since we made future plans to hangout later by going to Greenberry’s coffee.. These three stages help explain how communication is …show more content…
In addition, to the three stages there is the axiomatic theory, which explains the connection between eight key variables of relationship development and uncertainty. An axiom is a self-evident truth that requires no additional proof. (Griffin 110) The axiom I found most relevant to the interview is known as axiom 6 or also known as similarity. The axiom explains how uncertainty is reduced when similarities are present. Furthering a point I made earlier was we found both of us were in campus ministries. Despite, being in different ones we related with going on retreats, large groups, and small groups. All the terms stated before were similarities and was a great way to connect and reduce uncertainty. This theory helps explains one aspect of why the interview went very well due to following a norm of communication script. In addition, the axiom help predict before the conversation there would be less uncertainty if we found to have