Miller-Ott And Kelly Use Expectancy Violation Theory

Miller-Ott and Kelly use Expectancy Violation Theory to examine how the presence of cell phones in romantic relationships affect face-to-face interactions. Miller-Ott and Kelly report that according to EVT, people place positive or negative value on any violation of an expectancy to try to make sense of it. Violations also vary in their impact on uncertainty levels. The perceiver uses this unexpected negative behavior to predict future behaviors and attitudes. Uncertainty increasing violations also produce more negative relational change than uncertainty decreasing violations. Expectations are influenced by relational characteristics such as prior history, liking, relational boundaries, definitions of the relationship, and acceptable behaviors between the partners. In this study, expected undivided attention (cell phone use is not permitted during more formal times of interaction, which is usually known) and expected and acceptable divided attention (when hanging out, participants usually agree that cell phone use is permitted, but not excessive cell phone use) are important to be aware of. In relation to EVT, Miller-Ott and Kelly point out that expectancies are expected behaviors based on the communicator, the

The purpose of this study is to examine expectations that romantic partners have of cell phone usage during time spent together and how they manage violations of expectations. Using EVT as the analytical framework, in-depth, qualitative analysis of transcripts of focus groups with college students reveal that participants have expectations for undivided attention on formal dates and when spending intimate time together and divided attention when informally hanging out with one another. Participant’s responses are organized and rated on Likert scale, which makes this study