CHAPTER 4MAKING SENSE OF

OUR WORLD Managing Uncertainty

ACTIVATE YOUR BRAIN Think of the last time something surprising

happened in one of your relationships. Rate the event as positive or negative:

1= Very negative, 5=Neutral, 10=Very Positive Did the event increase your uncertainty about

Your partner/friend and how he or she feels?Your own feelings? The nature of the relationship?

Did the event decrease your uncertainty?

DEFINING UNCERTAINTYUncertainty = inability to predict or explain

someone’s attitudes and behaviors.

High Uncertainty—feeling unsure or insecure in ability to predict and explain someone’s behavior

Low Uncertainty—feeling confident in ability to predict and explain someone’s behavior

Continuum (not simply high or low)

TYPES OF RELATIONAL UNCERTAINTY

Self Uncertainty: uncertainty about your own feelings and how involved you want to be in a relationship

Partner Uncertainty: uncertainty about your partner's feelings and intentions, including whether your partner reciprocates your feelings

Relationship Uncertainty: uncertainty about the generalstate of your relationshipRelational Turbulence: the transition from a casual to committed relationship is often marked by all three types of uncertainty as couples struggle with commitment and interdependence (goal interference). (replaces pp. 95-96)

MOTIVATION FOR REDUCING UNCERTAINTY

Berger & Calabrese: Inability to predict what another person will do is uncomfortable, so we want to reduce uncertainty (evolutionary advantage?)

Sunnafrank: Outcome values are predictions about how rewarding or unrewarding future interactions with a particular person would be.high outcome value: low outcome value: When another person is perceived to have

positive outcome value, we will exert the effort to reduce uncertainty

When negative outcome value, we won’t.

PERSONALITY PREFERENCES FOR CERTAINTY OR UNCERTAINTY Some people are more comfortable with

uncertainty than others.Certainty-oriented people—Don’t like

uncertainty (tend to ignore inconsistent information)How might this orientation affect relationships?

Uncertainty-oriented people—not afraid of uncertainty (enjoy the opportunity to broaden knowledge)How might this orientation affect relationships?

PREFERENCE FOR UNCERTAINTY OVER CERTAINTY

Brashers: Uncertainty Management TheoryUncertainty can produce --

Negative emotions (anxiety)Positive emotions (not knowing is better than knowing)

Neutral emotions (not important to us whether we know or not)

Evident in medical situations (some people don’t want to know they have an STI or cancer)

Evident in relationships (taboo topics)Evident in cross-sex friendships

THEORY OF MOTIVATED INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

Individuals are only motivated to manage uncertainty when there is a discrepancy between the information they have and the level of certainty they want.

If there is a discrepancy, individuals decide whether and how to seek information based on:

the outcome expectancy (positive or negative)

the efficacy assessment (whether they think they will be able to gather the information for which they are searching and then cope with it)

Outcome

Expectancies

UncertaintyDiscrepancy

EfficacyAssessments

InformationManagement Strategy

EfficacyAssessments

InformationManagement

Outcome Expectancies

Seeker

Provider

Theory of Motivated Information Management (p. 84)

Anxiety

STRATEGIES FOR REDUCING UNCERTAINTY

Berger (originally for strangers) Passive: unobtrusive observation Active: using third parties or

manipulating the environment Interactive: direct communication

questions, self-disclosure, nonverbal signals

Hitch Bar SceneGive examples of how these could be used in

established relationships. As uncertainty decreases, attraction (liking)

usually increases.When would attraction or liking not

increase?

MORE STRATEGIESBaxter & Wilmot

Secret Tests Asking third party tests Directness tests (22%) Triangle tests (34%)

Fidelity tests Jealousy tests

Separation tests (friend with romantic potential) Endurance tests (33%) (reward/cost limits) Public presentation tests (reaction to relationship label) Indirect suggestion tests (friend with romantic

potential)

Most respondents report using the indirect strategies (esp. early in rel. & rels. with rom. potential); what about friends with benefits?

DOES MORE INFORMATION ALWAYS REDUCE UNCERTAINTY?

Behaviors that increase uncertaintyCompeting relationshipsUnexplained loss of contact or closenessSexual behaviorDeceptionChange in Personality/ValuesBetraying Confidence

Could these events actually reduce uncertainty?

EXPECTANCY VIOLATIONS THEORY

(Began with Burgoon’s work on violations of personal space)

Over time, people build expectations for how people (in general and well known others) should behave

Predictive Expectancies: what people expect in a given situation based on what normally occurs with that person and/or in that relationship

Prescriptive expectancies: what people expect based on general norms and rules of appropriateness

EXPECTANCIES ARE INFLUENCED BY THREE FACTORS Communicator Characteristics Relationship Characteristics Context (situation and culture)

RESPONSES TO VIOLATIONS ARE INFLUENCED BY TWO FACTORS

Positive or negative interpretation: unexpected behavior is perceived to be better or worse than the expected behavior

Rewardingness of violator: overall value that a person has in terms of attributes such as attractiveness or status.

Who should follow social norms?(non-rewarding communicators)

TYPES OF EXPECTANCY VIOLATIONS IN CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS

Criticism or accusation Relationship escalation Relationship de-escalation Uncharacteristic relational behav. Uncharacteristic social behavior Transgressions Acts of devotion Acts of disregard Gestures of inclusion

Give examples of how any of these could increase uncertaintyand be evaluated as positive or negative.

POSSIBLE ARTIFACT THEMES Reflect on one of your previous or current

relationships (friend or romantic). List the events or behaviors that increased

your uncertainty. Which were positive and which were

negative? How did you reduce your uncertainty

(strategy?) Or how did the event itself make you more

certain about the person’s goals, intentions, personality traits, values, etc. Did you stay in the relationship? Leave the

relationship? Redefine it?