Interpersonal Expectations, Expectancy Violations, and Emotional Communication

Abstract

In this article, key concepts and propositions of expectancy violations theory are explicated and then applied to emotional communication. It is proposed that emotional experience and expression can profitably be understood according to what experiences and expressions are expected in interpersonal relationships, the extent to which enacted expressions deviate positively or negatively from expectancies, the degree to which other types of expectancy violations engender emotional expressions, and the effects of deviating from entrenched patterns of emotional expression.