2 CONTRASTING EXPLANATIONS OF INVOLVEMENT VIOLATIONS - EXPECTANCY VIOLATIONS THEORY VERSUS DISCREPANCY AROUSAL THEORY

Among the theories that address the impact of variations in immediacy behaviors during ongoing interactions are expectancy violations (EV) a nd discrepancy arousal (DA) theories. This study of the effects of vio lations of expectations on arousal, reciprocity, and compensation in t he medical practitioner-patient relationship contrasts EV predictions with DA predictions. EV theory predicts that given a communicator with high reward valence, high and very high involvement (including touch and close proximity) should be met with reciprocation (increased invol vement), and low and very low involvement should be met with compensat ion (increased involvement). DA theory predicts compensating very high involvement with decreased involvement, reciprocating high involvemen t with increased involvement, compensating low involvement with increa sed involvement, and reciprocating very low involvement, with decrease d involvement. Results supported neither theory as all involvement cha nges were met with reciprocity. Additionally, although all violations/ discrepancies were followed by changes in arousal, size of arousal cha nge was not monotonically related to size of involvement change, as pr edicted by DA theory. Finally, although positive versus negative emoti onal experiences were not related to physiological indicators of arous al change, size of involvement change was directly related to the expe rience of positive and negative emotions. Thus, it appears that involv ement change size directly predicts emotional experience and is not me diated by arousal change.