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Jessica Moon
Communication 1050
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Tarzan and the Expectancy Violations Theory
The Disney movie Tarzan demonstrates concepts of the “Expectancy Violations
Theory” in many ways. “Expectancy violation is a communication theory which tries to
explain the unexpected behaviors of human beings while interacting” (Unknown). I
chose to compare the movie with the theory because the movie is all about the meeting
and interactions of proper English woman, with a man who was raised in the wild by
primates. The two characters in the movie struggle to communicate and definitely have
different expectations of how each other should behave and communicate. The
interactions between the two throughout the movie support the three assumptions of the
theory that “expectancies drive human interaction, expectancies for human behavior are
learned” and “people make predictions about nonverbal behavior” (West and Turner,
2010 p. 134).
In the movie, when Jane and Tarzan first met, Jane had expectancies about how
they would communicate. Expectancies are defined as “thoughts and behaviors
anticipated in conversation” (West and Turner, 2010 p. 134). Jane expected that
Tarzan, being a human, could communicate just as well as she could. She also
expected him to walk upright and to have an idea of personal distance and territory.
After spending just a few moments with him, her expectations completed changed. She
realized that Tarzan was primitive and wild. Jane noticed that Tarzan wasn’t
demonstrating any of the behaviors she expected him to. Tarzan began trying to
communicate with Jane through closeness, touching and gesturing. Jane realized that
communicating verbally with Tarzan would be nearly impossible, so she slowed down
her speech and started using nonverbal gestures in attempt to communicate with him.
Tarzan also changed his approach and began trying to mimic Jane’s speech. In this
case, both of their expectancies and the expectancies that they perceived each other to
have, drove their interaction.
One of the concepts of the Expectancy Violations Theory is “interactional
expectations”. Judee Burgoon, author of the Expectancy Violations Theory and her
associate Jerold Hale, define pre-interactional expectations as “an individual’s ability to
carry out the interaction” (West and Turner, 2010 p. 135). It’s clear that Jane was raised
to have strong communication skills. Her entire life, she was taught through human
interaction and learned behavior to interact and communicate with other humans.
Tarzan was raised in the jungle, by primates. Since he learned his communication skills
from primates, much of his ability to communicate consisted of nonverbal
communication such as touching and gesturing. Several times, Tarzan got very close to
Jane in an attempt to inspect her, which clearly violated Jane’s territory and personal
distance and made her very uncomfortable. Jane says, “Stay away from me! That is
close enough!” (Lima and Buck, “Tarzan”). The Expectancy Violations theory says that
“Most people expect others to maintain appropriate conversational distance” (West and
Turner, 2010 p.135). Jane quickly came to realize that Tarzan did not understand
personal distance at all. Jane realized, through viewing Tarzan’s nonverbal behavior,
that Tarzan had very different interactional expectations than she did. Jane and Tarzan
had each learned a very different set of skills and they both had very different ideas
about how the other should act and behave. In the end they had to learn and adapt to
each other’s interactional expectations.
The film also supports the Expectancy Violations Theory’s assumption that that
“people make predictions about nonverbal behavior” (West and Turner, 2010 p. 134).
Jane definitely made assumptions about Tarzan’s unusual, nonverbal behavior. Some
of Tarzan’s nonverbal behaviors included, Tarzan unexpectedly touching Jane’s face,
unrelentingly staring at her, standing way too close to her etc... Tarzan violated Jane’s
“threat threshold” numerous times, with his nonverbal behavior. A threat threshold is
defined by Burgoon as “The distance at which an interactant experiences physical and
physiological discomfort by the presence of another” (West and Turner, 2010 p. 138).
Through watching Tarzan’s nonverbal behavior and analyzing the lack of the
interactional skills that she expected him to have, Jane made predictions about Tarzan.
For example, Jane assumed that Tarzan would be unable to verbally communicate.
Jane experienced “cognitive arousal” (West and Turner, 2010 p. 137) and was surprised
when Tarzan first spoke, by mimicking her words. Jane responded by saying, “Oh. You
do speak. All this time I thought that you were just a big, wild, silent, person thing.”
(Lima and Buck, “Tarzan”).
The film also contains many examples of the Expectancy Violations Theory’s
second assumption that “expectancies for human behavior are learned” (West and
Turner, 2010 p. 134). Throughout the movie, Tarzan continually learns how to behave
by watching and interacting with Jane and Jane’s father. He begins to walk upright, he
learns a bit more about territory and personal distance and he even learns to shake
hands. He also continues to learn some verbal communication skills. In the film, Tarzan
ended up returning to England with Jane. He was dressed in a sophisticated manner
and learning to interact, behave and communicate appropriately with others. While
Tarzan learned a lot of behaviors from Jane, Jane also learned many from Tarzan as
well. In the very end of the movie Jane and Tarzan both opt to live in the jungle. Jane
begins to learn some of Tarzan’s forms of communication, such as nonverbal
communication. In one scene towards the end of the film, Jane is shown communicating
and interacting with primates.
Comparing the film Tarzan, with the Expectancy Violations Theory was quite
entertaining. The film is quite comical, especially if you focus on the theories concepts
and make comparisons while watching it. I found that I was able to identify countless
examples of the Expectancy Violations Theory’s three assumption’s that, “expectancies
drive human interaction, expectancies for human behavior are learned” and “people
make predictions about nonverbal behavior” (West and Turner, 2010 p. 134).
The directors of the film Tarzan are Chris Buck and Kevin Lima. I would guess
that the directors didn’t know about the Expectancies Violations Theory specifically, but
have an understanding of some of the theory’s concepts, purely because a lot of the
concepts are innate and learned behavior. It seems that the directors were trying to
convey a couple of different messages. The film was primarily about Jane and Tarzan
falling in love, but was also about them learning to communicate, learning how to
behave and interact and learning to adapt to each other, as well as brand new
environments. Both the Expectations Violation Theory concepts and the film’s message
do correspond with each other, because they both have focus on people learning to
communicate, adapt, interact and learn new behaviors.
Judee Burgoon, who is the developer of the Expectancy Violations Theory,
developed the theory in 1978 (West and Turner, 2010 p. 130). She was studying
proximities and expectations of personal space when she began developing the
concepts of the theory. Burgoon has a vast array of qualifications. Judee Burgoon
earned her doctorate in communication and educational psychology from West Virginia
University. She has written and edited a number of books specializing in nonverbal and
verbal communication. She has authored or edited 13 books and monographs and
nearly 300 published articles, chapters and reviews related to nonverbal and verbal
communication, deception, and computer-mediated communication. She currently is the
director of human communication research at the University of Arizona. (“Judee
Burgoon”, 2015).
Comparing the film Tarzan with Expectations Violation Theory was very
interesting. I’ve watched the movie many times as a child, but now watching the film as
an adult, with a more analytical purpose, I’ve noticed communication theories and
tactics that I never would have before. The prevalence of the Expectations Violation
Theory was surprising. Although my views of human communication haven’t changed
since this evaluation, reviewing this concept and theory and comparing it with the film
helped me to realize how important the theory really is. Proxemics, social distance,
nonverbal behavior and actions are all critical during any given human interaction. In the
film, Jane’s father exclaims “What an amazing discovery! A man with no language, no
human behavior…” Jane replies, exasperated, “And no respect for personal
boundaries!” (Lima and Buck, “Tarzan”). This amusing quote from the film, further
emphasizes the need and importance of this theory.
Bibliography
West, R., & Turner, L. (2010). Introducing Communication Theory Analysis and
Application (4th ed., pp. 129-143). New York, New York: McGraw-Hill.
Lima, K., & Buck, C. (Directors). (1999). Tarzan [Motion picture on DVD]. Disney.
Judee Burgoon. (2015). Retrieved November 29, 2015, from
http://borders.arizona.edu/cms/content/judee-burgoon
Unknown. (n.d.). Expectancy Violation Theory. Retrieved December 5, 2015, from
http://communicationtheory.org/expectancy-violation-theory/