CHAPTER 4
MAKING 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 UNCERTAINTY
Uncertainty = 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 general
state of your relationship

Relational 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 Theory
Uncertainty 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)
Theory of Motivated
Information Management (p. 84)
Outcome
Expectancies
Seeker
Uncertainty
Discrepancy
Information
Management Strategy
Anxiety
Efficacy
Assessments
Provider
Outcome
Expectancies
Information
Management
Efficacy
Assessments
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 Scene
Give 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 STRATEGIES
Baxter & 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 uncertainty
Competing relationships
 Unexplained loss of contact or closeness
 Sexual behavior
 Deception
 Change in Personality/Values
 Betraying 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
uncertainty
and 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?