Uncertainty is one of the unvarying authenticities in this society we are in. Being
uncertain about someone regardless of his/her background or how he/she appears, for
me is just a normal fad. These are inevitable? Yes! But we need not to live by
these forever. We can always help ourselves out and lessen the ambiguity among
humanity. J
Berger
and Calabrese enumerated seven important factors - verbal communication,
nonverbal expressiveness, information-seeking behaviour, intimacy, reciprocity,
similarity, and liking - and described their interrelationships in any dyadic
exchange in helping us reduce uncertainties. (Berger and Calabrese, 1975)
“The
beginnings of personal relationships are fraught with uncertainties. (Berger,
1975)”
During
my high school days, I am fond of joining pageants, actually up until now. And then I met an aloof type guy. He was one
of the male candidates then. He always
approaches me as to take pictures with me. He always smiles but speaks very
little whenever we talk. To the point that I could say, you are lucky enough to
hear him talk for over fifteen seconds.J
Berger identifies this point as the Entry Stage where
information about another’s age, sex, and other demographic information is
obtained. (Berger, 1975)
And then after some
time, he asked me to help him for his field study. Being kinda interested about
him, I agreed and we started to be more comfortable than before. We started
eating together, walking home together and other stuff like that including
deeper understanding and concern for each other, as friends. Personal Stage begins at that moment if
we take Berger’s account- this stage takes place when communicators begin to
share attitudes, beliefs, values, and more personal data. (Berger, 1975)
After
one or two months of hanging around with each other, we finished his field
study, and shortly after that, we rarely have seen or communicate with each
other, neither via phone nor in person until now.
This I believe is the Exit Phase.
The Exit Phase, according to Berger
begins when the communicators decide on future interaction plans. They may
discuss or negotiate ways to allow the relationship to grow and continue.
(Berger, 1975)
I believe that this
statement is not applicable at all times. Take my example as a proof. We did
not discuss nor decide on future interaction plans during the Exit Phase, it
just happened. The interaction between the two of us
terminated. Simply because matters like this aren't planned, except for lovers’
break up I guess.
INCENTIVE, I believe incentive is the reason why he made a
way of somehow being close to me. DEVIATION and ANTICIPATION of FUTURE INTERACTION are the other two given
by Berger, as the main reasons why people seek information. (Berger, 1975)
The Uncertainty Reduction Theory is
presented as a series of axioms, but some of these aren't really reliable and
dependable because even Berger himself admits that his original statements
contained some propositions of dubious validity. I myself, also find two
of his axioms to be contradicting:
AXIOM 3, Information Seeking: High levels of
uncertainty cause increases in information-seeking behaviour. As uncertainty
levels decline, information-seeking behaviour decreases.
AXIOM 7, Liking: Increases in
uncertainty level produce decreases in liking; decreases in uncertainty produce
increases in liking. (Berger and Calabrese, 1975)
I
consider these two as contradicting axioms because I believe that if
uncertainty increases, we tend to dislike the other person thus, halting
ourselves to seek information about him/her.
And for the other way around, when uncertainty decreases, we tend to like the other person even more therefore, we dig deeper data and information about him/her.
And for the other way around, when uncertainty decreases, we tend to like the other person even more therefore, we dig deeper data and information about him/her.
We may
think, some people love to live with uncertainties, so what is the use of
reducing it? Well, this falls under our control. These are choices which can
either make or break us. Furthermore, this is because it has been proven that
people love surprises from their partners. They don’t want everything revealed
as it is. We still crave for mysteries and conceal them area by area, layer by
layer, and piece by piece. J
“The
probability of a perfect communication is zero. (Berger, 1975)”
REFERENCES:
DATE RETRIEVED:
December 26 and 27, 2013 respectively
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