Violating Student Expectations: Student Disclosures and Student Reactions in the College Classroom

Expectancy violations theory (EVT; Burgoon & Hale, 1988) was the theoretical lens used in this study about perceptions of appropriate and inappropriate student disclosures in the college classroom. Participants (N = 211) were randomly assigned to report on either (a) an inappropriate or (b) an appropriate disclosure and the frequency, relevance, negativity, expectedness of the disclosure, and likeability and perceived academic competence of a student discloser. Results indicate that student disclosures are inappropriate when they happen frequently, are negative, irrelevant to course materials, or violate student expectations for classroom norms. Generally, disclosers who violate expectations are rated lower in liking and perceived as less competent students by their classmates.