By: Rick Baker
By: Rick Baker
The chapter, "Uncertainty and Anxiety," in Theories in Communication, written by Young Yun Kim and William B. Gudykunst, defines and describes the theory of Uncertainty and Anxiety. It achieves this by breaking the chapter down into three main sections and their twelve subsections. The main sections include Foundations of the Theory, Formulation of the Theory, and Discussion. Within these main sections and their twelve subsections, Kim and Gudykunst focus on factors and axioms that help support the theory of Uncertainty and Anxiety.
First, the chapter looks at the theory of Uncertainty and Anxiety in itself. The theory was developed and defined by William B. Gudykunst. "Uncertainty reduction involves the creation of proactive predictions about others attitudes, beliefs, feelings, and behavior, as well as retroactive explanations about others' behavior" (Gudykunst 124) The chapter also defines anxiety as a feeling that is produced by one's thought to a strange predicament. "Underlying the theory is the assumption that individuals attempt to reduce uncertainty in initial reactions with strangers when they will be encountered in the future, can provide rewards, or act in a deviant fashion" (Berger 124).
In an attempt to elaborate and explain the theory better, Gudykunst developed thirty-seven axioms that would be the initial building blocks of this theory. These axioms show interactions between information seeking, nonverbal affiliative expressiveness, uncertainty, liking, reciprocity and amount of communication. Many other theorems have been created from the thirty-one axioms. Charles Berger later furthered the theory by outlining three general ways that an individual uses for reducing anxiety and uncertainty. These three include passive, active and interactive.
In the discussion section, the authors create interesting viewpoints on the theory. They show the pros and the cons to the theory. One such con is that, "The only axiom that may be problematic is Axiom 1. This axiom posits negative relationship between uncertainty reduction and strength of ethnolinguistic identity, but a positive relationship between reducing anxiety and strength of ethnolinguistic identity. All other axioms suggest the same relationships. Inconsistency of Axiom 1 may be that low and high strengths of ethnolinguistic identity lead to uncertainty and anxiety reduction. However, moderate strength in ethnolinguistic identity may not reduce" (Gudykunst 125). To conclude this chapter, the authors site many sources that were used.
Upon reading the chapter, I found a few discrepancies that made my interpretation a little bit difficult. For instance, I found that the book Theories in Communication, listed William B. Gudykunst school of study at Arizona State University. However, in my other readings, A First Look at Communication Theory, I found that his origin of study was California State University. This, although seemingly insignificant, made me wonder that if something as easy and basic as where Gudykunst spent the majority of his studies was wrong, then what about the content of the actual theory? Another difference I found in the readings was that Theories in Communication listed Axiom 7 as "An increase in strangers' self-monitoring will produce an increase in their attributional confidence regarding members of other groups' behaviors and a decrease in the anxiety experienced when interacting with members of other groups"(Gudykunst 126). In my other reading, A First Look at Communication Theory, Axiom 7 is described as "An increase in our need for a sense of group inclusion when we interact with strangers will produce an increase in our anxiety" (Griffin 413). And yet another discrepancy is that the book Theories in Communication states that Gudykunst's middle initial is "S", where as my other studies have shown that his correct initial, in fact, is "B". Beyond these discrepancies I found that the interpretation of Theories in Communication, was very parallel to my other studies.
I found the chapter on "Uncertainty and Anxiety" to be very dry and complex. It consistently used complex terms and difficult sentences to describe a relatively easy theory to grasp. The above quote mentioned by Gudykunst on page 125 referring to the problematic Axiom 1 is a very good example of how dry and complex that material can be at times. The thirty-seven axioms are not all shown which takes away from the consistency of the theory. The book only shows thirteen. This is yet another reason why I did not find the reading your typical; "I can't put the book down." However, even though the material was hard to swallow, it did not take away from the underlying fact that Anxiety /Uncertainty Reduction Theory is very fascinating. Not only is it fascinating, but I think that it applies to everyone. It has merit. It is facinating because, we can see the affects of the Anxiety /Uncertainty Reduction Theory every time we go for an interview, meet our new roommate or even have our web pages evaluated. "Uncertainty reduction theory is one of the few communication theories systematically extended to explain cross-cultural variations in communication, as well as intercultural and intergroup communication" (Berger 123). This statement shows that the "Uncertainty Reduction Theory" does not just focus on one aspect of society, but it affects many. For these reasons, I find the Anxiety /Uncertainty Reduction Theory creditable and very useful for interpersonal communication.
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