Criticism
- Determining whether a positive or negative violation has occurred can be difficult. When there is no attitude or behavior change it may be concluded that a negative violation has occurred (possibly related to a boomerang effect). Conversely, when an attitude or behavior change does occur it may be too easy to conclude a positive violation of expectations has occurred.
- Scholars are beginning to see LET as out of date research. The theory itself may be plausible, but the assumption women, who use intense language, are low credible communicators is less prevalent in a society moving towards greater rights for minorities and the oppressed.
- The theory has also been critiqued for being too "grand" in its predictive and explanatory goals. Burgoon counters that practical applications of his research conclusions are compelling enough to negate this criticism.
Read more about this topic: Language Expectancy Theory
Famous quotes containing the word criticism:
“...I wasn’t at all prepared for the avalanche of criticism that overwhelmed me. You would have thought I had murdered someone, and perhaps I had, but only to give her successor a chance to live. It was a very sad business indeed to be made to feel that my success depended solely, or at least in large part, on a head of hair.”
—Mary Pickford (1893–1979)
“People try so hard to believe in leaders now, pitifully hard. But we no sooner get a popular reformer or politician or soldier or writer or philosopher—a Roosevelt, a Tolstoy, a Wood, a Shaw, a Nietzsche, than the cross-currents of criticism wash him away. My Lord, no man can stand prominence these days. It’s the surest path to obscurity. People get sick of hearing the same name over and over.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“When you overpay small people you frighten them. They know that their merits or activities entitle them to no such sums as they are receiving. As a result their boss soars out of economic into magic significance. He becomes a source of blessings rather than wages. Criticism is sacrilege, doubt is heresy.”
—Ben Hecht (1893–1964)