Communication – Psychological Relation

The psychological barriers in the communication are the most common one that are found during the process of transferring the information from one to another. These kinds of hurdles are produced due to emotions, feelings, mindset, perception, social values etc. Due to this distance is created in the mind and the heart of the people and hence resulting into the misunderstanding and hence hindering the communication process. The misperception of one person leads to the creation of the misunderstanding which creates the difference in the minds of the people hence it leads to the barrier in the communication. These kinds of the barriers include the selective perceptions, premature evaluation, different comprehension of the reality, attitude of the superior, attitude of the subordinates, poor listening, egotism and emotions or feelings. The selective perceptions include the role of our sensory receptors which have their own limitations. We normally do not understand the things as a whole but only a part of it according to our needs and experience, background, motives etc.

We do not know the reality we interpret the reality on the basis of our mindset and emotions or feelings. We think about the things according to our vision. There is no right or wrong but there is different opinion for different things. It depends on the mentality of a person how he takes a particular situation. This is called as the selective perception and due to this we cannot communicate completely with the others. The words are basically neutral and they do not convey a particular meaning. By using the words in a particular context or situation we create the positive or negative impression on that word. We can talk in a particular mood by using the same words but only our expressions are changed. It may also happen due to our perceptions that we want to convey a positive message but due to perceptions and preconceived ideas of the receiver the same is conveyed in the completely opposite context and in a negative way. As a result this thing brings about the misunderstanding and misinterpretations making the communication between two or more than two people ineffective. The other factors of the psychological barrier are the premature evaluation.

The human beings try to evaluate the things in a very quick manner. We hardly listen or read the whole thing and try to evaluate the things from the certain part of the things half listened or read. The moment we are evaluating the thing as we listen them we stop listening the rest of the message that is visible to other sensory receptors. The premature evaluation does not let the effective communication to take place. We can remove this barrier by listening carefully and emphatically to the sender who is sending us the message or suspending our judgments for the some of the time or with delay. The premature evaluation is very serious problem as it hinders the communication. Our preconceived ideas let us think in a particular way and do not let us think according to the vision of the sender of the message. We need to keep our vision aside for sometime in order to understand what other is trying to say. One can easily get the point of other person if he keeps his thinking in his own mind and start thinking according to the mindset of the other person. The selective perception and the premature evaluation lead to the misunderstanding as well as misinterpretation of the certain messages. Basically reality is relative to the person connected to it. It is not absolute concept. Every person has its own mindset, sensory receptors and filters in its mind. He thinks according to his own vision and interprets them accordingly. One cannot force the other person to think according to his own vision and thinking. Due to the result of it our evaluations, interpretations, abstractions and inferences differ from all other. Abstraction is the way in which we focus on the one thing and its detail by ignoring everything else. The complete focus is on that thing. Due to the process of abstracting we are unable to focus on the other things and focus on a particular thing in which we specialize. We do not think over the whole situation and just a part of it. We think only we are correct and the point of view of the other person is ignored. We think that the other person might think in an incorrect way and will lead to wrong decision. Thus we hardly trust them for taking decision s of our life. Hence while advising the other person we need to think of the way in which he is thinking by ignoring our own perception and vision. In order to counsel the other person we should think in his way. Due to different abstractions and different interpretations the facts are also different.

The communication gap is formed by our own inferences. For example when someone tells us about his leaving for going out of station by train then we infers that he will reach the station at the time of the arrival of the train. However it is our inferences that create the communication gap. Our inferences make our mindset in a particular direction. Hence we are not able to think in way of other people. The sensory receptors generate a vision that is limited to our mind only. All people do not think in a same way sue to which diverse situation exist in this world. Every human being is unique in this world. He is unique not because of his different physical appearance but because of his different thinking and different point of view. The inference of the people makes them different from the other. The other vision helps us think in wider way only if we let other to penetrate our thinking. If we are not able to do this it will create a communication gap. If we do not make ourselves understand the vision of the other we will not be able to communicate effectively with the other person. The general attitude of the higher authorities puts a lot of impact on the communication. If the superior is afraid of interacting with his subordinates due to the lack of confidence in them then there will be gap in the communication process. Even if the higher authorities are strict in nature that the subordinate themselves feel hesitated in communicating with them. The message can get coloured, filtered or distorted if there is communication gap in between the two parties in an organization. The higher authority may alter the message according to their need so that their weakness could be masked. In the same way the attitude of the lower authorities or the subordinate staff is also of equal importance. The negativity in the attitude of the subordinates can affect the communication process. The unwillingness to share the information, inferiority complex and fear of the performing a particular task are the reason for the hurdles in the communication. Due to all these factors the communication gap prevails.

The communication is hindered due to this thing. The other psychological barrier in the communication process is the poor listening of the person at the receiver end. When we just hear rather than listening carefully we face this kind of problem which acts as the barrier in the communication. Even in listening we listen to the selective parts only according to our wish, desire or will leaving behind the undesired part which does not match our thinking process. Poor listening takes place when we listen to what we want to listen not to what other want to say. This type of problem results in hurdles in revealing the actual meaning of the message. All these factors retard the effective communication. The self centred person thinks that only his ideas are important and the ideas of others are not. In this way their minds are closed as they do not want to listen to the others and thinks that only they are correct in their vision. The level of understanding is affected due to this thing and hence the gap in communication increases. It is diametrically opposite of the transmission of information and the understanding. It is most important part of the process of the communication. The ego of the self centred person is hurdle in his mind which does not the effective communication to take place. These kinds of people are bad listeners. The egotism is the very harmful factor in this regard. Positive emotions like that of affection, compassion and love makes the process of communication smooth. In the same way the negative emotions like anger, hatred, jealousy, anxiety etc put negative impact on the communication process. When a person is excited, perplexed or afraid he is not able to think in a rational way and hence it leads to negativity in the communication. The message is hence not conveyed the way it is. The negativity is induced in the message and is transmitted further. We need a silent mind along with the soothed heart in order to make the communication effective. Hence due to all these factors we can say that perfect communication does not exist. It means that the percentage of barrier can be made less but it cannot be completely eradicated that is why the communication is not perfect always. These psychological barriers make the communication difficult to take place. The emotions help to create either positive or negative impact on the communication. It is important to keep the emotions in control in order to make the communication effective. The closed mind does not welcome the ideas of other person in the mind of egoistic person’s brain. The egotism is something very harmful as it makes the communication process completely ineffective. In the same way listening poorly ca also let the communication ineffective. The attitude of both the superior and the subordinates is important in making the smooth communication process. The preconceived ideas of the people do not let the person to grasp the actual meaning of the message conveyed. They are overlooked by the perceptions in the mind of the receiver. The selective perceptions hence made by the receiver leads to improper message interpretation. These barriers are produced due to the emotions, feelings, values that are related to the society and the perceptions are different in the case of different person. The different comprehension of the reality leads to the different perceptions. The communication can be made easier if one tries to understand the reason for the barrier and make efforts to remove them. It is very important to lessen the communication gap by putting an effort to remove these barriers in order to make the communication effective. One does not receive the message in the original form if these barriers are involved. The behavioural problem is generated due to ego of the person involved in the communication process. In the case person at receiving end is egoistic then he may not listen properly or attentively creating the ineffective communication to take place.

In the case if the sender is egoistic then he may filter, colour or distort the message by addition or deletion according to his will, wish or desire making the communication ineffective. The message that is sent will not be in its original form. This will be a great problem that is required to be solved at all the steps in order to make the communication process effective. The barriers in the communication process are very easily detected and are seen at the micro level as well as the macro level. The patience is required to make an effective communication. It becomes successful with the efforts at the both ends. If anyone creates the trouble the whole communication process keeps no importance and is made ineffective. The anger of the sender may lead to the use of the abusive language which is not at all acceptable and the communication hence made can be ineffective in spite of the fact that receiver is sincere and is listening with complete attention. The anger and resentment will be created in the mind of the receiver also and he will deny listening anymore curbing the whole communication process in the middle only.