The elements of communication process must be controlled for effective communication and the nature of messages. Before we can be consistently successful as a communicator, we will need to develop the ability not only to plan and implement effective communication but also to analyze why a particular communication situation might be unsuccessful. In order to build that skill, we will need a more complete understanding of barriers to communication.
Barriers to communication are those physical or psychological elements that interfere with the message-for either the sender or the receiver.
The things that make communication poor will be unique to the persons and the situations involved. Because we know a great deal about communication, we can guard against some of the obstacles to it. In order to do so, we need to examine the differences in people and in situations that sometimes create communication barriers.
TANGIBLE DIFFERENCES
The kinds of categories used in a census of the population are all relevant to understanding tangible differences between people. These are factors such as sex, age, race, national or cultural origin, socioeconomic class, urban or rural residence, educational level, and so forth. These are things that we can know by observing people. We can be aware of these elements that shape their individuality, simply by knowing tangible things about them.
No matter where people may live, will be associating and needing to communicate with people from widely different backgrounds. For example; the people work with will represent a wide variety of sex, age, and ethnic type. The person should not assume anything ahead of time about those with whom you will work. Understanding how tangible elements such as sex and age affect communication behavior, then, is vital to you in the business world.
SEX: For instance, your sex has been found to be a major influence on the way you communicate with other people. Simply knowing a person’s gender can allow you to draw some general conclusions that hold true for many people. These general conclusions are based on reports of research projects by social scientists conducting experiments to discover how people interact in the real world. Not all men and women ct in these ways; in fact , these patterns are currently changing. We can say, however, that men and women tend to communicate with one another in different ways according to their sex. Since this is true, we can see that sex is one of the factors leading to differences in interpersonal communication effectiveness.
According to studies by researchers; women and men differ as follows when they communicate:
When men and women work together in a group, men tend to be more assertive and self-confident.
Women are more likely than men to express their emotions, to reveal how they feel about a situation.
It should be obvious that these are not rules, but general tendencies. However, they are important to us because they allow us to make some educated predictions about communication. They allow us to analyze communication as it occurs.
AGE: Likewise, a person’s age is a strong influence on the way he or she communicates. Research has shown that young people and old people communicate in different ways. Their maturity, their educational backgrounds, and the different eras in which they grew up amake a generation gap inevitable. This often shows in the words they choose to express their thought. Objectively speaking, a person’s age or sex is not important in judging the truth or wisdom of what that person says. Sometimes, though, we do tend to judge a statement by different standards if we know the speaker’s age or sex.
In addition to the factors of age and sex, there are many other tangible characteristics that influence the effectiveness of communication between people. Consider race, occupation, socioeconomic class, and educational level as some areas of individual differences. The short exercise is this: Imagine you are discussing the many video game arcades that have opened in your area. Someone says; “I believe there ought to be a ban on letting elementary school age children play video games except after school hours and on weekends.”
Suppose this statement were made by each of the following individuals. Would your reaction be different with each individual?
1. Brad Sandefer, the middle-aged music director of the largest church in the city.
2. Ethyl Brown, the local librarian
3. Marshall Pickering, an elemantary school principal.
4. Tyrone Jefferson, a seven grade student enrolled at Booker T. Washington Vocational Technical School.
5. Howard Burke, PFC, U.S. Marine Corps.
6. Your father.
If your reaction to the statement about the video games would different according to which person said it, you can see how individual differences can afferct interpersonal communication.
INTANGIBLE DIFFERENCES
People’s attitudes and values would be different not only because they were different physically, but also because of their different backgrounds. The differences between people’s attitudes and values are often more important than their physical differences in influencing how they communicate. Therefore, we should not neglect the psychological factors that affect communication.
PERCEPTION: All learning results from perception through our senses. Sight, hearing, and other physical senses are our contacts with the physical world. Our access to all learning is limited by the range and power of our physical senses. A person who is hearing impaired will perceive things differently than will someone who has very acute hearing. The nearsighted person will perceive the world differently than the person with perfect sight. Our physical limitations are a screen through which we perceive things that exist in our environment.
Our perception is also limited by psychological screens that we have developed. We choose from among the many things within our range of perception those that we will notice, and block out the rest. We see and hear what we want! This is known as “Selective Perception”. Does this exchange sound familiar?
Mother: Will you straighten up your room?
Teenager: Why? What’s messy?
This mother and her teenager both see the same room, but through different eyes. The mother’s perceptual screen is in the context of having everything handy and out in the open. Often, communication problems arise as a result of different selective perceptions by the persons involved. The advice that can be offered is to look at the topic from the other person’s viewpoint. In this way, we can reduce some of the misunderstandings and misperceptions that may come up.
Selective perception allows us not only to block out things that are there, but also to see more things than are there. We make our own reality! This is most clearly seen in the human tendency to stereotype others. We stereotype such groups as women, ethnic minorities, older people, adolescents, and the members of verious religious groups. So; when we get into communication difficulties with others, the reason is often thet we do not share the same perceptions, and thus our meaning is not clear.
MOTIVATION: Another basic psychological factor that relates to effective communication is human motivation. A motive is a reason for action. The most strongest motivations are those that are most personal. We all take actions in our own self-interest. We are motivated by money, fame, power, love, status, security, skill, ambition, and the other goals we want to achieve.
Not all human motives are positive. Sometimes an employee is not motivated to work in the employer’s best interest. If a person is more concerned with getting off work than with finishing a task, that person is called a clock-watcher or worse. His or her motive is not in the best interests of the employer.
It is human nature that we possess a mixture of motives, some good and some bad. In some situations, we find ourselves confused over what action to take because our motives are in conflict.
Interpersonal conflicts often arise in business when co-workers do not share similar motivations. If you have to cooperate with someone else on a project, but you are more highly motivated to be productive than that person, conflicts are bound to arise. You will feel that you are carrying more than your fair share of the work load. The other person may feel that you are pushing too hard. You will both to be frustrated. In such cases as this, the single factor that can lead to resolving the conflict is the ability of each person to communicate effectively with the other.
TUNNEL VISION: This characteristics refers to a closed way of thinking, especially about abstract topics, such as religion and politics. The person with tunnel vision is one who has firmly fixed ideas. The opposite side of tunnel vision is open-mindedness. Of course , it is possible to be too open-minded, just as it is possible to be too closed-minded. The person who is too open-minded has a problem with being wishy-washy and too easily influenced by the most recent thing he/she in told.
Very few people are extremely closed or open-minded. But nearly all people lean one way or the other. These are ways of thinking about the world. Communication is difficult when you must deal with a person who admits yo no errors and accepts no compromise. The person with tunnel vision cannot cope well with unforeseen developments and rapidly changing conditions. This is the person whose attitude seems to say; “I’ve already made up my mind, Don’t confuse me with the facts!!!”
EGO DEFENSIVENESS: Ego defensiveness is self-centered communication. This is more than just being selfish. It is a response pattern in which a person who follows this pattern sees a disagreement as a personal attract. Such a person’s first reaction to criticism would be to counterattack in an attempt to save face and to defend the bruised ego in any way possible.
You need to realize that your own responses are the controlling factor in communication. If they are defensive, they can make you blind to good suggestions, and they can destroy your ability to relate positively to these with whom you work. Some common kinds of ego-defensive communication tactics are;
• Sour Grapes: This tactic involves rationalizing, saying that you did not really want a thing, or downgrading the qualities of something you are unable to achieve.
• Projection: Projection involves accusing others of your own faults.
• Scapegoating: Picking on others and blaming them unjustly are characteristics of this tactic.
All of these ego-defensive mechanisms are normal in the sense that everyone uses them on occasion. Sometimes they may even be necessary, as when others seem unable to communicate with you without using hostile, abusive, or aggressive attacks against you. Some people have poor self-images; so their communication habits are based on these patterns. They feel that they must cut other people down in order to build themselves up. They make communication difficult as best. The key point to remember is that ego-defensive communication never deals with the substance of a discussion, but rather with personalities. Thus, they can all be barriers to good communication.
NEGATIVE EMOTIONS: Our emotions are an outgrowth of our responses to conditions about us, to the perceptions we have of our relationships with others, and to our own realities. In short, emotions are the feelings we have about the world around us. Most of the time, positive emotions such as joy or love do not get in our way when we communicate. But negative emotions almost always obstacles to good communication. This is especially true if the emotion is uncontrolled, unfocused, or misdirected. (Sometimes, even a positive emotion can become an obstacle by making us unwilling to listen objectively to information.)
Sometimes negative emotions are misdirected. We demonstrate anger at the wrong person or circumstance. This is much like unfocused emotion, but it is sometimes possible to unravel the problem if someone in the situation takes the time. An example of this could be a childhood experience when you were punished for something you did not do. If you can remember such a time, you will understand the feelings such a misdirected emotions can arouse in those with whom you communicate.
These five psychological factors- perception, motivation, tunnel vision, ego defensiveness, and negative emotions - are all elements of communication that you must consider when you plan for better communication. You need to avoid them in your own communication when possible, and you need to be able to see them for what they are when others use them.