Topic 5 Communication gaps and barriers- strategies to overcome them

Concerns the difficulties that appear due to the multiple meanings of words or other symbols. The main reasons of semantic barriers are:

• Bad expression: Choosing the wrong words , you may have a badly expressed message with reduced impact.
• Faulty translation: Sender and recipient should have the same level of underacting in order not to have misinterpretation of the message.
• Unclarified assumptions: Sender shouldn’t feel that the recipient knows everything because in this way creates assumptions in certain things.
• Different meanings of words or symbols: There are some words that may confuse the recipients as they have many different meanings and their interpretation depends on someone’s educational and social background.

Refers to the psychological state of individuals which subsequently affects their opinions, emotions, attitudes and furthermore the ability to communicate. The basic kinds of psychological barriers are:

• Emotions: Emotions like anger, confusion, nervousness affect the communication as they affect someone’s impartial attitude.
• Distrust: Lack of trust makes someone to derive negative meaning out of the message ignoring the basic meaning. The result is a meaningless communication as the receiver don’t listen what the sender says.
• Lack of attention: Receiver should listen carefully what sender says in order to be able to comprehend the message and give the proper feedback. Psychological barriers arise if someone is not able to do this after a communication.