Barriers to Communication — Psychological Barriers
On this page 8 headings
Start here Your friend is telling you something important. But your mind is thinking about tomorrow’s quiz. You nod, but you heard nothing. What blocked the message? Your own mind.
A barrier is anything that stops a message from reaching the other person correctly.
Five kinds of barriers
- Psychological barriers — inside your mind
- Language barriers
- Cultural barriers
- Organisational barriers
- Physical barriers
This page covers the first one.
What are psychological barriers?
These barriers come from your own mind and feelings. The lecture slide lists six:
| Barrier | Simple meaning |
|---|---|
| Inner chatter | The non-stop talk inside your head. |
| Preconceived notions | Ideas you formed before you knew the facts. |
| Cognitive bias | A habit of the mind that bends how you see things. |
| Lack of interest, attention or focus; boredom | Your mind is somewhere else. |
| Emotional state — fear, anxiety, anger | Strong feelings that change how you speak or hear. |
| Limiting beliefs | Beliefs that hold you back, like “I can’t speak well.” |
In one line: Psychological barriers are blocks created by our own thoughts and feelings. Exam words: inner chatter, preconceived notions, cognitive bias, lack of interest, emotional state, limiting beliefs.
Inner chatter: 70,000 thoughts a day
The mind makes about 70,000 thoughts a day on average. That is its job.
But think about this. If your head is already full of thoughts, how can a new thought enter? When someone speaks to you, their message must fight with your own thoughts.
Also, while someone is talking, your mind starts making new thoughts about the topic. These can block the rest of the message.
But inner chatter can also help. You can take the speaker’s idea like a seed. Then you grow your own new ideas from it. So you must know when it blocks you and when it helps you.
Most thoughts are not useful
One professor says about 80–90% of our thoughts are unproductive (not useful). They are mostly:
- worries about the past
- anxiety about the future
- neutral memories of old events
Being aware of this gives you a choice. You can choose which thoughts to keep and which to drop. Practices like meditation help keep thoughts few and calm.
Be in the present
When you are fully involved in something, your thoughts drop to almost zero.
When you are not interested, thoughts start running at full speed.
Lecture example — the boring meeting You are in a meeting. The topic does not interest you. Your mind wanders. You miss what is said. But when you lead the discussion, or show real interest, you stay in the present.
In one line: Stay fully involved, and your inner chatter stops blocking the message. Exam words: unproductive thoughts, awareness, meditation, being in the present.
Emotions: fear, anxiety and anger
Fear. A student goes to a professor’s office. The student is afraid of saying something wrong. So the student may not say things clearly, or may even blabber. If the professor makes the student comfortable, the fear goes down.
Anxiety or lack of interest. In class, some students keep checking WhatsApp. Why? Maybe they are not interested. Or they are anxious: “What if someone messaged me and gets angry if I don’t reply?”
Anger. When a teacher gets angry, the message comes out badly. The students do not receive it well. Some people freeze when angry. They only show that they are angry, not why.
The solution: be aware of your emotion. Notice “I am afraid” or “I am angry”. Then you can communicate better.
Everyday example You are angry because your roommate used your charger again. You shout, “You never listen!” He only hears the shouting. He never learns the real problem: you needed the charger for your exam.
Summary: what goes wrong
Emotions affect both people — the speaker and the listener.
When you speak: What you mean and what you say can be different. This is called distortion.
When you listen: Thoughts and emotions cloud your mind. You may assume things or judge the speaker. So the meaning you take can be completely different from what they meant.
In one line: Strong emotions bend the message both when we speak and when we listen. Exam words: fear, anxiety, anger, distortion, assumptions, judgments, emotional state of speaker and listener.