Barriers to Communication

• Physical (time, environment, comfort, needs, physical medium)

• Cultural (ethnic, religious, and social differences)
• Perceptional (viewing what is said from your own mindset)
• Motivational (mental inertia)
• Experiential (lack of similar experience)
• Emotional (personal feelings at the moment)
• Linguistic (different languages or vocabulary)
• Non-verbal (non-word messages)
• Competition (noise, doing other things besides listening)
• Words (we assign a meaning to a word often because of culture -- note
the difference in the meaning of "police" (contrast Berrien Springs
versus Benton Harbor or any inner city perspective) or "boy" (contrast
white male with black male perspectives)
• Context (high / low)
• Purpose (example: note the difference in communication between men
versus women; for men it's report-talk versus rapport-talk or
information versus bonding
• Mode (differences in way a message is sent). Note the black versus
white modes:

Black White
Low keyed
High keyed
Discussion
Argument
Controlled / Self-
Spontaneous
Restrained
Boasting
Understanding
Person Oriented
Task Oriented
Blacks perceive
Whites perceive
whites as detached,
blacks as
devious,
aggressive, over-
impersonal,
emotional, angry,
condescending,
confrontational,
hypocritical,
interruptive, too
avoiding eye
personal,
contact, and too
showboating
silent
• Gestures (misunderstood gestures are a major barrier see discussion on
non-verbal language)
• Variations in language – accent, dialect
• Slang - jargon - colloquialism
• Different forms or reasons for verbal interaction

Dueling – seeing who can get the upper hand (playing the dozens)

Repartee conversation – taking short turns rather than monologue

Ritual conversation – standard replies with little meaning to words
themselves (i.e. most US greetings)
Self-disclosure. The level of self-disclosure is culturally
determined. Not all cultures wish to give personal information;
some want to do business without knowing the other person while
others insist on full knowledge first.