2015
Sara Pervez
Research Scholar,
University Of Karachi
[ PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL
BARRIERS IN EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION ]
The main focus of this research revolves around interpersonal communication. Whenever two or
more people interact, certain factors intervene that affect the communication process. These
factors are called barriers that stop you from moving on and as a result interpersonal
communication may fail.
Table of Contents
ABSTRACT:..................................................................................................................................................... 3
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................. 3
LITERATURE REVIEW: .................................................................................................................................... 4
Effective Communication in an Organization ............................................................................................... 5
A sender of message must: ....................................................................................................................... 6
A Message Receiver Must: ........................................................................................................................ 6
Barriers to Effective Organizational Communication ................................................................................... 7
OBJECTIVE ..................................................................................................................................................... 8
Research Question ........................................................................................................................................ 8
Hypotheses ................................................................................................................................................... 8
Rationale of the Research ............................................................................................................................. 9
METHODOLOGY: ........................................................................................................................................... 9
Development of measurement instrument .............................................................................................. 9
Data Collection and Sample: ..................................................................................................................... 9
Measurement of the data: ........................................................................................................................ 9
Quantitative Analysis .............................................................................................................................. 10
Descriptive Analysis .................................................................................................................................... 10
Recommendations: ..................................................................................................................................... 11
CONCLUSION:.............................................................................................................................................. 11
REFRENCES: ................................................................................................................................................. 12
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TITLE: PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL
BARRIERS IN EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
Author: Sara Pervez
Affiliation: University of Karachi
Email: sara_pz@outlook.com
ABSTRACT:
When we communicate we share our ideas, thoughts and feelings through words, actions or
sometimes both. The main focus of this research revolves around interpersonal communication.
Whenever two or more people interact, certain factors intervene that affect the communication
process. These factors are called barriers that stop you from moving on and as a result
interpersonal communication may fail. There are many reasons why interpersonal
communications fail. In many communications, the message may not be received exactly the
way the sender intended and hence it is important that the communicator seeks feedback to check
that their message is clearly understood. The barriers that have been focused in this research are
Psychological and Physical. The paper aims at defining both the barriers along with the
suggestions to remove them. The three hypotheses have been developed that describe whether
the physical barriers affect our interpersonal communication the most or the psychological ones
or both. Thus the study aims to investigate the communication barriers that should be removed
for effective communication in the organization. A structured questionnaire survey based on 5point Likert-scale and focused group and indepth interviews have been conducted on approx 65
respondants. The sample includes people that work in different organizations such as banks,
universities, hospitals, MNC’s etc. The prospective analysis of the research is both qualitative
and quantitative. At the end, one of the three hypotheses is made confirmed and the other two
have been considered as remain a possibility.
Key Words: Interpersonal Communication, Physical, Psychological, Barriers.
INTRODUCTION
The word communication has been derived from a latin word “communicare” which means “to
make common”. Importance of effective communication has always been a key factor for,
quality of life and the global nature of our society. Rapid changes in information technology
make persons to adapt new communication mediums which bring several physical and
psychological barriers in it.
Most of the individuals do not give much importance to physical and psychological barriers but
communication plays the crucial role to success in any relationship undoubtedly. Whenever there
are any barriers specially physical and psychological barriers, intervening in the flow of
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communication in the organization within very short period of time it becomes the source of
serious problems among employees. The situation goes out of control and employees find it
extremely unpleasant and restraining to work on daily basis in such environment if this improper
communication continues leading to the barriers go intense. As a result performance of
employees decline sharply. Inadequate verbal and nonverbal exchange gradually leads to
bitterness and thus a huge gap is created among employees and organizational authority.
Thus identifying the physical and psychological communication barriers are significant for
ensuring effective communication in the organizations where the business processes heavily
depend on communicating various types of information with the customers and stakeholders. As
Grasso, Golen, and Burns (2005) mentioned that better understanding of communication barriers
may help the business organizations to communicate more effectively and improve their ability
to promote more effective communication throughout the organization. Recognizing the
importance of an effective communication system, the current study aims the impact of physical
and psychological barriers in bringing effective communication at interpersonal relationships.
LITERATURE REVIEW:
Communication is defined by de Valenzuela as “any act by which one person gives to or receives
from other person information about that person's needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge, or
affective states. Communication may be intentional or unintentional, may involve conventional
or unconventional signals, may take linguistic or nonlinguistic forms, and may occur through
spoken or other modes.” (National Joint Committee for the Communicative Needs of Persons
with Severe Disabilities,1992, p. 2).
Communication is a complex process wherein information is shared between individuals through
a common system of symbols, signs, and behavior expressing feelings, ideas, views, opinions,
etc. People communicate to satisfy needs. The main purpose of communication is to help people
feel good about themselves and about their friends, groups, and organizations. For the
communication to succeed there must be a transmission of thoughts, ideas and feelings from one
mind to another. Effective communication is an essential component of organizational success
whether it is at the interpersonal or intergroup or organizational or even external level.
According to Albert Mehrabian, a known psychologist, any face to face communication is
composed of 3 V’s i.e. Verbal, Vocal and Visual. He conducted 2 experiments and came up with
the famous TMI (Total Message Impact) equation (Mehrabian, 1971).
TMI= Verbal 7%+ Vocal 38%+ Visual 55%
TMI depends upon the sender who has the responsibility to foresee any problem among these 3
elements. If there is a contradiction among them, we call it a Communication Barrier and as a
result, the interpersonal communication is affected.
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There are many reasons why interpersonal communications may fail. In many communications,
the message may not be received exactly the way the sender intended and hence it is important
that the communicator seeks feedback to check that their message is clearly understood.
As the topic involves Physical and Psychological Barriers, therefore only the two barriers will be
discussed here along with the impact that they make.
Dr. Arun K Behera and Prof. Bijay K Tripathy wrote an article in November, 2009 named
“Barriers to Effective Communication and How to Overcome Them”. According to them,
Physical barriers refer to a large number of physical factors ranging from noise and bodily
movements to ill health of either or both the participants, confusion and discomfort. Even the
slightest of the undesirable sound such as that arising out of dragging a table or sneezing or
banging of the door or the window panes or creaking of the door or the fan etc. can pose a
distraction especially to the listener leading to loss of certain information. (Behra, Tripathy:
2009). Similarly, when one or both of the persons in the field of communication is/are not well
or when there is any kind of discomfort on either part communication becomes ineffective.
Sometimes, some sort of confusion also arises which leads to the communication being not
successful. Thus, in oral communication, other barriers such as faulty seating arrangements
distance between the sender and the receiver, fatigue etc. result in miscommunication. In case of
written communication, on the other hand, illegible writing, bad photocopies etc. lead to
miscommunication. An article published by The United States Coast Guard states that, “Distance
is considered a physical barrier because if the receiver is far away from the person speaking he or
she may only be able to pick up bits and pieces of the conversation. Distractions generally occur
when a person is unable to concentrate or focus on the message and can be caused by both
physical and environmental sources” (The United States Coast Guard, 2002).
Psychological factors generally involve a person’s state of mind, and include factors such as
attitudes, personality conflicts, fear, and personal problems. Attitudinal barriers may be present
among people who refuse to communicate due to a lack of motivation or dissatisfaction with
work or just resistance to change due to entrenched attitudes and ideas. Personality conflicts
cause barriers by limiting the free flow of information and inhibiting cooperation. Fear can also
hinder communication and can take many forms. Fear of intimation when communicating with
someone in a position of authority. Fear of reprisal. Fear of looking uninformed. Fear of
offending someone or saying the wrong thing. Personal problems like worries about health,
marriage or finances can also impact a person’s ability to focus on the message (The United
States Coast Guard, 2002).
Effective Communication in an Organization
Communication is meant to achieve a definite purpose. It is sent out to secure results. Effective
communication is a two-way activity in which both the sender and the receiver must know what
is required of them, what each message is meant and how the information is used, (Belmolokwu
2004, P.22)
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According to Adamolekum (2005, p.104) the following six (6) attributes have proved useful over
time and are recommended. They could be useful to reduce down the physical and psychological
barriers among the individual in interpersonal communication
a. Posses basic education with reasonable spoken and writing skills
b. Cultivate good listening habit
c. Develop an enquiring mind
d. Seek clarifications when in doubt
e. Speak confidently, clearly and convincingly
f. Write or make short and correct sentence.
Wilson quoting Wagne and Dauwalder (1994, P.50) made the following as one of the best ways
of communicating with others.
A sender of message must:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
Understand as fully as possible how the receivers will react.
Use clear, understandable and appropriate languages.
Recognize appropriate non-verbal behavior.
Control the environment for effective communication.
Determine the best ways to communicate a message.
Use good organization skill and proper format
Be complete, clear, concise, considerate and correct.
Use appropriate feedback
A Message Receiver Must:
a. Use appropriate feedback , and
b. Practice good listening skills
Wilson continues that for these strategies to be highly effective there are behavioral
preconditions such as the attitude of the communicator and the communicatee, as well as timing.
Also in the words of Sambe (2005, p.4) four factors influence effective communication and they
are:
1. Communication skill: A source must have a good command of the language he chooses
to communicate in that he must be able to pronounce or write words or segment correctly.
2. Knowledge level: The source must have a good knowledge of the message he is putting
across his message to the recipient. This enables the source to states unequivocally and
understandably.
3. Socio- cultural context: The socio-cultural context in which communication takes place
determines to a large extent the disposition of the source towards the message and
towards the receiver. Social context like friend/friend context, son/father context. Etc. A
good communicator in the organization must realize that situation changes in different
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environments and that regards must be given to age, status, seniority, class distinction and
several others.
4. Attitude: The attitude of the source in an organization is often measured by his
communication behavior, which may be positive or negative. His attitude serves as a
reflection of his personality; Sambe reflected the source levels of attitude as:
a.
Attitude towards self: This means self-concept. The source of the message
must have a positive self-concept and this helps him in building
confidence and no inferiority complex is found.
b.
Attitude message: The source must make his messages positive.
c.
Attitude towards the receiver: For any meaningful communication to take
place, the source must have a positive attitude towards the receiver. This
will help create a conductive environment for business to thrive.
Therefore for organizational communication to be effective, it must be simple, clear, concise,
Correct, candid, considerate, and cohere as well as free from all barriers especially Physical and
psychological barriers.
Barriers to Effective Organizational Communication
Some barriers have been identified to affect the effectiveness of organizational communication.
These include:
1. Lack of clarity: Failure to use simple language and straight forward expressions
will obstruct clarity. Simple languages should always be used.
2. Lack of adequate equipment: Lack of necessary communication facilities can
greatly obstruct the proper functioning of a business environment organizational
communication is effective when all the necessary facilities are put in place and
the personnel trained.
3. Lack of proper coordination: Failure to coordinate the overall activities of all the
departments in the organization often results in poor communication, duplication
of effort and frequent irritation and frustration for the managers affected. Proper
channel of communication has to be followed for this will help improve
productivity.
4. Improper designation of functions: Undefined and unrestricted designation of
functions often leads to misuse of functional authority. Functional authority
should be delegated to a properly designated manager based on the organizational
policy. The manager must be educated, trained and with experience, his level of
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integrity must be high and honest and must be ethical in his dealing with
everyone.
Wilson (2005, PP.80-81) brought out the following as barrier to effective communication.
1.
Clothes
2.
Physical setting of office/ Place
3.
Timing of the message
4.
Lack of rapport between the sender and receiver
5.
Non-payment of salaries
6.
Lack of motivation
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this research paper is to figure out and study the impact of physical and
psychological barriers in bringing effective communication at interpersonal relationships along
with the suggestive measures to overcome them.
Research Question
Does a physical or psychological barrier influence more the effectiveness of communication or
both affect with the same intensity the whole effectiveness of communication process in
interpersonal relationship?
Hypotheses
H1: Physical barriers affect the interpersonal communication more than the psychological barriers
∑µ₁ ≤ ∑µ₂
H2: Psychological barriers affect the interpersonal communication more than the physical barriers
∑µ₁ ≥ ∑µ₂
H3: Both psychological and physical barriers affect the interpersonal communication equally.
∑µ₁ = ∑µ₂
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Rationale of the Research
The paper will be helpful to the following:

Self: enhance our understanding about physical and psychological barriers and will be
effective in making our interpersonal relationships better in personal and professional
lives.

Discipline: the research will be helpful for the other researchers who are going to conduct
their researches on this particular topic of communication and will give new dimension to
the study and figure out news ways how to lessen such barriers for effective
communication.

Country: as a nation we will be able to learn new methods of making interpersonal
communication stronger and effective thus reducing the unrest and mistrust among the
different ethnicities within the country.
METHODOLOGY:
Development of measurement instrument
On the basis of literature review, a self-constructed twelve-item structured questionnaire was
prepared following 5-point Likert scale. Responses on questionnaire were taken. Structured
questionnaire was used as it was relatively convenient and inexpensive. Respondents have been
asked to indicate to what extent they agree with the scale statements with 5-point scale ranging
from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5). The questionnaire includes items, such as,
“jargons or specific terminology related to my task create lack of understanding” and “Lack of
English knowledge hinder my ability of communication”.
Data Collection and Sample:
The data was collected through questionnaires and interviews. The sample size for
questionnaires was 65. Respondents were selected randomly on the basis of convenience
sampling.
Measurement of the data:
The data has been assessed quantitatively. The friendly statistical tool has been used. The
statistics have been used to assess whether the mean of two different types
are statistically different from each other. This analysis is appropriate whenever you want to
compare the means of two type’s i.e. psychological and physical barriers.
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Quantitative Analysis
Mean of Item Responses (Table 1.1)
Item Type
Emotional Trauma
Lack of Trust
Fear
Stereotype
Stress/ Anger
Happiness
Selective Listening
Temperature
Hearing Disability
Loud Distorting Sound
Distance
Poor Health
Mean
3.32
2.86
2.63
2.77
2.97
3.17
2.63
2.82
2.68
3.00
2.65
3.05
Comparative Means (Table 1.2)
Communication Type
Psychological
Physical
Mean
2.91
2.84
Results:
Psychological Mean ∑µ1= 2.91
Physical Mean ∑µ2= 2.84
Confirms H2: Psychological barriers affect the interpersonal communication more than the
physical barriers
∑µ₁ ≥ ∑µ₂
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Descriptive Analysis
The quantitative analysis of both type of barriers shows that psychological barriers have slightly
more weightage over the psychical barriers i.e. the mean of psychological barriers was calculated
as 2.91 whereas physical barriers constituted 2.84 mean of the total result.
This signifies that the psychological barrier affects the interpersonal communication more than
the physical barrier. The response items were dived into two parts i.e. item 1-6 were composed
of psychological barrier and items number 7-12 constituted physical barrier
Item types of psychological barrier included emotional trauma, lack of trust, fear, negative
stereotype stress, happiness and selective listening. On the other hand, item types of physical
barriers included temperature, hearing disability, loud distorting sound, distance and poor health.
Recommendations:
To overcome these barriers and improve the working condition of the both the internal and the
external publics of the organization, the following recommendations are made:
1. The communicator in an organization must carefully choose his or her words.
2. Communication in organizational relationships should serve to help others solve
problems, facilitate job performance, reduce anxiety and uncertainty and involve others
more or fully in organizational function.
3. Personnel should be well trained to manage the communication facilities at their disposal
for effective communication.
4. The communicator in an organization should always be considerate remembering the
socio-cultural context of the society.
5. The communicator should always check on his attitude while passing his or her message
to the workers in the organization.
CONCLUSION:
We have evaluated our all three set hypothesis with our above results which we figure out from
questionnaire and it’s satisfied our H2: Psychological barriers affect the interpersonal
communication more than the physical barriers. Impact of psychological barriers over physical is
slight high and we can assert that in broader perspective both have equal impact in interpersonal
communication as difference is in points. This research has not only enhanced the understanding
about physical and psychological barriers but also it will improve the lacking of individuals in
managing psychological barriers of communication in the organizational setting because barrier
less communication is the key of success in interpersonal relationships and effective
communication constitutes the overall society.
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Mehrabian, Albert; Ferris, Susan R. (1967). "Inference of Attitudes from Nonverbal
Communication in Two Channels". Journal of Consulting Psychology 31 (3): 248–252.
Coast Guard Apprentice Leadership Program, (2002). “Enlisted Professional Military
Education”, New York.
Michael K. Swan, “Barriers to communication”, Fact Sheet Pork Information Gateway,
Washington State University.
Valenzuela, Julia Scherba. (1992). National Joint Committee for the Communicative Needs
of Persons with Severe Disabilities. p.2
Behera, TriPathi,“Barriers to Effective Communication and How to Overcome Them”,
Academe Vol. XIII, No.1, November, 2009
Bel – Molokwu, J (2000) Business communicating theory and practice, Lagos Mosabol
printing press
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Magnet Business Enterprise:
Grasso, L. P., Golen, S. P., & Burns, A. (2005). Managerial perceptions of barriers to
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Wilson, D. (2005). New perspectives in applied Communication. Ibadan: Sterlin Hordan
Publishers.
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