Communication: Verbal, Nonverbal, and Barriers

Posted on May 16, 2024 in Psychology and Sociology

School of Communication Under the Code

We must differentiate between verbal and nonverbal communication. It is mostly verbal.

Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication affects mainly the aspect of relationships, conveying information about personality, status, and social origin. Nonverbal communication channels include:

  • Hearing: Pitch, intensity, volume, timbre, intonation…
  • Visual: Facial expressions, gestures, and body movements.
  • Interpersonal Distance
  • External Appearance, Touch, Smell

Features of Nonverbal Language:

  1. Nonverbal messages are often more meaningful than verbal ones.
  2. Nonverbal channels are always open, even without intention.
  3. Nonverbal communication has a predominantly expressive or emotive function over the referential.
  4. Every culture has its own nonverbal communication systems using different signs.

Types of Nonverbal Communication:

  • Kinesic: These are movements and positions of a psycho-muscular basis, whether conscious or unconscious, learned or inherited. They can be perceived visually, auditorily, or through touch, and have communicative value whether intentional or not.
  • Proxemic: This defines the human tendency to create a personal territory, or what we call untouchable and inviolable space. There are three types of spaces: tribal, family, and personal.
  • Paralanguage: Refers to how something is said: the tone, volume, rhythm, sighs, silences… Paralanguage indicates personality and mood.

Functions of Communication

Control, Motivation, Emotional Expression, and Information

Control

Communication serves to control the behavior of others because any organization has hierarchies of authority and formal rules. For example, when employees are required to report their complaints to the head immediately or to obey the rules, communication is being used for control.

Motivation

Communication also encourages motivation and serves to enlighten others about what they have done. It helps individuals see if they are doing their job well or if there are things to be improved for greater satisfaction.

Emotional Expression

For many people, their work group is the main source of social interaction. Communication is essential to externalize feelings, frustrations, satisfaction, dissatisfaction… Therefore, communication allows the expression of feelings and emotional needs.

Information

Communication relates to decision-making and providing information that individuals need to make decisions. It provides data and options that they previously did not have.

Barriers to Good Communication

These barriers can be divided into two groups: general and specific.

  • General barriers can occur throughout the entire process of communication and are independent of the context.
  • Specific barriers arise from highly hierarchical structures and the characteristics of the type of communication flowing through them.

General Barriers:

  • Filtration: Denotes the manipulation of information by the sender, who always aims to be viewed favorably by the receiver. The sender’s interests and perceptions of what is important determine what information is transmitted and filtered. The more levels there are in an organization, the more filtration occurs.
  • Selective Perception: This barrier occurs when receivers in the communication process see and hear selectively based on their needs, motivations, experiences, education, and other personal characteristics. They project their interests and personal expectations onto the message, influencing their interpretation.
  • Emotions: The mood of the receiver at the time the message arrives has a high impact on its interpretation.

Language Barriers:

These barriers occur at three levels:

Syntactic Level

Sometimes the message does not reach the receiver because the sender fails to properly encode the message they want to convey. Noise can also distort communication at any point in the process.

Semantic Level

From the semantic point of view, problems arise from a lack of harmony between what the sender says and what the receiver understands. The interpretation of the message is determined by the social environment, personal characteristics, and especially the expectations of the receiver.

  • Homophones: Words that are pronounced the same, are written almost the same, but have different meanings.
  • Paronyms: Words that sound almost alike, are written similarly, but have different meanings.
  • Heteronyms: Words with the same spelling but different pronunciations and meanings (e.g., “lead” the metal vs. “lead” to guide).

Pragmatic Level

Due to the barriers mentioned above, there may be a contradiction between the intentions of the sender and the behavior of the receiver. The receiver’s response may not meet the initial expectations of the sender.

Even without syntactic or semantic interference, this condition can occur as a result of a lack of congruence or balance between the motivations, interests, and expectations of both participants in the communication process.