BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES - Universitatea de Medicină şi Farmacie

development as effective communicators and our ability to form
meaningful relationships.
Cognitive barriers:
One of the most frequent cognitive barriers is stereotypes.
Stereotyping causes us to typify a person, a group, an event or a
thing on oversimplified conceptions, beliefs, or opinions. Thus, basketball
players can be stereotyped as tall, green equipment as better than red
equipment, football linemen as dumb, Ford as better than Chevrolet,
Vikings as handsome, and people raised on dairy farms as interested in
animals. Stereotyping can substitute for thinking, analysis and open
mindedness to a new situation.
Stereotyping is a barrier to communication when it causes people
to act as if they already know the message that is coming from the sender
or worse, as if no message is necessary because "everybody already
knows." Both senders and listeners should continuously look for and
address thinking, conclusions and actions based on stereotypes.
Social barriers
When we join a group and wish to remain in it, sooner or later we
need to adopt the behavior patterns of the group. These are the behaviors
that the group accepts as signs of belonging.
The group rewards such behavior through acts of recognition,
approval and inclusion. In groups which are happy to accept you and
where you are happy to conform, there is a mutuality of interest and a high
level of win-win contact.
Where, however, there are barriers to your membership of a group,
a high level of game-playing replaces good communication.
e. Barriers on the level of code
When is spoken about barriers on the level of code is meant most
commonly language barriers. Language that describes what we want to
say in our terms may present barriers to others who are not familiar with
our expressions, buzz-words and jargon. When we couch our
communication in such language, it is a way of excluding others.
Different languages represent a national barrier which is
particularly important for organizations involved in overseas business. In a
global market place the greatest compliment we can pay another person is
to talk in their language
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