Step 1: Recall what psychological barriers to communication are.
Psychological barriers arise from the mental state or emotional condition of either the sender or the receiver. Unlike physical barriers (like noise) or semantic barriers (like language), these barriers exist entirely in the mind and are often the hardest to detect and correct.
Step 2: Barrier 1 - Premature Evaluation.
This happens when the receiver starts forming an opinion or reaching a conclusion before the sender has even finished speaking. For example, a manager might stop listening to an employee's suggestion halfway through because they already assume they know what the employee is going to say. This cuts off the full message and often leads to misunderstanding. The antidote is active, patient listening.
Step 3: Barrier 2 - Lack of Attention.
If a receiver's mind is wandering or preoccupied with personal worries, upcoming deadlines, or distracting thoughts, they simply do not absorb the information being communicated to them. Even if they appear to be listening, the message does not register. This is one of the most common barriers in everyday workplaces.
Step 4: Barrier 3 - Loss by Transmission and Poor Retention.
When a message passes through multiple levels in an organisation (from manager to supervisor to worker), a portion of the original information is lost or distorted at each stage - especially in oral communication. Additionally, human memory is limited: people cannot retain all the details of a long message for extended periods. Together, these factors cause the final recipient to receive a diluted or altered version of the original message.
Step 5: Barrier 4 - Distrust.
If the sender and receiver do not trust each other, communication breaks down fundamentally. The receiver will search for hidden or negative meanings in even a straightforward message, second-guess the sender's motives, and refuse to accept the information at face value. Trust is the invisible foundation on which all effective communication rests.
Step 6: Conclude with the key insight.
These four psychological barriers all originate in the mind, which is why overcoming them requires building trust, practising active listening, and simplifying messages to aid retention.
\[ \boxed{ \text{1. Premature evaluation, 2. Lack of attention, 3. Loss by transmission, 4. Distrust} } \]