Miscommunication

By Author: Henry Ford
Total Articles: 189
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Miscommunication is the centre of interpersonal communication. We are constantly under pressure everyday in our lives as we are confronted with handling miscommunication at every stage of the process of communication. Handling this will effectively influence the message and relationships on the people who are impacted by the message.

What is miscommunication?
Miscommunication can be defined as a particular case where the mental state of the agent lacks alignment specifically when they diverge on occurrences or communication results. Communication is considered as an action thus viewing miscommunication as an instance of action failure as the speaker is unable to produce the effects that are intended or misperception occurs as the hearer fails to recognize the intended communication from the speaker (Traum, 1996). It is clear from the above perceptions that miscommunication can be classified as a non-alignment about the act of communication despite the fact that it arose from the non- recognition of occurrence of communication or misinterpreting the meaning.

Miscommunication can occur as a result ...
... of inconsistency in beliefs or perceptions of two different parties causing a lot of non- alignment in the mental states. However, the communicative situation is generally more complex as it is not limited to the two agents communicating mental state since the two are embedded in the world which they are communicating about (Traum, 1996). There is a possibility that the mental state of any of the communicating agent can be out of the world’s alignment. This is likely to cause a misconception since the beliefs held by the agent are not reflecting the world’s actual state.

Types of miscommunication
Communication can happen out of many reasons but the most common one is whereby one side provides inadequate information during communication forcing us to coin our own perceptions. Miscommunication also occurs when misinterpretation of the real meaning of words is done. In both cases miscommunication occurs since the intended meaning of the words is twisted. This problem is currently on the rise due to the invention of IM chat and emails. These type based communication systems are asynchronous communications meaning that communication between people does not happen in real time. Asynchronous communication denies us the pleasure of getting a response immediately; forcing people to interpret what the other person is saying only on the basis of the words they have typed (Loo, 2009). Miscommunication is not limited to communication that is type based, but can occur in other settings of communication. When no communication occurs in a situation, this is also viewed as a miscommunication.

Fear is another cause of miscommunication since human beings are always afraid of the worst outcome. Miscommunication happens when minds fills information which is missing with their own coined creative insights. A good example is when a husband stays out late and forgets to call his wife back at home. Due to the lack of communication, the wife will start worrying and her mind will switch to the fear mode. Self- talk will start occurring in the form of her fears and she will start questioning his fidelity and commitment to her (Kerim, 2008). It is clear that the mind always thinks of the worst outcomes possible on the basis of insecurities and fear.

Assumptions which are believed to be the truth are also another cause of miscommunication. The mind is always seeking for logical explanations in the occurrence of any event. A basic need in all humanity is the great need of having answers, explanations and reasons in any situation in life. In the absence of these needs, the mind is bound to switch to the mode that is based on fear. This leads people to satisfying their basic need of answers with assumptions. Assumption is one of the derivatives of fear as it is only logic for any human being to assume the worst based on insecurity and fear (Annoli, 2006). The great need for logical explanation for events that are unexplainable is fulfilled satisfactorily by assumption as human beings have the tendency of being locked in assumption and believing it is the truth. If a wife is insecure in her marriage and she has ever caught the husband flirting with other women, she might be driven to believe that every time he is out working late, he is just lying and is probably out meeting other women. This is not necessarily the truth but this assumption from this woman will end up destroying their marriage.

Where do you find miscommunication?
Miscommunication is present everywhere in the world. It can be found at the work place and mostly it happens due to the differing perception between employees and employers. Perception can be different on the basis of life experiences, culture and language. Sometimes parents tell their children not to engage in certain activities which they later engage in. people using different languages and from different cultures are more vulnerable to miscommunication due to the language barrier. It is always good to clarify what we are trying to communicate with the body language like laughing and smiling when we are happy.

Examples of miscommunication in real life stories
Medical field have high rates of miscommunication since a patient describes certain symptoms that may point out towards a particular disease. There was a case of a patient, who complained of diarrhea, high fever, dehydration, vomiting flu and was bleeding from the body openings. The patient died on arrival to hospital before the doctors could make a clear diagnosis of the mysterious disease that had killed him. Since he came from a remote, rural village in Africa, other people within the locality started exhibiting the same symptoms and dying immediately.

People starting fleeing the village and the rest of the country avoided visiting the area. Within a week, the area was isolated from the rest of the world since people barred the residents from visiting other regions. The media made it worse by speculating that the mysterious disease was the swine fever that had originated from Mexico and killed several people, since no cure has been found (Noriaki et al., 2008). There was fear that this deadly disease had found its way to Africa and people panicked. There was another speculation that it might be the deadly Ebola, since the mysterious disease had similar symptoms.

People were so scared by this revelation and refused to attend funerals of the dead people for fear of catching these fatal diseases. The government moved in swiftly and did various laboratory tests on the victims and discovered that the disease was cholera accompanied by dysentery. People were tested and treated and the disease was contained within a week. In medical fields, miscommunication can be avoided by carrying out all possible tests that will provide the correct diagnosis of a certain disease. Research has showed that the occurrence of medical disputes happens without negligence and the consequences resulting from them are costly (Noriaki et al., 2008).

This is true since ethical issues arise if a doctor is to subscribe a certain form of treatment for a patient without consulting them or any of their close relative. A doctor of a patient in the last stages of a terminal illness such as cancer might decide to withhold treatment from the patient with the intention of not prolonging the suffering. He might do this without the consent of the patient or close relatives. He holds this vital communication to the concerned parties and the hospital can be slapped with a lawsuit of withholding treatment upon discovery. The doctor can easily avoid this costly mistake that puts the hospital reputation and credibility at a risk and jeopardizes his career, by communicating with the patient or his family.

Advantages and disadvantages of miscommunication
The topic of miscommunication has taken centre stage in both communication psychology and linguistics. Miscommunication is wide since it is inclusive of speaking sarcastically, exaggerating, insulting, joking, flattering, kidding, lying, understating, defaming, fabricating, speaking metaphorically and misleading among others. All the above mentioned hinders clear and concise communication as people are likely to misinterpret the intended message making it vital to study miscommunication.

Consequently, miscommunication should be taken in a positive stride as it is used in enhancement of the available degrees of freedom to the communicator during interaction. Communication is not a mathematical formula as it is always made up of a mixture of implicit and explicit aspects that are less or more consistent and connected with one another (Annoli, 2006). In this sense, miscommunication is viewed as luck as it enables the communication between people to be intriguing and interesting. This concept is commonly used by politicians during political campaigns where they make unattainable promises they will fulfill if they are elected to represent the people. Nevertheless, the politicians who make utopian promises to the electorates pull the biggest crowds and end up achieving euphoric wins. Though exaggeration is miscommunication, such politicians manage to use it positively to win votes.

Miscommunication also helps people in clarifying the lack of communication as it shows there is a breakdown in communication that needs to be corrected. It also helps us in improving our communication skills since we correct the communication errors that might have happened prior to this. The main gain that can be reaped out of miscommunication is the ability to communicate more effectively in the future once the breakdown is corrected.

How miscommunication creates personal conflict
Miscommunication is likely to cause conflict and especially when it is intercultural. The communicators from one cultural side may equate people to animals and this will raise a lot of hatred between the two. This was evidenced by the holocaust, where the oppressors demanded that Jews needed to be exterminated which is a common term uses on cockroaches (King, 2008). This led to the invention of concentration camps which were equipped with Zyklon-B gas chambers for exterminating the enemy (Siegel, 2009). Most wars begin due to miscommunication as people feel their needs are not being addressed or they are being taken for granted by other races.

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