What Are Emotional Triggers & Barriers in Communication?

Communication is an essential and valuable link between individuals. It allows ideas to be shared from one individual or group to another. However, when emotions flare, barriers to communication can arise. These barriers hinder information from being transferred in the anticipated way. They can cause the information to come out sounding offensive or negative. Avoid these barriers by recognizing what they are and learning how to counteract them.

What are emotional triggers

• An emotional trigger is something that causes intense emotional feelings in an individual. It can be something as simple as a phrase. When an individual hears a particular phrase that causes feelings of anger, hurt, frustration, irritation or any other type of negative emotion, the person begins to get defensive, feeling threatened. This defensiveness is a major cause of barriers in communicating with others.

Types of emotional trigger phrases

• There are many types of emotional triggers. Three in particular are negative labeling such as belittling; commanding, such as telling someone what to do; and power phrases, such as telling someone how something has always been done. When an individual hears these three type of phrases, the resulting feelings most likely are anger and frustration and possibly irritation.

What are other barriers

• Other barriers in communication include: being better speakers than listeners -- listening habits need to be more adept to improve communication; assuming to know answers even when a question has not been posed -- this causes people to interrupt instead of listening and causes prejudgment; competing through discussion -- this is when every point of a discussion is challenged; and trying to impress -- this causes an individual to neglect to pay attention to the speaker to get a point across.

Additional barriers

• Word-based issues also create barriers, including overreacting to certain words or phrases -- the listener refrains from paying attention to the speaking because she feels offended based on her own personal convictions or beliefs; misinterpretation of words -- when a word is used incorrectly, it is up to the listener to use it in context or ask what the speaker means; missing the main point -- sometimes listeners don't understand what the speaker is saying; and different mental styles -- these cause individuals to view the same information in the opposite way.