Topic: Feeling misunderstood.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the concept of feeling misunderstood to explicate the antecedents, attributes, and consequences of this phenomenon.
Source: A comprehensive review of literature, from 1957 to 2005, was completed with the keywords feeling misunderstood to guide the search.
Conclusions: Three defining attributes of feeling misunderstood were identified: (a) disquietude; (b) discordant perceptions; and (c) heightened cognizance of emotions. Antecedents, including presence of an issue, communication barrier, and unexpected response from receiver, are explicated, along with the consequences, or transformations in behavior.