Feeling Misunderstood: A Concept Analysis

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.