Assessment of the Alexithymia Construct

Sekely, Angela; Bagby, R. Michael; Porcelli, Piero

doi:10.1017/9781108241595.004

Cited by 33 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 96 publications

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“…In all included studies, alexithymia was assessed with one of the versions of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, most of which with the 20-item version (TAS-20) [22]. The TAS-20 is the most used assessment instrument for alexithymia and is considered the gold standard in the field.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gambling Problems and Alexithymia: A Systematic Review

2019

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Among the factors that are thought to underlie gambling problems, alexithymia has been recognized to contribute to their development. For the first time, we reviewed the literature on the relationship between alexithymia and gambling. A systematic search of literature was run in the major reference databases including PubMed, Cochrane Database for Systematic Review, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Scopus until April 2019. The search produced 182 articles that produced 20 papers included in the review. Fourteen studies were conducted with community samples of pathological gamblers while six studies with clinical samples of disordered gamblers. All studies assessed alexithymia with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale while gambling problems were assessed mostly with the South Oaks Gambling Screen. Alexithymic features were significantly more prevalent in pathological gamblers both at the community and clinical levels, increased symptom severity, and showed interactive mechanisms with personality, psychiatric, and cognitive factors. Alexithymia is likely to associate with gambling as a coping behavior to increase emotional arousal and avoid negative emotions, according to the affect dysregulation model. Further studies are needed to widen the knowledge on this association.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gambling Problems and Alexithymia: A Systematic Review

2019

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“…For example, this subscale sometimes has poor reliability (e.g., Müller et al, 2004), or inconsistent relationships with other constructs (e.g., Watters, Taylor, Quilty, et al, 2016), and does not load on the same factor as established markers of emotional reactivity when subjected to factor analysis (e.g., Preece et al, 2017). Preece et al (2017) and Sekely, Bagby, and Porcelli (2018) have both suggested that these observed inconsistencies may be because the BVAQ difficulty emotionalizing subscale does not differentiate between negative emotional reactivity and positive emotional reactivity. When other dedicated measures of emotional reactivity do, negative reactivity and positive reactivity have been found to be separable dimensions that are negatively correlated with each other (e.g., Becerra, Preece, Campitelli, & Scott-Pillow, 2019;Ripper, Boyes, Clarke, & Hasking, 2018).…”

Section: Empirical Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What is alexithymia? Using factor analysis to establish its latent structure and relationship with fantasizing and emotional reactivity

Preece

Becerra

Robinson

et al. 2020

Journal of Personality

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The term "alexithymia" was coined in the 1970s by psychoanalytic psychiatrists Sifneos and Nemiah (Nemiah & Sifneos, 1970; Sifneos, 1973). It derives from the Greek, a (lack), lexis (word), thymos (emotion), and is used to describe a cluster of cognitive and emotional processing deficits that Sifneos and Nemiah observed in patients diagnosed with psychosomatic disorders. Specifically, they observed that patients high in alexithymia seemed to have a marked inability to "describe their feelings or to differentiate among them" and "an absence of the capacity to produce fantasies with the result that [their] thought content [was] restricted to

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“…Numerous studies have supported the reliability and validity of the TAS-20 (Bagby et al, 1994a, b;Parker et al, 2003;Taylor et al, 2003). The internal consistency of the total score of the TAS-20 is considered good (Sekely, Bagby, & Porcelli, 2018;Bagby et al, 1994a), and was acceptable in the current sample (Cronbach's α = 0.74).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 76%

Personality and Psychopathology in Adults with Noonan Syndrome

Roelofs

Wingbermühle

Heijden

et al. 2019

J Clin Psychol Med Settings

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This is the first controlled study regarding personality and psychopathology in adults with Noonan syndrome (NS). Anxiety, depression, alexithymia and symptoms of Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorder, have been previously described in NS. More information regarding personality and psychopathology in NS could improve mental health care for this population. Therefore, scores on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF), a widely used self-report questionnaire of personality and psychopathology, were compared between patients with NS (n = 18) and matched, healthy controls (n = 18). Furthermore, correlations between MMPI-2-RF scores and alexithymia, measured by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20, were investigated. Patients with NS showed significantly higher scores, with medium effect sizes, on MMPI-2-RF scales reflecting infrequent responses (F-r), somatic and cognitive complaints (FBS-r and RBS-r), internalizing problems (EID), demoralization (RCd) and introversion (INTR-r), although the overall profile in both groups was within the non-clinical range. Alexithymia correlated with internalizing problems and negative emotionality in the patient group. In conclusion, patients with NS showed higher levels of introversion, which may predispose them to internalizing problems. These problems were indeed more frequent in patients with NS, especially higher levels of demoralization. Patients may benefit from psychological interventions aimed to decrease internalizing problems, introversion and alexithymia.

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Assessment of the Alexithymia Construct

Cited by 33 publications

References 96 publications

Gambling Problems and Alexithymia: A Systematic Review

Gambling Problems and Alexithymia: A Systematic Review

What is alexithymia? Using factor analysis to establish its latent structure and relationship with fantasizing and emotional reactivity

Personality and Psychopathology in Adults with Noonan Syndrome

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