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What does the Toronto Alexithymia Scale TAS‐R measure?
Author(s) -
Rief Winfried,
Heuser Jörg,
Fichter Manfred M.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-4679(199607)52:4<423::aid-jclp6>3.0.co;2-q
Subject(s) - alexithymia , psychology , toronto alexithymia scale , feeling , somatization , psychopathology , emotionality , clinical psychology , personality , depression (economics) , association (psychology) , distress , psychiatry , developmental psychology , anxiety , psychotherapist , psychoanalysis , social psychology , economics , macroeconomics
One hundred seventy four inpatients of a psychosomatic hospital were examined with the revised version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale TAS‐R, as well as further measures of emotionality, somatization, psychopathology and personality. A significant association was found between TAS alexithymia and the number of somatoform symptoms. This association, however, disappeared when it was corrected for the possible impact of depression. The factor 1 of the TAS (ability to describe feelings to others) correlated significantly with the use of negative emotional words. Thus TAS alexithymics do not use less, but more emotional words, especially words describing negative feelings. The validity of factor 2 (externally oriented thinking) seems to be low. TAS alexithymia may measure specific aspects of depression or general distress. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.