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Alexithymia is a personality construct characterized by a deficit in the cognitive processing and regulation of emotion. The well documented association of alexithymia with illness has prompted investigations into pathways that might explain this association, such as physiological mechanisms or increased illness behaviour. The first aim of the present research was to explore the hypothesis that alexithymia has the potential to lead to disease because of peculiarities in physiological reactivity to emotional stimuli. The second aim was to examine the influence of alexithymia on self-report of somatic symptoms associated with a controlled medical event, and to extend assessment of cardiovascular reactivity to a qualitatively different emotional stressor in a quasi-naturalistic setting, thereby increasing generalizability. In Study One, film clips selected to induce positive and negative emotions were presented to high- and low-alexithymia men and women while physiological and cognitive-experiential facets of emotional responding were monitored. High-alexithymia males displayed reduced respiratory sinus arrhythmia in response to emotion induction, significantly different from the increase shown by others. This effect was independent of emotional valence or specificity. High-alexithymia individuals also reported lower ratings of positive emotions, greater confusion, and differences in thoughts related to evaluating and regulating their affective state. In Study Two, investigation of cardiovascular and emotional reactivity was extended beyond the laboratory to the blood donation clinic, which also provided a unique opportunity to evaluate the association between alexithymia and self-report of vasovagal symptoms. Alexithymia was positively associated with reported anxiety, pain, and vasovagal symptoms, and also with greater increases in systolic blood pressure in anticipation of blood donation. Objective indices of vasovagal reactions did not concur with self-report, suggesting an increased tendency in individuals higher in alexithymia to report more somatic complaints. In sum, while these data provide support for associations between alexithymia and differences in autonomic reactivity, these associations do not all fit neatly within a hypo- or hyperarousal model. Further research is recommended using methods such as ambulatory monitoring to examine response to more naturally occurring emotional events. Continued investigation of illness behaviours such as symptom reporting as they relate to alexithymia is also warranted.

The adolescent transition involves a number of changes that for many adolescents result in increased negativity, heightened emotional reactivity, and risk for internalizing symptoms. The purpose of the present set of studies was to examine the role that emotional awareness has in relation to emotion regulation and to subsequent mood symptomatology in adolescence. The first study tested the hypothesized relationship between emotional awareness and emotion regulation, specifically, that emotional awareness is a necessary precursor to adaptive regulation efforts. This study examined the direct and indirect effects of emotional awareness on internalizing symptoms by exploring the extent to which certain emotion regulation strategies influence this relationship. The purpose of the second and third studies was to examine the association between emotional awareness and emotion regulation as measured by changes across three emotional response domains: 1) physiological arousal, 2) self-reported experience, and 3) observed expression during an ecologically valid emotion elicitation task. Participants in these studies were identified as alexithymic or non-alexithymic. Alexithymia involves difficulty identifying and describing emotions and has been used to classify individuals with extremely low emotional awareness. The second study examined the effects of alexithymia on the three emotional response domains in adolescents. Because of the high prevalence rates of alexithymia during adolescence, it could be an important vulnerability factor to help explain increases in internalizing symptoms during the adolescent transition. The purpose of the third study was to examine how patterns of decoupling between physiological arousal, self-reported experience, and observed expression were related to depressive and anxiety symptoms in alexithymic individuals. Overall, findings confirmed that emotional awareness is an important precursor to adaptive emotion regulation efforts. In addition, emotion regulation emerged as a more proximal mechanism in the development of depressive and anxiety symptoms in individuals with low emotional awareness. At a theoretical level, this research has guided our understanding of emotional processing and regulation. At a practical level, results from this program of research will help guide intervention and treatment approaches for adolescents with low emotional awareness. / Thesis (Ph.D, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2013-05-30 23:32:00.87

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2007. Graduate Programme in Psychology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-146). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR29269

The present work is the first to examine the behavioral and the neurobiological correlates of trait emotional awareness and alexithymia which are related personality constructs. Both traits are essential for understanding the abilities and deficits of psychosomatic patients to regulate emotions. However, to date little is known about their behavioral and neurobiological correlates. Therefore, the present dissertation addresses the relation between both constructs. The introduction section give an extensive overview of the available behavioral and neurobiological research. Based on the revealed literature, open research questions are identified and addressed in one psychometric and one imaging study. In study 1 the psychometric properties and relations between two different methods of measuring alexithymia and one measure of emotional awareness were evaluated. The 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia (TSIA), and the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS), which is a performance-based measure of emotional awareness, were administered to 84 university students. Study 2 addressed automatic brain reactivity to emotional stimuli as a function of trait emotional awareness. During scanning, happy, angry, fearful, and neutral facial expressions were subliminally presented to 46 healthy subjects, who had to rate the fit between artificial and emotional words. The results of the studies are summarized and integrated in the existing literature. Finally, open research questions are discussed, implications for future research are outlined.

Alexithymia is a personality trait associated with impairments in emotional processing. This study investigated the influence of alexithymia and sex in the ability to recognize emotional expressions presented in faces, voices, and their combination. Alexithymia was assessed by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and participants (n = 122) judged 12 emotions displayed uni- or bimodally in two sensory modalities as measured by the Geneva Multimodal Emotion Portrayals Core Set (GEMEP-CS). According to their scores, participants were grouped into low, average, and high alexithymia. The results showed that sex did not moderate the relationship between alexithymia and emotional recognition. The low alexithymia group recognized emotions more accurately than the other two subgroups, at least in the visual modality. No group differences were found in the voice and the bimodal tasks. These findings illustrate the importance of accounting for how different modalities influence the presentation of emotional cues, as well as suggesting the use of dynamic instruments such as GEMEP-CS that increment ecological validity and are more sensitive in detecting individual differences, over posed techniques such as still pictures / Genetic and neural factors underlying individual differences in emotion recognition ability

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2009. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Kuopio, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--University of Kuopio, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references.

The aims of this study were to examine the relationship between psychological mindedness and adult attachment styles, and to assess the effects of a match or mismatch on these concepts between therapists and their clients. A critical review of the literature highlighted ambiguities in definition and measurement, which this study also aimed to clarify. A pilot study confirmed the validity of the measures chosen for the study and provided preliminary data. The main study consisted of a comparison between a therapist group and a client group on the Psychological Mindedness Scale (PMS), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS- 20), Adult Attachment Scale (AAS), and the Hazan and Shaver attachment questionnaire (1987). The attachment dimensions on the AAS were also converted into Bartholomew's (1990) four-category model. A third group provided an unmatched control for the client group. The methodological limitations of the study, particularly due to the low response rate, further attrition from the client and control groups on follow-up after six months, and confounding factors associated with the groups, meant that only very tentative conclusions could be reached. Psychological mindedness and secure attachment were found to be positively correlated, and alexithymia and insecure attachment (particularly fearfulavoidant) negatively correlated. The therapist group had high levels of psychological mindedness and were mostly securely attached. The literature on 'wounded healers' was discussed in relation to those therapists who were insecurely attached. The client group were more insecurely attached than any of the other groups. Predictions about therapist and client matching on psychological mindedness and attachment styles were unable to be properly tested. The relevance of this study for psychotherapeutic practice, particularly in relation to the impact of similar or different attachment styles in therapists and clients, was discussed. A speculative model suggesting common pathways in the development of psychological mindedness and attachment styles was proposed.