xvii, 103 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / The purpose of this study was to investigate intergenerational relationships between trauma, dissociation, and emotion. Short and long term consequences of betrayal trauma on cognitive and emotion coping strategies in a sample of 67 mother-child dyads were explored. Group comparison, correlation, and regression strategies were used to examine relationships between the following variables: maternal and child trauma histories, maternal and child dissociation, maternal alexithymia, and child emotion coping strategies in response to distressful events. Experiences of high betrayal trauma were found to be related to higher levels of dissociation in both children and mothers. Furthermore, mothers who experienced high betrayal trauma in childhood and were subsequently interpersonally revictimized in adulthood were shown to have higher levels of dissociation than a group of mothers who had experienced high betrayal trauma in childhood but were not revictimized in adulthood. This may indicate that dissociation from a history of childhood betrayal trauma involves a persistent unawareness of future threats in the environment. Additional evidence consistent with this hypothesis was found. Maternal revictimization status was related to child interpersonal trauma history, suggesting that a dissociative unawareness for threats may extend to children. More generally, an association was found between maternal interpersonal trauma history and child interpersonal trauma history. Maternal dissociation was also predictive of maternal alexithymia. This relationship was examined because mothers high in alexithymia were hypothesized to display deficits in emotion socialization that could put their children at greater risk for dissociation. Evidence consistent with a relationship between maternal alexithymia and child dissociation was found. Furthermore, a significant association between maternal alexithymia level and child emotion coping strategy was revealed. Children with highly alexithymic mothers displayed higher levels of passive emotion coping strategies on a task assessing their reactions to a distressful parent-child event. This study provides evidence that the experience of parental trauma has intergenerational effects on children. It is an important first step towards longitudinal studies that can provide additional clarification of the nature of the relationships between these variables, as well as parent-child intervention studies that may help to prevent child trauma exposure and reduce symptomatology. / Committee in charge: Jennifer Freyd, Chairperson, Psychology; Jennifer Ablow, Member, Psychology; Philip Fisher, Member, Psychology; Debra Eisert, Outside Member, Special Education and Clinical Sciences

abstract: Alexithymia is a personality trait characterized by a diminished ability to identify and describe feelings, as well as an inability to distinguish physical symptoms associated with emotional arousal. Alexithymia is elevated in both patients with epilepsy (a neurologically-based seizure disorder) and psychogenic nonepileptic seizures (PNES; a psychological condition mimicking epilepsy); however, different neuropsychological processes may underlie this deficit in the two groups. To expand on previous research considering factors contributing to alexithymia in these populations, we examined the extent to which scores on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) were predicted by performance on measures of executive and language functioning. We studied 138 PNES and 150 epilepsy patients with video-EEG confirmed diagnoses. Neuropsychological tests were administered to assess executive functioning (interference scores of the Stroop Color-Word Test and Part B of the Trail Making Test) and language functioning (Animals, Controlled Oral Word Association Test, and Boston Naming Test). Hierarchical linear regressions revealed that the relationships between disparate neuropsychological domains and alexithymia were not moderated by diagnosis of PNES or epilepsy. Multiple regression analyses within each group demonstrated that phonemic verbal fluency and response inhibition were significant predictors of alexithymia in epilepsy. Thus, alexithymia may reflect impairments in language and aspects of executive functioning in both PNES and epilepsy. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Psychology 2017

Abstract This interdisciplinary study describes in the first part the frequency with which various statistical research designs and methods are reported in psychiatric journals, and investigates how the use of these methods affect the visibility of the article in the form of received citations. In the second part focus is specifically on factor analysis, and the study presents two applications of this method. Original research articles (N = 448) from four general psychiatric journals in 1996 were reviewed. The journals were the American Journal of Psychiatry, the Archives of General Psychiatry, the British Journal of Psychiatry and the Nordic Journal of Psychiatry. There were differences in the utilisation of statistical procedures among the journals. The use of statistical methods was not strongly associated with the further utilisation of an article. However, extended description of statistical procedures had a positive effect on the received citations. Factor analysis is a statistical method based on correlations of the variables, which is often used when validity and structure of psychiatric instruments are studied. Exploratory factor analysis is designed to explore underlying latent factors, and in confirmatory factor analysis the aim is to verify the factor structure based on earlier findings in other data sets. Using data from the 31-year follow-up of the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort Study this study aimed to demonstrate the validity and factor structure of scales measuring temperament (Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire, TPQ, and Temperament and Character Inventory, TCI) and alexithymia (20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, TAS-20). The results of exploratory factor analysis indicated good performance of the TCI and TPQ, though the results suggested that some developmental work is still needed. Of the two scales, the TCI worked psychometrically better than the TPQ. A confirmatory factor analysis showed that the three-factor model of TAS-20 was in agreement with the Finnish version of the scale. To conclude, future authors of psychiatric journals might apply these results in designing their research to present intelligible and compact analysis combined with a high quality presentation technique. Results of the factor analyses showed that the TPQ, TCI and TAS-20 can be used also in their Finnish versions. / Tiivistelmä Tämä poikkitieteellinen tutkimus kuvaa erilaisten tilastotieteellisten menetelmien yleisyyttä ja merkitystä psykiatriassa. Tutkimuksen ensimmäisessä osassa tutkitaan erilaisten tilastomenetelmien ja tutkimusasetelmien osuutta psykiatrisissa artikkeleissa ja lisäksi käytettyjen menetelmien vaikutusta artikkelien saamien viittausten lukumäärään. Tutkimuksen toisessa osassa keskitytään faktorianalyysiin ja esitetään kaksi siihen liittyvää sovellusta. Aineiston muodostavat alkuperäistuloksia esittelevät artikkelit (N = 448) neljästä eri psykiatrian tieteellisestä yleislehdestä vuodelta 1996. Kyseiset lehdet ovat American Journal of Psychiatry, Archives of General Psychiatry, British Journal of Psychiatry ja Nordic Journal of Psychiatry. Lehdet erosivat toisistaan tilastotieteellisten menetelmien käytössä ja tulosten esittämisessä. Tilastotieteellisten menetelmien käytöllä ei ollut suurta vaikutusta artikkelien saamien viittausten lukumäärään, mutta laajalla menetelmien kuvauksella oli positiivinen vaikutus viittausten lukumäärään. Faktorianalyysi on tilastotieteellinen tutkimusmenetelmä, jota käytetään tutkittaessa millaisista osatekijöistä erilaiset monimutkaiset ilmiöt koostuvat. Erityisesti tutkittaessa psykiatristen mittareiden validiteettia ja rakennetta faktorianalyysi on osoittautunut hyödylliseksi. Eksploratiivisessa faktorianalyysissa tarkoituksena on etsiä taustalla olevia piileviä muuttujia ja konfirmatorisessa faktorianalyysissa tarkoitus on vahvistaa aiemmissa tutkimuksissa todettu mittarin faktorirakenne. Tässä tutkimuksessa hyödynnetään aineistoa Pohjois-Suomen vuoden 1966 syntymäkohortin 31 vuoden seurannasta. Aineiston avulla tutkitaan temperamenttia (Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire, TPQ, ja Temperament and Character Inventory, TCI) ja aleksitymiaa (20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, TAS-20) tutkivien mittareiden suomenkielisten käännöksien validiteettia ja faktorirakennetta. Eksploratiivisen faktorianalyysin tulokset kertoivat, että TPQ ja TCI toimivat hyvin myös suomenkielellä. Kuitenkin mittareissa on vielä kehittämisen varaa. TCI:n psykometriset ominaisuudet olivat paremmat kuin TPQ:n. Aleksitymiamittarin TAS-20 konfirmatorinen faktorianalyysi osoitti että aiemmin julkaistu kolmen faktorin malli toimi hyvin myös suomalaisella versiolla. Psykiatristen artikkelien kirjoittajat voivat hyödyntää tämän tutkimuksen tuloksia suunnitellessaan psykiatrista tutkimusta suuntaan, jossa selkeä ja tiivis tulosten analysointitapa ja korkealaatuinen tulosten esitystapa korostuu. Faktorianalyysi soveltuu hyvin mittarin validiteetin tutkimiseen. Tutkimus osoitti TPQ-, TCI- ja TAS-20-mittareiden suomenkielisten versioiden validiteetin.

Psychopathy and alexithymia are disorders with many conceptual similarities. For example, Factor 1 of the Psychopathy Checklist - Revised (PCL-R; Hare, 1991) contains items like shallow affect and lack of empathy, which seem to map on to the construct of alexithymia. Additionally, both psychopaths and alexithymics display striking differences from others in their use of language, especially affective language. The two areas of interest in the present study were (a) occurrence and co—occurrence of psychopathy and alexithymia in a sample of female inmates, and (b) the relationship between affective language and these two disorders. Psychopathy and alexithymia were assessed in 37 women offenders incarcerated in a Burnaby Correctional Centre, using the PCL-R and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale ( TAS; Taylor, Ryan & Bagby, 1985). Each subject was presented with a short written scenario designed to elicit an emotional response, and asked to describe the feelings of the characters in the story. Their taped responses were analyzed for measures of affect. Base rates of both disorders were comparable to those in similar samples, ( 30% of the inmates were diagnosed as psychopathic; 33% as alexithymic) but the coxnorbidity rate was only 8%. There was a significant correlation between alexithymia scores and PCL—R Factor 2 scores — the factor assessing antisocial behaviour. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the TAS and PCL-R were both predictive of violence. This relationship between the PCL-R and violence is well substantiated; that the TAS also predicts violence is a newer finding. Alexithymics spoke more slowly, used fewer total words overall and fewer affective words, and displayed less emotion in their voices than did nonalexithymics. Psychopaths could not be identified by any vocal measures except a slight tendency to speak faster than nonpsychopaths. Although both disorders are characterized’ by affective impoverishment, the verbal expressions of affect were very different in psychopaths and alexithymics. The psychopaths were adept at convincing raters of an emotional investment they did not feel; alexithymics could not disguise their lack of appropriate emotional response. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

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.

The prevalence of alexithymia, a condition characterized by difficulties identifying and verbalizing one’s emotions, increases across the lifespan, with older adults reporting greater alexithymic features than young and middle-aged adults. This late-life increase in alexithymia may be the product of age-related decline in prefrontal brain circuitry implicated in emotional awareness and executive processes, notably in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). There is a dearth of research on the link between executive function and alexithymia in healthy adults. This study determined associations between alexithymia and executive function in healthy younger and older adults. Higher alexithymia scores were predicted to be associated with poorer performance on measures of executive function, specifically one that taps into ACC function (i.e., verbal fluency). Sixty-five young adults and 44 older adults completed the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, three executive function tasks (Verbal Fluency, Design Fluency, and Trail Making), assessments of memory and verbal ability, and a self-report measure of depressive symptoms. Greater total alexithymia and difficulties describing feelings (a dimension of alexithymia) were associated with poorer verbal fluency, accounting for age, gender, and depressive symptoms, in the full sample and in older adults, but not in young adults. Findings support the theoretical model that alexithymia is associated with age-related decline in frontal circuitry – possibly specific to declines in ACC functioning. Results provide insight into the possible origins of emotion self-awareness deficits in older adulthood.

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In this dissertation, I develop and defend a kind of somatic theory of the emotions; namely, a somatic-perceptual theory of the emotions. On this account, emotions are perceptions of physiological changes. The majority of emotion theorists, however, hold some kind of a cognitive theory of the emotions. I argue, in opposition to these theories, that cognition is never necessary for emotion. Somatic theories of the emotions have never been well-received in philosophy and psychology. This is mainly because they are often perceived as being ill-equipped to explain many of the things that a theory of the emotions ought to account for. In particular, it is argued that somatic theories of the emotions fail to take into account the fact that emotions are typically directed toward an intentional object. Somatic theories, it is argued, are also unable to explain how to distinguish between different emotions associated with identical physiological responses. Moreover, since on my view emotions are a form of perception, my view would seem to allow for the bodily perceptions constituting emotions to occur unconsciously. However, in philosophy, the notion of unconscious emotions is problematic, because in ordinary language, emotions just are feelings – and feelings are, by definition, conscious. Using philosophical arguments and empirical evidence from neuroscience and psychology, I argue that my somatic-perceptual theory of the emotions is able to account both for the intentional nature of the emotions and the distinctiveness of different emotions just as well as leading cognitive theories of the emotions. This is significant because these objections have not yet been adequately met by other somatic theories of the emotions. I also embrace the implication that on my view, emotions can be unconscious, and show that my somatic-perceptual theory provides a framework for thinking about poorly understood psychological conditions, such as alexithymia. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

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