Personality, imaginative involvement, and self-reported somatic complaints: relevance to the concept of alexithymia.
Forty-five undergraduate students were investigated to determine the relationship between personality dispositions, capacity for imaginative involvement, and self-reported physical symptoms. The results showed that somatic complaints were associated with variables reflecting psychological vulnerability and dysphoric affect (e.g. anxiety and worry/depression). Imaginative involvement, and especially the Absorption Scale, correlated positively with self-reported somatic symptoms. Factor analyses revealed that Absorption Scale and the Creative Imagination Scale loaded on a general psychological distress factor. Moreover, self-reported somatic symptoms correlated negatively with 'inner directedness' and 'sociable' coping style, and positively with the coping styles 'sensitive' and 'inhibited', thus suggesting a link between emotional expressiveness and somatic complaints. The relevance of these results to the concept of alexithymia is discussed.
Vassend
O
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Institute of Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway.
D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000523:psychology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D011602:Psychophysiologic Disorders / Q000523:psychology*