Assessing alexithymia and emotional awareness: relations between measures in a German non-clinical sample.
The aim of this study was to evaluate psychometric properties and relations between two different methods of measuring alexithymia and one measure of emotional awareness in a German non-clinical sample. 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. Both internal reliability and inter-rater reliability for the TSIA were acceptable. Results from exploratory factor analysis (EFA) based on all measures supported a three factorial solution previously obtained in an American sample using multiple methods of alexithymia and emotional ability measurement. In our three factor model direct self (TAS-20), direct other (TSIA), and indirect self (LEAS) measures were differentiated. The convergent validity of the TSIA was supported by a significant correlation with the LEAS. Our findings suggest that future research on alexithymia and emotional awareness can benefit from the use of a multi-method approach and should include objective measures.
Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
Vladimir
V
Lichev
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Michael
M
Rufer
Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
Nicole
N
Rosenberg
Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
Klas
K
Ihme
Department of Psychiatry, University Medicine, Greifswald, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, HELIOS Hospital, Stralsund, Germany.
Hans-Jörgen
HJ
Grabe
Department of Cinical Radiology, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
Harald
H
Kugel
Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
Uta-Susan
US
Donges
Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
Anette
A
Kersting
Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany; Department of Psychiatry, University of Münster, Münster, Germany. Electronic address: thomas.suslow@medizin.uni-leipzig.de.
Thomas
T
Suslow
D000293:Adolescent; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D001364:Awareness; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult