Attribution of cause by patients with depression, anxiety, and alexithymia

A signal-detection approach to individual differences in negative feeling

Feeling is an important aspect of core personality traits and affective-style. Here we implemented a new signal-detection-theory based model for feeling generation, involving two parameters: report-criterion (c), the level above which enough emotional evidence has gathered for intense feeling to appear, and evidence-differentiation (d_a), the ability to emotionally differentiate between (negative) triggers of varying intensity. Results indicate that a low c was related to Neuroticism but not to affective-style, yet a low d_a was related to limited access to emotion regulation strategies, but not to personality traits.

Does the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale measure alexithymia? A study of natural language use

Construct validity of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) was investigated by analyzing natural language use. It was hypothesized that the TAS-20 should be related to a lower use of emotion words and fewer references to social processes. 32 clinical interviews with mental health outpatients were analyzed with four categories of the computerized Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count dictionary: positive emotions, negative emotions, references to others, and communication words. The Difficulty Identifying Feelings subscale was positively related to negative emotion words, the Difficulty Describing Feelings subscale showed no relevant associations, and the Externally Oriented Thinking subscale was related to reduced use of positive emotion words and social process words. It is concluded that in this sample, the Externally Oriented Thinking subscale provides the best operationalization of the alexithymia construct.