Stability of Alexithymia and Its Relationships with the ‘Big Five’ Factors, Temperament, Character, and Attachment Style

Abstract

Background: Controversy still exists concerning the stability of the alexithymia construct. Also, although alexithymia has been found to be related in a theoretically meaningful way to other personality constructs such as the ‘Big Five’ factors, few studies have investigated its relationship with influential constructs such as temperament and character, and attachment security. Methods: Two hundred twenty-one undergraduate and graduate students were administered the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the Zung Depression Scale (ZDS), the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI-125), the Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ), and the Experiences in Close Relationships (ECR) questionnaire. After 1 month, 115 participants completed again the TAS-20, STAI, and ZDS. Results: Alexithymia was only moderately correlated with depression and anxiety. Both the absolute and relative stability of TAS-20 total and subscale scores was high, and a negligible portion of their change over time was accounted for by changes in depression or anxiety. In separate multiple regression models including also gender, age, depression and anxiety, TAS-20 total and subscale scores were correlated with low energy/extraversion, low emotional stability, openness, low friendliness/agreeableness; harm avoidance, low self-directedness, low cooperativeness, low reward dependence; attachment-related avoidance and anxiety. Conclusions: Our findings lend support for both absolute and relative stability of alexithymia, corroborate an association between alexithymia and insecure attachment, and contribute to a coherent placing of alexithymia in the broader theoretical network of personality constructs.

Alexithymia and temperament and character model of personality in alcohol‐dependent Turkish men

“…This supports the conclusions of Grabe et al and Picardi et al that both genetic (temperament) and environmental (character) dimensions of personality contribute to the alexithymia construct. 24,26 Alexithymic deficits in emotion regulation are related to the reduced ability to control, regulate, and adapt behavior according to chosen goals and values that characterize individuals with low self-directedness. Alexithymic deficits in emotion regulation are also plausibly related to cautiousness, fearfulness, pessimism, and shyness in individuals who score high in harm avoidance.…”

“…25 In a healthy college student sample, Picardi et al measured alexithymia with the TAS-20 and reported that alexithymia was correlated with both temperament and character dimensions of personality, indicating that both genetic and environmental factors might contribute to alexithymia development. 26 In that study the TAS-20 total and subscale scores were correlated with harm avoidance, low self-directedness, low cooperativeness, and low reward dependence.…”

Associations between Cloninger's temperament dimensions and acute tobacco withdrawal

“…Because we were interested in three out of the four temperament dimensions and none of the character dimensions, we administered only 55 items from the TCI-125 (i.e., items that comprised the NS, HA, and RD scales). 1 The TCI-125 has been used in numerous previous studies (Akiskal et al, 2005;Picardi, Toni, & Caroppo, 2005;Smith, Duffy, Stewart, Muir, & Blackwood, 2005). This scale correlates with other related measures of temperament (Akiskal et al, 2005), has acceptable internal consistencies (Chakroun-Vinciguerra, Faytout, Pèlissolo, & Swendsen, 2005), has the same factor structure as the standard TCI (Chakroun-Vinciguerra et al, 2005), and demonstrates associations with demographic characteristics that are similar to the original questionnaire (Chakroun-Vinciguerra et al, 2005).…”

The Concept of Alexithymia

“…[77] Aleksitimi skorlarının, klinik popülasyon-dakine kıyasla, klinik olmayan popülasyonda daha istikrarlı olması da bu bilgi ile tutarlı görünmektedir. [78][79][80] Ne var ki, aleksitiminin uzun süreli/kalıcı bir özellik mi yoksa geçici bir durum mu olduğu günümüzde hala netliğe kavuşamamış bir konudur.…”