Regulation of Emotions and Alexithymia: A Correlative Study

This study assessed the correlations between Alexithymia and the recognition and regulation of emotions in a sample of healthy subjects. The first focus was on the relation between self-rated alexithymia (TAS-20) and objectively measured emotion recognition ability from faces and scenic descriptions of social interactions. Furthermore expressive suppression as a means of emotion regulation was related to alexithymia. Using the new factorial structure for the German version of the TAS-20, we were able to show differential effects: Objectively assessed emotion recognition correlated negatively with external thinking and positively with the importance of emotional introspection, but not with the core of alexithymia, particularly difficulties identifying and describing emotions. Expressive suppression on the other hand correlated mainly with this central feature of alexithymia. This overlap of constructs suggests to including complementary test in the assessment of alexithymia.