Emotion Ideology Mediates Effects of Risk Factors on Alexithymia Development

Despite its connection to mental and behavioral health complications, elevated alexithymia tends to be associated with low responsiveness and high resistance to psychological intervention. To further understanding of potential treatment targets for clients with alexithymic traits, the present study...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of rational-emotive and cognitive-behavior therapy 2017-09, Vol.35 (3), p.254-277
Main Authors: Edwards, Emily R., Micek, Anna, Mottarella, Karen, Wupperman, Peggilee
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alexithymia
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Child abuse & neglect
Clinical Psychology
Community and Environmental Psychology
Education
Emotional abuse
Emotions
Generalizability
Health behavior
Ideology
Mental health
Psychiatry
Psychological intervention
Psychological trauma
Psychology
Psychotherapy
Public Health
Resistance
Responsiveness
Risk factors
Severity
Socialization
Therapeutic applications
Trauma
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Summary:Despite its connection to mental and behavioral health complications, elevated alexithymia tends to be associated with low responsiveness and high resistance to psychological intervention. To further understanding of potential treatment targets for clients with alexithymic traits, the present study explored the (a) independent contributions of various risk factors to statistical predictions of alexithymic trait severity, (b) generalizability of risk factor contributions across two culturally distinct samples, and (c) potential for emotion ideology (i.e., beliefs about emotion and emotional experience) to mediate such contributions. Preliminary results suggest emotion socialization and child abuse may be salient contributors to alexithymia severity, whereas effects of trauma exposure may be limited to samples with high overall exposure to alexithymia risk-factors. Moreover, emotion ideology mediates the relation between risk-factor exposure and alexithymia severity. Thus, psychotherapeutic interventions targeting emotion ideology may be beneficial when working with clients with elevated alexithymia.
ISSN:0894-9085
1573-6563
DOI:10.1007/s10942-016-0254-y