Measures of Alexithymia

The psychometric properties of all instruments specifically intended to measure alexithymia, are reviewed in this chapter. These reviews, not only set out clear descriptions of the pros and cons of each measure, but also demonstrate that most alexithymia measures have only low to moderate concurrent validities, indicating that alexithymia is, in its measurement, ill-defined. The starting point of our scale-analyses is the original description of the alexithymia construct as provided by Nemiah and Sifneos (1970a), and Sifneos (1973). Since alexithymia is a multi-faceted construct, factorial validity is also evaluated. Moreover, alexithymia scales are both research and diagnostic instruments. Diagnostic differentiation (discriminant validity) demands that subscales also intercorrelate lowly or only moderately.