A California Q-set alexithymia prototype and its relationship to ego-control and ego-resiliency

Abstract

The primary purposes of the present study were to use the Q-sort method to develop a measure of alexithymia and to locate the construct within a two-dimensional (ego-control and ego-resiliency) model of personality. Thirteen professional judges described the characteristics of the alexithymic personality with the 100-item California Q-set. Scores from the sorts were aggregated to form the Alexithymia Prototype, which had a Spearman-Brown reliability of 0.99. Alexithymic people were described as having difficulties experiencing and expressing emotion, lacking imagination, and being literal, socially conforming, and utilitarian; they lack insight, are humorless, and experience meaninglessness; and anxiety and tension find outlet in bodily symptoms. This description is consistent, for the most part, with modern formulations of the alexithymia construct. In the language of the two-dimensional personality model, alexithymic individuals appear to be overcontrolling and lacking ego-resiliency (i.e., constricted, anxious, rigid, and withdrawn). We, therefore, compared the Alexithymia Prototype with two independently developed prototypes, Overcontrol and Ego-Resiliency. The Q-correlations between alexithymia and overcontrol and between alexithymia and ego-resiliency were 0.45 and −0.70, respectively. Although item analyses confirmed moderate overlap between alexithymia and overcontrol and considerable overlap between alexithymia and lacking ego-resiliency (ego-brittle), item differences suggest that alexithymia, indeed, is a unique personality construct.