Alexithymia and Vocational Maturity

Abstract

Alexithymia refers to an individual's deficit in identifying and processing feelings, in distinguishing feelings from bodily sensations, and an externally oriented way of thinking. Alexithymia has been linked to lower scores on verbal, non-verbal and general intelligence tests (Lilly & Valdez, 2001). Other studies have shown that higher scores in alexithymia measures corresponded to lower scores in creativity (Zenasni & Lubart, 2009) and emotional intelligence (Coffey & Kerns, 2003). Little research has been found exploring alexithymia with vocational measures, such as vocational maturity. The latter has been defined as how well individuals are capable to manage the cognitive and affective tasks that are proper to his or her stage of career development (Super & Thompson, 1979). This research aims to verify the impact of alexithymia (measured by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, TAS-20) on vocational maturity (measured by the Career Educational Questionnaire, CEQ). The sample consisted of 592 Brazilian university students, ages between 16 and 51 years old, of both sexes (M = 224; F = 368). Multiple regression analysis was conducted to evaluate how well the three dimensions of alexithymia measured by the TAS-20 (difficulty in describing feelings, difficulty in identifying feelings and external-oriented thinking) predicted the four dimensions of the vocational maturity measured by the CEQ (self-knowledge, information sources, career planning, decision factors and occupational knowledge). Results: using Bonferroni method the type I error was controlled. The determination coefficient (R2= .127) indicates that 13% of the variance of the decision factors (CEQ) is explained by the linear association with the difficulty in identifying feelings (TAS-20). Low scores on the decision factors (capacity to identify qualities and flaws of one's personality in order to choose a career) can be explained by a higher difficulty in identifying one's feelings.