Emotional intelligence: from alexithymia to emotional control

Abstract

The aim of the present study is to gain additional information about the relationship between emotional control and alexithymia, on one hand, and emotional intelligence on the other. The subjects were 251 university students who completed the Emotional Expression and Control Scale (EEC), the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the Emotional Intelligence Scale (EIS). The results show that both constructs explored are significantly related with emotional intelligence: emotional control positively and alexithymia negatively in all its dimensions. These findings revealed that both emotional control and alexithymia are significantly related to emotional intelligence. Thus confirming that emotional intelligence and alexithymia are inverse but strongly overlapping constructs; albeit also consistent with previous reports that alexithymic individuals lack the regulation by cognitively processing inherent to emotional control, and necessarily also to emotional intelligence while recognizable as one of its characteristics.