Alexithymia

Title

Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20)

Study

PCS3

Copyright Information

A package containing a master copy of the scale, scoring instructions, reliability, validity, and normative data can be obtained upon payment of a copyright fee.  Further information can be obtained from Dr. Taylor’s website.

Primary Reference

Bagby, R. M., Parker, J. D. A., & Taylor, G. J. (1994). The twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale—I. Item selection and cross-validation of the factor structure. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 38, 23-32.

Purpose

To assess people’s difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings, and degree of externally-oriented thinking.

Description

Participants indicate the degree to which they agree with statements describing themselves using a 5-Point Likert Scale.

Scaling

1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neither Agree nor Disagree, 4 = Agree, 5 =Strongly Agree

Number of Items

20 (7 for difficult identifying feeling; 5 for difficulty describing feelings; 8 for externally-oriented thinking)

Psychometrics

In undergraduate students (Bagby et al., 1994)

Internal consistencies (n = 965)

• Difficulty Identifying Feelings, Cronbach’s α = 0.81
• Difficulty Describing Feelings, Cronbach’s α = 0.78
• Externally-Oriented Thinking, Cronbach’s α = 0.66
• Total Alexithymia, Cronbach’s α = 0.81

Test-retest reliability for Total score (3 weeks; n = 72): r = 0.77

In PCS3 (n = 213)

Internal consistencies

• Difficulty Identifying Feelings, Cronbach’s α = 0.85
• Difficulty Describing Feelings, Cronbach’s α = 0.79
• Externally-Oriented Thinking, Cronbach’s α = 0.62
• Total Alexithymia, Cronbach’s α = 0.83

Variables

• Difficulty Identifying Emotions Subscale
• Difficulty Describing Emotions Subscale
• Externally Oriented Thinking Subscale
• Total Tas-20 Alexithymia Score