ALEXITIMY RELATIONSHIP WITH INDIVIDUALLY-TYPOLOGICAL PROPERTIES, EMOTIONAL SPHERE AND PSYCHIC STATES OF THE INDIVIDUAL
Authors: Vasheka T. V. , Tukaiev S. V. , Palamar B. I. , Dolgova O. N. , Fedorchuk S. V. 
Published: December 2019

The purpose of the study was to establish the psychological nature and mechanisms of the occurrence of alexithymia by analyzing its connection with the properties of the nervous system, mental states and characteristics of the emotional sphere of personality.

Objectives of the study: to establish the level of alexithymia in the respondents; to establish the connection between alexithymia and the properties of the nervous system (the strength of the processes of excitation, inhibition, mobility of nervous processes); to find correlational links between alexithymia and mental states: emotional burnout, chronic fatigue, depression, anxiety; show the association of alexithymia with low stress resistance, neuroticism, neuroticism, and the severity of psychological stress; establish an association of alexithymia with aggression and anxiety.

Materials and Methods: TAS-26 (Toronto Alexitimic Scale) was used to diagnose alexithymia. During the diagnostics of individual-typological properties, emotional sphere and mental states of the respondents, we used the following psycho-diagnostic methods: the technique of diagnosing Jan Strelau's temperament; E. Eysenck Personality Inventory personal questionnaire; J. Taylor's personal anxiety scale; the method of diagnostics of the level of neurosis of Wasserman; C. Spielberger's anxiety scale is a scale of personal anxiety; methods of diagnostics of emotional burnout V. Boyko and K. Maslach; the method of "degree of chronic fatigue"; the scale of psychological stress PSM-25; the Boston test for stress resistance; the technique for the diagnosis of depressive conditions V. Zhmurov; the method "Aggressive behavior" E. Ilyin, P. Kovaleva; test "Evaluation of aggressiveness in relationships" A. methods for diagnosing the type of emotional response to the influence of environmental stimuli V. Boyko Methods of mathematical statistics: to establish the type of data distribution was used nonparametric Kolmogorov-Smirnov criterion; to establish relationships between variables of applied correlation analysis using Pearson and Spearman criteria.

Conclusions: Alexithymia was found to be associated with a weak nervous system, low stress resistance, such characteristics of the emotional realm as anxiety, depression, neuroticism, indirect verbal aggression, low levels of aggression; with mental states: chronic fatigue, emotional burnout, depression, psychological stress. The results confirm the adaptation theory of the occurrence of alexithymia, according to which, due to the weakness of the nervous system and high personal anxiety, the person adapts to stressful situations by avoiding and suppressing negative emotions, which eventually creates the impossibility of their verbal description and expression. Low levels of stress resistance lead to chronic fatigue, neuroticism, and emotional burnout, and the predominance of refractory and dysphoric reactions results in a negative vision of the situation and can provoke the development of psychosomatic disorders.