Some authors take items from other sources that were not intended to measure alexithymia, or create items
that refer to constructs assumed to be related to alexithymia (e.g., Taylor, Ryan, & Bagby 1985 ;Fukunishi,
Yoshida & Wogan 1998 ;Haviland et al., 2000 ). This introduces the threat that the measure lacks content validity
wherein the items measures alexithymia indirectly. For clinical use, this can be acceptable if the measure is
regarded as a proxy measure. However, since such scales contain items that measure primarily other constructs,
correlations with these other constructs make such scales less fit for research.
Previous reviews ( Bagby, Taylor, Parker, & Ryan 1986; Bagby, Taylor, & Atkinson 1988; Parker, Taylor, Bagby,
& Thomas 1991; Bretagne et al., 1992; Linden, Wen, & Paulhus 1995, and Taylor et al., 2000 ) have been reported for
the Beth Israel Hospital Psychosomatic Questionnaire (BIQ), Schalling-Sifneos Personality Scale (SSPS), Minnesota
Multiphasic Personality Inventory Alexithymia Scale (MMPI-A), Thematic Apperception Measure (TAT),
Archetypal measure with nine elements (SAT 9), Toronto Alexithymia Scale (revised) (TAS & TAS-R), Analog
Alexithymia Scale (AAS) Speech analysis, and the Rorschach Alexithymia Scale (RAS). With exception of the BIQ
and TAS (R), these measures have insufficient psychometric properties and will not be reviewed in the present
chapter, with the exception of the BIQ, TAS-R, and the RAS.
MEASURES REVIEWED HERE
Although there are several emotion scales/measures that are sometimes used to estimate alexithymia we will
limit ourselves to those explicitly intended to measure alexithymia. Measures of alexithymia fall into three cate-
gories: projection scales, observation scales, and self-rating scales. To these we have added the category ‘measure-
ment scales for children and adolescents’, because measurement of alexithymia in these age groups has specific
problems.
Only measures for which psychometric data are published are discussed. These are: the Rorschach
Alexithymia scale (RAS), the Beth Israel Hospital Psychosomatic Questionnaire (BIQ), the modified Beth Israel
Questionnaire (M-BIQ), California Q-set Alexithymia Prototype (CAQ-AP), Observation Alexithymia Scale
(OAS), the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia (TSIA), Toronto Alexithymia Scales (TAS-26, TAS-R,
TAS-20), the Amsterdam Alexithymia (AAS), the Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire (BVAQ), the
Psychological Treatment Inventory-Alexithymia Scale (PTI-AS), the Alexithymia Observation Scale for Children
(AOSC), the Toronto Alexithymia Scale for Children (TAS12), and the Emotional Awareness Questionnaire
(EAQ). The ‘Online Alexithymia Questionnaire’ (OAQ) will not be discussed, since we could not find any psy-
chometric data. Some scales (TAS-26, TAS-R, AAS, & BIQ) are clearly precursors of later measures (TAS-20,
BVAQ, & M-BIQ), and therefore are discussed briefly in describing the development of the final scale, in each
case. The scales/measures are reviewed in the order presented below.
Projection Scales
1.Rorschach Alexithymia Scale ( Porcelli & Mihura 2010 )
Observation Scales
2.Beth Israel Hospital Psychosomatic Questionnaire ( Sifneos, 1973 ; cf.Linden et al., 1995 )
3.Modified Beth Israel Questionnaire ( Taylor et al., 1997 )
4.California Q-set Alexithymia Prototype ( Haviland & Reise, 1996a )
5.Observation Alexithymia Scale ( Haviland et al., 2000 )
6.Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia ( Bagby, Taylor, Parker, & Dickens 2006 )
Self-rating Scales
7.Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20 ( Bagby et al., 1994a )
8.Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire ( Vorst & Bermond, 2001 )
9.Psychological Treatment Inventory-Alexithymia Scale ( Gori, Gieannini, Palmieri., Salvini, & Schuldberg 2012 ).
Measurement Scales for Children and Adolescents
10.Alexithymia Observation Scale for Children ( Fukunishi et al., 1998 )
11.Toronto Alexithymia Scale for Children ( Heaven, Ciarrochi, & Hurrell 2010 )
12.Emotional Awareness Questionnaire ( Rieffe et al., 2007, Rieffe, Oosterveld, Miers, Meerum Terwogt, & Ly; 2008 )229 MEASURES REVIEWED HERE
III. EMOTION REGULATION