Alexithymia, anger, and anger expression styles as predictors of psychological symptoms

Abstract

Objective: A review of the literature shows that alexithymia, anger, and anger expression styles have been important variables in predicting psychological symptoms. Furthermore, alexithymic characteristics may cause various difficulties in anger and its expression. From this point of view, the aim of our study was to investigate the extent to which alexithymia, anger, and anger expression styles predicted psychological symptoms in the university sample. Method: The present study included 434 students (244 women, 190 men) from different departments of Hacettepe University. In addition to the Demographic Information Form, participants were administered the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) to assess the presence of alexithymic characteristics; to evaluate their anger and anger expression styles, the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI) was used, and participants' psychological symptoms were examined using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). After carrying out a correlation analysis to evaluate the relationships between all variables of the study, hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to investigate the degree to which alexithymia, anger, and anger expression styles predicted psychological symptoms. Results: According to the regression analysis, it was concluded that alexithymia, trait anger, and anger-in positively predicted psychological symptoms. Conclusion: Our study indicates that alexithymic characteristics, anger, and anger expression styles explain psychological symptoms. Additionally, it emphasizes the benefit of addressing alexithymic characteristics, the frequency of anger experience, and healthy ways of anger expression simultaneously and as a whole rather than individually in psychotherapies aiming to reduce psychological symptoms, even in persons that do not require a diagnosis.