Alexithymia, Stroop interference, and verbal abilities PDF
Preview Alexithymia, Stroop interference, and verbal abilities
Alexithymia, Stroop Interference, and Verbal Abilities: Sex differences Gordon C. Cole B.A. (Honours), The University of Ottawa, 1982 M.A., Simon Fraser University, 1984 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Psychology O Gordon C. Cole 1991 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY May 1991 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL Name: Gordon Campbell Cole Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Title of Thesis: Alexithymia, Stroop Interference, Verbal Abilities: Sex Differences Examining Committ ee: Chair: Dr. William Krane Dr. Paul Bakan Senior Supervisor Dr. Robert Ley' D .: Ray ~o$rnah Dr. Christopher Davis Internal Examiner Dr. Robert Pihl External Examiner McGill University a Date Approved: PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENSE I hereby grant to Simon Fraser University the right to lend my thesis, project or extended essay (the t i t l e of which is shown below) to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. I further agree that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by me or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Title of Thesis/Project/Extended Essay Alexithymia, Stroop Interference, and Verbal A b i l i t i e s : Sex Di f ferences Author: is ignature) Gordon C. Cole (name) Mav 6, 1991 (date) Alexithymia (a term meaning no words for feelings) is a hypothetical construct representing a constellation of cognitive-affective characteristics observed in people with a wide range of psychological and physical disorders, and in people who derive little benefit from insight oriented psychotherapy. Two general questions about alexithymia were addressed in this thesis: "Do alexithymics have a 'deficit' of feeling? Do vocabulary or word fluency deficiencies account for the alexithymic's expressive difficulties?". An emotional Stroop task was constructed to measure the cognitive representation of emotion, while verbal abilities were measured with the Vocabulary and Similarities WAIS-R subtests, and a verbal fluency test. There were three main findings. (1) Males with high alexithymia scores exhibited greater interference on neutral, as well as positive and negative emotion Stroop stimuli, suggesting a Stroop effect for males with high alexithymia scores, regardless of emotional valence. Verbal fluency was found to be a factor contributing variance to the relationship between alexithymia and Stroop scores for males. (2) Females with high alexithymia scores had lower vocabulary and emotional vocabulary scores than females with low alexithymia scores. No significant differences in vocabulary scores were obtained between the male alexithymia groups, and there were no significant differences in word fluency or abstract reasoning between both male and female alexithyrnia groups. (3) Sex differences in color i i i naming ability were observed. Males were generally slower than females at color naming. For females color naming scores were significantly correlated with alexithymia scores (while insignificant among males, these relationships were of similar smngth and direction). Slowed color naming may be included in the constellation of characteristics associated with alexithymia. Overall, the results of this thesis may be interpreted as suggesting that the affective difficulties of alexithyrnics may be secondary to cognitive difficolties. There also seems to be a sexual dimorphism in cognitive correlates of alexithymia. Similarities between alexithymia and neuropsychological syndromes, perceptual styles, and sex differences in cognitive abilities and hemispheric lateralization provide some theoretical support for this interpretation of the results. Acknowledgements I wish to thank Paul Bakan for believing in me, challenging my limits, and for tolerating my wanderings from the path. Bob Ley has been a consistent source of inspiration in all areas of becoming a clinical psychologist. Ray Koopman has endured my statistical alogia with grace, and I thank him for his help in examining and analyzing a challenging data set. Chris Davis has been another challenging representation for me from beginning to end. I wish to thank Robert Pihl for being my external examiner and for providing me with a new window on the cognitive correlates of alexithyrnia. I also wish to acknowledge the contribution and support of Paul Sungalia who was instrumental in the design of the emotional Stroop test and was a true collegue in all senses. I thank Jim Marcia for providing the ideal location for the incubation of the final stages of the thesis. I thank Joan Foster for her patient assistance with the data crunching. Finally, I wish to thank my parents for their consistent support and understanding. Table of Contents ... ............................................................................................. Abstract rn ............................................................................... Acknowledgements v ...................................................................................... List of Tables ix ... ..................................................................................... List of Figures xm . .............................................................................. I INTRODUCTION 1 ............................................................ Measurement of Alexithymia 4 . Etiological Explanations ................................................................. 9 ................................. Hemispheric Specialization and Alexithymia 10 Cognitive Representation. Information Processing. ..................................................... and Subliminal Perception 20 .................................................................. The Stroop Test 24 .............................................................................. Hypotheses 3 3 . ....................................................................................... I1 METHOD 35 .................................................................................... Subjects 35 ............................................................................... Procedures -37 .................................................................................. Measures 38 ..................................................... The Emotional Stroop Test 38 ................................................ The Toronto Alexithymia Scale 46 .................................... The Vocabulary subscale of the WAIS-R 50 ............................................ An emotional vocabulary subscale 51 ...................................... The Similarities subtest of the WAIS-R 51 ........................ The controlled oral word ~ssociation(F AS) ~ e s;t 51 . ..................................................................................... I11 RESULTS 53 ..................................................... Emotional Stroop and Alexithymia 61 ...................................... Repeated Measures of Stroop Variables 61 .......................................... Neutral emotion Sump interference 64 .......................................... Positive emotion Stroop interference 67 ........................................ Negative emotion St roop interference 6 9 ............... Word fluency and Sump: controlling the effects of fluency 71 .................................. Age. alexithymia. and Stroop interference: 75 .............................................. Controlling for the effects of age 75 .......................................... Controlling for both age and fluency 79 ...................................................... Alexithymia and Verbal Measures 81 ......................................................... Emotional Vocabulary 8 3 ............................... .'.......... ...... Word Fluency and Alexithymia 86 ................................................... Similarities and Alexithymia 87 ................................................ Color Naming and Alexithymia 90 .................................................... Fluency and Color Naming 92 ......................................................... Age and Color Naming 93 . ................................................................................ IV DISCUSSION 95 ..................................................... Emotional Stroop and Alexithymia 96 ...................................... Sex Differences in Sump Performance 101 ........................... Sex Differences in Color Discrimination Abilities 104 .............. Sex Differences in Perceptual Speed and Cognitive Abilities 104 ......................... Sex Differences in Lateralization of Brain Function 105 ...................................... Implications for Psychosomatic Theory 109 ..................... Similarity of alexithyrnia to neurological "syndromes" 111 Vocabulary and Alexithymia ............................................................ 120 ............................................................ Similarities and Alexithymia 124 ............................................... Verbal Fluency and Alexithymia 124 ............................................ Sex Differences in Verbal Abilities 125 ........................................... Sexual Dimorphism of Alexithymia 126 ......................................................... Color Naming and Alexithymia 126 ................................................................................. Conclusion 135 .................................................................................... REFERENCES 138 ..................................................................................... APPENDICES 156 ...................................................... Summary Statistics All Ss 160 .......................................... Female Summary Statistics (n=124) 160 ........................................ Male Summary Statistics (n=54) 160 viii st of Tables . ......................................................... TABLE 1 Neutral Word Parameters 40 . ....................................................... TABLE 2 Negative Word Parameters 41 . ........................................................ TABLE 3 Positive Word Parameters 41 . ...................................................... TABLE 4 Neutral Words Color Count 42 . ..................................................... TABLE 5 Positive Words Color Count 43 . ...................................................... TABLE 6 Negative Word Color Count 44 . . .................................. TABLE 7 Sample characteristics of Taylor et al (1985) 47 . ......................................... TABLE 8 Sample characteristics of present study 48 . ........................................ TABLE 9 Correlation Matrix All Subjects (n=178) 58 . ................................... TABLE 10 Correlation Matrix Female Subjects (n=124) 59 TABLE 11. Correlation Matrix for Males (n=54) ............................................6 0 . ............ TABLE 12 All Ss Repeated Measures: Cell Means and Standard Deviations 62 . ....................... TABLE 13 All Ss Repeated Measures: Stroop Interference Scores 62 . ........... TABLE 14 Females: Alexithymia by Stroop Interference Repeated Measures 63 . ................ TABLE 15 Male Alexithyrnia by Stroop Interference Repeated Measures 64 . TABLE 16 All Ss: Mean neutral S w pi nterference scores as a function of ................................................................ alexithymia and sex 65 . TABLE 17 Male Ss: Mean neutral Stroop interference scores as a function of ........................................................................ alexithyrnia -66 . TABLE 18 Female Ss: Mean neutral Stroop interference scores as a function ...................................................................... of alexithymia 67 . TABLE 19 All Ss: Mean positive Stroop interference scores as a function of ...................................... ... ......................... alexithymia and sex 67 . TABLE 20 Male Ss: Mean positive Stroop interference scores as a function of ........................................................................ alexithymia -68
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