ABSTRACT

Alexithymia is a multifaceted personality construct characterised by difficulties identifying one’s feelings and distinguishing them from bodily sensations, difficulties describing one’s feelings to others, and an externally oriented cognitive style. Over the past 25 years, a burgeoning body of research has examined how alexithymia moderates processing at the cognition–emotion interface. We review the findings in five domains: attention, appraisals, memory, language, and behaviours. The preponderance of studies linked alexithymia with deficits in emotion processing, which was apparent across all domains, except behaviours. All studies on behaviours and a proportion of studies in other domains demonstrated emotional over-responding. Analysis at the facet level revealed deficits in memory and language that are primarily associated with externally oriented thinking, while over-responding was most often linked to difficulty identifying feelings and difficulty describing feelings. The review also found evidence for contextual modulation: The pattern of deficits and over-responding was not restricted to emotional contexts but also occurred in neutral contexts, and in some circumstances, emotional over-responding in alexithymia was beneficial. Taken together, this review highlights alexithymia as a central personality dimension in the interplay between cognition and emotion.

摘要

述情障碍是一种多方面的人格结构，其特征是难以识别自己的感受并将其与身体感觉区分开来，难以向他人描述自己的感受，以及外向型认知风格。在过去的 25 年里，一个新兴的研究机构研究了述情障碍如何调节认知 - 情绪界面的处理。我们回顾了五个领域的发现：注意力、评估、记忆、语言和行为。大量研究将述情障碍与情绪处理缺陷联系起来，这在除行为外的所有领域都很明显。所有关于行为的研究和其他领域的一部分研究都表明情绪过度反应。方面的分析揭示了主要与外向思维相关的记忆和语言缺陷，而过度反应通常与难以识别感受和难以描述感受有关。该评价还发现了情境调制的证据：缺陷和过度反应的模式不仅限于情绪情境，也发生在中性情境中，在某些情况下，述情障碍中的情绪过度反应是有益的。总之，这篇评论强调述情障碍是认知和情感相互作用的核心人格维度。缺陷和过度反应的模式不仅限于情绪环境，也发生在中性环境中，在某些情况下，述情障碍中的情绪过度反应是有益的。总之，这篇评论强调述情障碍是认知和情感相互作用的核心人格维度。缺陷和过度反应的模式不仅限于情绪环境，也发生在中性环境中，在某些情况下，述情障碍中的情绪过度反应是有益的。总之，这篇评论强调述情障碍是认知和情感相互作用的核心人格维度。