Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS)

The Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) is a 20-item self-report questionnaire that can be used to identify issues relating to alexithymia such as difficulty identifying and describing feelings and externally oriented thinking (Bagby et al., 1994).

Developer

Bagby, R. M., Parker, J. D., & Taylor, G. J. (1994). The twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale–I. Item selection and cross-validation of the factor structure. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 38(1), 23–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3999(94)90005-1

References

Bagby, R. M., Parker, J. D. A., & Taylor, G. J. (2020). Twenty-five years with the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 131, 109940. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychores.2020.109940

Bagby, R. M., Parker, J. D., & Taylor, G. J. (1994). The twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale–I. Item selection and cross-validation of the factor structure. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 38(1), 23–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3999(94)90005-1

de Bruin, P. M. J., de Haan, H. A., & Kok, T. (2019). The prediction of alexithymia as a state or trait characteristic in patients with substance use disorders and PTSD. Psychiatry research282, 112634. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2019.112634 

Kauhanen, J., Julkunen, J., & Salonen, J. T. (1992). Validity and reliability of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) in a population study. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 36(7), 687-694.

Levant, R. F., Hall, R. J., Williams, C. M., & Hasan, N. T. (2009). Gender differences in alexithymia. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 10(3), 190–203. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015652

Levant, R. F., Good, G. E., Cook, S., O’Neil, J., Smalley, K. B., Owen, K. A., & Richmond, K. (2006). Validation of the Normative Male Alexithymia Scale: Measurement of a gender-linked syndrome. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 7, 212–224.

Leweke, F., Leichsenring, F., Kruse, J., & Hermes, S. (2012). Is alexithymia associated with specific mental disorders. Psychopathology, 45, 22–28.

Loas, G., Braun, S., Delhaye, M., & Linkowski, P. (2017). The measurement of alexithymia in children and adolescents: Psychometric properties of the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children and the twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale in different non-clinical and clinical samples of children and adolescents. PloS one, 12(5), e0177982. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177982

Messina, A., Beadle, J.N., & Paradiso, S. (2014). Towards a classification of alexithymia: Primary, secondary and organic. Official Journal of the Italian Society of Psychopathology, 20, 38-49.

Preece, D. A., Petrova, K., Mehta, A., Sikka, P., & Gross, J. J. (2024). Alexithymia or general psychological distress? Discriminant validity of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire. Journal of Affective Disorders, 352, 140–145. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2024.01.271

Sekely, A., Bagby, R. M., & Porcelli, P. (2018). Assessment of the alexithymia construct. In O. Luminet, R. M. Bagby, & G. J. Taylor (Eds.), Alexithymia: Advances in research, theory, and clinical practice (pp. 17–32). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108241595.004

Taylor, G. J., Bagby, R. M., & Parker, J. D. A. (1997). Disorders of affect regulation: Alexithymia in medical and psychiatric illness. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511526831

Taylor, G. J., Ryan, D., & Bagby, R. M. (1985). Toward the development of a new self-report alexithymia scale. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 44(4), 191–199. https://doi.org/10.1159/000287912

Taylor, G. J., Bagby, R. M., & Parker, J. D. (1992). The Revised Toronto Alexithymia Scale: some reliability, validity, and normative data. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 57(1-2), 34–41. https://doi.org/10.1159/000288571

Taylor, G.J., Bagby, R.M., and Parker, J.D.A. (2003). The 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale – IV. Reliability and factorial validity in different languages and cultures. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 55, 277–283.