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Relationships Among Social Functioning, Alexithymia, and Asian Values

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2020, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, Counseling Psychology.
Alexithymia is a personality trait that is defined as a difficulty in identifying and describing emotions, as well as an externally-oriented pattern of thinking. Research has linked alexithymia with generally poor social functioning. Most of the existing literature on alexithymia and its social implications is limited, as most of the studies are heavily rooted in the European culture. Little research has examined whether there is cultural variation in how alexithymia influences social functioning among ethnic minorities. A review of literature on emotion expression, social functioning, and Asian cultures suggests that the relationship between alexithymia and poor social functioning may be less significant among Asian individuals because Asian individuals have different relationship norms, different expectations regarding emotion expression in relationships, and different cultural interpretations of alexithymia. This study explored how alexithymia was related to social functioning and life satisfaction directly and indirectedly through Asian values with a multicultural sample. A moderated mediation analysis along with bivariate correlations were used to investigate these pathways. Results demonstrated that alexithymia predicted poorer social functioning for Asians, Asian Americans, and Caucasian Americans, which in turn led to poorer life satisfaction. The relationship between alexithymia and social functioning differed as a function of adherence to Asian values, providing evidence for conditional effects. Adherence to Asian values also moderated the relationship between alexithymia and life satisfaction.
Ingrid Weigold (Committee Chair)
Varunee Faii Sangganjanavanich (Committee Member)
Margo Gregor (Committee Member)
Ronald Levant (Committee Member)
John Queener (Committee Member)
150 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Ling, S. (2020). Relationships Among Social Functioning, Alexithymia, and Asian Values [Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1595698570441989

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Ling, Shu. Relationships Among Social Functioning, Alexithymia, and Asian Values. 2020. University of Akron, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1595698570441989.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Ling, Shu. "Relationships Among Social Functioning, Alexithymia, and Asian Values." Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1595698570441989

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)