THE TORONTO ALEXITHYMIA SCALE WITH INCARCERATED OFFENDERS

The present study examined the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) in a sa mple of 508 male inmates incarcerated for sexual and violent offences. A confirmatory procedure applied to the 20-item version of the TAS (T AS-20) resulted in a two-factor solution: Emotional Understanding Defi cit, and Experiencing and Utilizing Emotion. The factor scale of Emoti onal Understanding Deficit had a strong inverse relationship with soci al desirability measures and a positive relationship with all dimensio ns of psychopathology. On a measure of intelligence, Emotional Underst anding Deficit and Experiencing and Utilizing Emotion scales had the e xpected verbal/performance discrepancy. Unexpected negative relationsh ips occurred between the TAS and theoretically relevant dimensions fro m the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, Although the results indicat e limitations of the TAS-20's usage with inmates, there was support fo r the TAS scales' validity with an incarcerated sample.