Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-26)

Abstract

The Toronto Alexithymia Scales (TAS-26) is a seminal self-report instrument designed to measure the psychological construct of alexithymia. Developed by Taylor, Ryan, and Bagby in 1985, the TAS-26 was one of the earliest validated measures of this deficit, which involves a difficulty in identifying, describing, and processing emotional states. The scale consists of 26 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale. Although the original 26-item version established the dimensional structure of alexithymia, it was subsequently refined and superseded by the 1994 20-item version (TAS-20), which remains the standard for clinical and research applications today. The TAS-26 primarily identified four factors related to emotional processing deficits, including difficulty identifying and describing feelings, externally oriented thinking, and reduced imaginative capacity.

Keywords

Alexithymia, TAS-26, self-report scale, emotional processing, psychosomatic research, difficulty describing feelings, externally oriented thinking.

Authors

George J. Taylor, D. Ryan, R. Michael Bagby.

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Purpose

The primary purpose of the Toronto Alexithymia Scales (TAS-26) was to provide a reliable and empirically derived method for quantifying alexithymia in both clinical and non-clinical populations. Before the TAS-26, the consistent measurement of this construct was challenging, often relying on clinical interviews or less standardized measures. The development of the TAS-26 aimed to operationalize the key theoretical dimensions of alexithymia proposed in clinical models, thereby facilitating the scientific study of its prevalence and its relationship with various medical and psychological disorders, particularly in the field of psychosomatic medicine.

While the TAS-26 is now largely historical and has been superseded by the psychometrically superior TAS-20, its structure laid the foundational groundwork necessary for the creation of the refined instrument. It represented a critical methodological step in standardizing the assessment of emotional deficits related to self-awareness and verbalization, which is crucial for understanding disorders where emotional regulation is impaired.

Construct

The TAS-26 measures alexithymia, which is characterized by a disturbance in cognitive-affective functioning. This construct is typically multidimensional, reflecting a deficit not just in feeling, but in identifying and processing those feelings. The original factor analysis of the TAS-26 suggested a structure reflecting four core dimensions fundamental to the initial understanding of the construct.

The dimensions measured by the scale, as indicated by the source content and developmental literature, include:

• Difficulty Identifying Feelings (DIF): The inability to recognize and distinguish between emotions and the accompanying bodily sensations of emotional arousal.
• Difficulty Describing Feelings (DDF): The inability to articulate or verbalize one’s emotional states to others.
• Externally Oriented Thinking (EOT): A cognitive style characterized by a lack of introspection and a tendency to focus on external details and practical matters rather than internal psychological experiences.
• Reduced Daydreaming/Imaginative Life: A limited capacity for fantasy, imagination, and internally generated thought processes, reflecting a poverty of inner life.

Validity

The initial validation studies of the TAS-26 (Taylor, Ryan, & Bagby, 1985) demonstrated acceptable levels of convergent and discriminant validity, suggesting that the scale measured the intended construct of alexithymia and was appropriately distinct from generalized distress or anxiety. However, subsequent clinical and research use identified certain psychometric limitations, particularly related to the stability of the factor structure and the inclusion of items that did not reliably load onto the intended subscales, such as those related to daydreaming.

These limitations prompted the authors to conduct further rigorous analyses, resulting in the development of the TAS-20 (Bagby, Parker, & Taylor, 1994). The TAS-20 refined the scale by eliminating weaker items and confirming a more stable three-factor structure (DIF, DDF, and EOT), thereby significantly enhancing the scale’s empirical validity and establishing it as the gold standard for alexithymia assessment. Studies across different cultures and languages, such as the Farsi version used in samples of opioid substance use disordered patients, further confirm the robust validity of the derived structure.

Reliability

The internal consistency of the original TAS-26 was acceptable at the total score level for an initial scale developed in the mid-1980s. However, when examining the internal reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) of the individual subscales, inconsistencies were noted. Specifically, the factor related to Reduced Daydreaming showed lower reliability coefficients across various samples, suggesting that these items were not cohesive measures of a single underlying construct.

The subsequent revision to the TAS-20 was explicitly undertaken to improve reliability. By removing problematic items, the authors ensured that the resulting 20-item scale demonstrated significantly enhanced internal reliability and test-retest reliability, making the TAS-20 a highly reliable instrument for measuring the core dimensions of alexithymia in research settings.

Factor Analysis

The factor analysis underlying the development of the TAS-26 aimed to confirm the four theoretical components of alexithymia. The initial analysis successfully extracted these four factors: Difficulty to Identify Feelings, Difficulty Describing Feelings, Externally Oriented Thinking, and Reduced Daydreaming. This structure provided the first empirical support for the multi-faceted nature of the construct.

However, cross-validation studies revealed issues with the distinctiveness and reliability of the factors, particularly the Reduced Daydreaming factor. This necessitated a re-evaluation of the item pool and structure. The subsequent rigorous factor analysis leading to the TAS-20 focused on optimizing item selection and confirming a robust, cross-culturally stable three-factor model (DIF, DDF, and EOT), which has since become the accepted standard in psychological literature. The TAS-26 thus represents the necessary preliminary step in factor analysis that allowed for the refinement of the instrument.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report psychometric questionnaire

Format: 26 items utilizing a 5-point Likert scale. The response options are: (1) Strongly Disagree, (2) Moderately Disagree, (3) Neither Disagree or Agree, (4) Moderately Agree, and (5) Strongly Agree.

Language Available: English (original), with numerous translations developed for the refined TAS-20 (e.g., Farsi).

Population Group: Adults (clinical and non-clinical). It is frequently used in research settings focusing on chronic disease, trauma, and emotional regulation deficits. Related instruments exist for younger populations, such as the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children (AQC).

Age Group: Adults (typically 18+).

Population Details: Originally validated on adult samples. The related Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children (AQC) has been used in child and young adolescent populations, as seen in Iranian samples.

Test Methodology: Scores are derived by summing the responses across all items, with certain items requiring reverse scoring (e.g., items reflecting emotional capacity or imaginative life). A higher total score indicates a higher degree of alexithymia.

Keywords

Emotional deficit, psychometrics, TAS-20, self-awareness, factor structure, Taylor, Ryan, Bagby.

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Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Information not provided in source material)

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A (Information not provided in source material)

Correspondence Address: N/A (Information not provided in source material)

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The TAS-26 was first published in 1985 (Taylor, Ryan, & Bagby). While the scale items are often referenced in academic literature, formal research use, particularly of the widely adopted TAS-20, typically requires researchers to obtain permission from the primary authors or the publishing journal (often the Journal of Psychosomatic Research). The scale is widely available for non-commercial academic research use. Related instruments and information can be found online at sites such as contextualscience.org. Note that a PDF file related to a similar instrument, the Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children (Alex Kids UK), can be found here: http://www.focusonemotions.nl/files/Alex%20Kids%20UK.pdf.

Reference’s

The following key academic publications detail the development, validation, and subsequent refinement of the Toronto Alexithymia Scales:

• Bagby, R. M., Parker, J. D. A. & 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, 23-32.
• Bagby, R.M., Taylor, G.J., & Parker, J.D.A. (1994). The Twenty-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale II. Convergent discriminant, and concurrent validity. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 38, 33–40.
• Taylor, G.J., Ryan, D., & Bagby, R.M. (1985). Toward the development of a new self-report alexithymia scale. Psychotherapy & Psychosomatics, 44, 191–199.
• Zimmermann, Grégoire; Rossier, Jérôme; Meyer de Stadelhofen, Franz; Gaillard, François. (2005). Alexithymia Assessment and Relations with Dimensions of Personality. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, Vol 21(1), 2005, 23-33.
• Rieffe, C., Oosterveld, P., Meerum Terwogt, M., Novin, S., Nasiri, H., & Latifian, M. (2010). Relationship between alexithymia, mood and internalizing symptoms in children and young adolescents: Evidence from an Iranian sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 48, 425-430.
• Besharat, M. A., Rostami, R., Pourhosein, R., & Mirzamani, M. (2006). Assessing reliability and validity of Farsi Version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 in a sample of opioid substance use disordered patients. Iranian Journal of Psychiatry, 1, 133- 139.

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Items of the Toronto Alexithymia Scales (TAS-26)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

1. When I cry I always know why.
2. Day dreaming is a waste of time.
3. I wish I were not as shy.
4. I am often confused about what emotion I am feeling.
5. I often daydream about the future.
6. I seem to make friends as easily as others do.
7. Knowing the answers to problems is more important than knowing the reasons for the answers.
8. It is difficult for me to find the right words for my feelings.
9. I let people know where I stand on things. [I like to let people know where I stand on things].
10. I have physical sensations that even Doctors don’t understand.
11. It’s not enough for me that something gets the job done; I need to know why and how it works.
12. I am able to describe my feelings easily.
13. I prefer to analyze problems rather than just describe them.
14. When I am upset, I don’t know if I am sad, frightened or angry.
15. I use my imagination a great deal.
16. I spend much time daydreaming whenever I have nothing else to do.
17. I am often puzzled by sensations in my body.
18. I daydream rarely.
19. I prefer to just let things happen rather than to understand why they turned out that way.
20. I have feelings I can’t quite identify.
21. Being in touch with emotions is essential.
22. I find it hard to describe how I feel about people.
23. People tell me to describe my feelings more.
24. One should look for deeper explanations.
25. I don’t know what’s going on inside me.
26. I often don’t know why I am angry.