An investigation of the effectiveness of written emotional disclosure on defense mechanisms of alexithymic individuals

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of written emotional disclosure on the defense mechanisms of alexithymic people. A qausi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design was used to determine the effectiveness of written emotional disclosure. For this purpose, 130 male and female master's and PhD students at University of Tehran were selected by convenience sampling method. A total of 35 participants having high scortes on Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) were screened and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups. The Defensive Style Questionnaire (DSQ) was performed to evaluate the participant's defense mechanisms. Then, a two-week program of written emotional disclosure (6 sessions, 20 minutes for each), was used to measure changes in post-test. Research data were analysed using non-parametric tests (Wilcoxon and Mann Whitney-U) with SPSS version 23. The results showed that written emotional disclosure reduced the use of immature defense mechanisms and increased the mature defenses; with no significant change on neurotic defenses. It is concluded that written emotional discloure can be used as a complementary and effective therapy in psychotherapy.

Keywords

• emotion
• emotional disclosure
• defense mechanism
• personality