Identification of emotions and emotional confusion in Jamaican men vs women: do they predict severity and types of psychopathology?

ABSTRACT

In Jamaica, women comprise two-thirds of the workforce, but the society rigidly defines gender roles and behaviour for men versus women. Jamaican women are reportedly independent and outwardly express wide varieties of feelings. Jamaican men have greater difficulty acknowledging, labelling and expressing their emotions, a process labelled alexithymia. Therefore, Jamaican men may report higher levels of alexithymia. Since identification and expression of feelings are positively associated with psychological health, Jamaicans (especially men) with higher alexithymia scores should report higher levels of psychological distress than those with low alexithymia scores. These hypotheses were tested using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale II (TAS-II), and Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), to survey 400 Jamaican men and women