Communication is not just what we say; it’s how we feel and respond to the things being said to us. For people living with Alexithymia, understanding undertones, body language, and context clues is a lot more difficult than for the average person. People who have alexithymia struggle to recognize, communicate, and control their emotions, which means they will most likely struggle to fit into society.

Research shows that 10% of the general population live with Alexithymia, and in most cases, it’s associated with different psychiatric disorders especially neurodevelopmental ones. This disorder may affect the quality of relationships, emotion control, and health in general.

Studying Alexithymia is not a new thing; researchers have been at it for years. However, using standardized questionnaires like the TAS-20 or the Perth questionnaire ensures that you have appropriate guidelines to work with. Let’s look at how to create an efficient alexithymia questionnaire.

Understanding Alexithymia

Alexithymia is a condition that makes it hard to recognize and express emotions. It has a big impact on how we feel and how we connect with others. People with high alexithymia typically have a problem with handling their emotions. This affects their ability to handle stressful situations and other forms of emotional difficulties.

People with high levels of alexithymia often struggle with: 

• Processing positive and negative emotion
• Impacting positive and negative emotions.

Researchers measure alexithymia features using tools such as the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) or the Perth Emotion Regulation Competency Inventory (PERCI) as a way of detecting understanding if a person regulates their emotions and what awareness exists about feelings.

The Role of Questionnaires in Diagnosing Alexithymia

Here’s why it is effective to use alexithymia questionnaires:

• Comprehensive Assessment: The TAS-20 provides a reliable and valid measure of alexithymia. It’s a complex construct that helps people answer questions about the difficulties in identifying and expressing emotions.
• Clinical Diagnosis: Using questionnaires helps clinicians fast-track the process of diagnosing alexithymia. Instead of patients or their loved ones suspecting they have this condition, the questionnaire is a clue that will help nudge them to come for the diagnosis. After answering the questions, clinicians can then probe further by asking more questions one-on-one to accurately diagnose the condition and treatment plan.
• Treatment Planning: The TAS-20 helps clinicians tailor treatment plans to address the specific emotional and cognitive challenges faced by individuals with alexithymia. 
• Research:  Alexithymia questionnaires are used very much in research studies that investigate the relationship between alexithymia and psychological and physical health outcomes.

How Formplus Can Help

Formplus allows you to design custom questionnaires and forms to collect for different use cases including clinical assessments. We also have a template bank with predesigned templates such as the self-assessment alexithymia questionnaire to help you assess the status of alexithymia through various dimensions.

You can also customize the form by adding new questions or editing them to fit the specific alexithymia scale you’re working with- TAS-20 or the PERCI.

Why Should You Use Formplus to Create Your Alexithymia Questionnaire

• Simplicity: Formplus comes with an intuitive drag-and-drop feature; all you need to do to set up your questionnaire is drag and drop the field you need e.g. different types of multiple-choice and text fields.
• Template Bank: Instead of starting from scratch and spending a lot of time on the design or the theme, the prebuilt template helps you jump right into editing the form to fit your specific needs.
• Logic: For assessments like the alexithymia questionnaire you want to make it as personalized as possible. Using the conditional logic feature would ensure that respondents answer questionnaires based on their previous entry, helping you gather more insightful data. The respondents will also feel like you are listening to them and not just making them fill out a long tiring form.
• Responses and Analytics Dashboard: The Formplus analytics dashboard helps you see an overview of respondents’ answers and identify a pattern that can determine whether or not they are living with alexithymia. Although, you may have to do more interviews to ensure you have the right diagnosis.
• Mobile-Friendly Forms: Every form you build on Formplus is mobile-friendly, so patients can easily answer the questionnaire on any of their devices before having to physically come in for further diagnosis and treatment.
• Secure Data Storage: Alexithymia is a medical condition; it’s not information that should be kept loosely or made public knowledge without consent. Formplus is GDPR compliant and uses encryption to ensure your respondents’ data is secure and safe.

Step-by-Step Guide to Building an Alexithymia Questionnaire with Formplus

Let’s break down how to create your alexithymia questionnaire with Formplus:

1: Sign Up or Log In

• Login to your  Formplus account or sign up if you don’t already have one.

2: Create Form

• Start from Scratch: Click the “Create New Form” button to start a blank form.
• You can also use the pre-designed alexithymia self-assessment template. 

3: Add or Edit Questions

• Add Sections: Organize your questions into sections to improve clarity and readability. For example, you might have sections for demographic information, alexithymia assessment, and open-ended feedback.
• Add Questions: For each section, add questions using the drag-and-drop interface. If you are building with the template, you can simply edit the existing questions to fit the tone and voice you need.

4: Customize Your Form

• Customize the Appearance: Choose a theme, adjust font sizes, and add colors to make the form visually appealing.
• Add Progress Bar: Show respondents how far they’ve progressed through the form and encourage them to keep going.
• Add a Thank-You Page: Ensure you thank respondents for their candor and assure them of the confidentiality of their responses.

5: Set Up Form Logic and Branching

• Conditional Logic: Show or hide specific questions based on previous answers. For example, if a respondent answers “Yes” to a certain question, you can show a follow-up question. But if they respond “No”, they skip to the next question.

6: Share Your Form

• Share Link: Share the unique form link with specific people you want to take the assessment.
• Embed in Website: Embed the form directly on a web page. For example, you can make it a popup, and interested people can fill out the questionnaire.
• Share on Social Media: You can also share on social media by adding it as your link in bio, using social cards, or even creating a graphic design and adding the questionnaire link or QR Code to redirect people to take the questionnaire.

7: Collect and Analyze Responses

• Real-Time Data: View responses as they are submitted.
• Data Analysis: Use Formplus’s built-in analysis tools to gain insights into the responses and detect the likelihood of respondents having Alexithymia.
• Export Data: Export data to CSV or Excel for further analysis.

Tips for Creating Effective Alexithymia Questionnaires

Here are some best practices to ensure your questionnaire captures the needed information:

•  Keep the Question Simple and Clear

Your questions should be easy for respondents to understand. The goal of the questionnaire is to detect and address various aspects of the alexithymia construct. But how can it do that when respondents don’t even understand the questions?

• Follow Ethical Guidelines

Also, consider how the design of questionnaires may present ethical problems. Ensure that the questionnaire and the platform you used to create it guarantee confidentiality.

Conclusion

Incorporating already used instruments for measuring the level of Alexithymia such as the PERCI and the TAS-20 gives you a strong framework for detecting and comprehending the different aspects of alexithymia.

Also, using the Formplus self-assessment Alexithymia questionnaire takes out the hassle of creating your questionnaire from scratch. It allows you to concentrate on the diagnosis and treatment.

We hope this guide helps you create and administer your Alexithymia questionnaire seamlessly, and here’s a template to get you started.