The Effects of Psychodrama on Emotional Expression and Spontaneity of University Students Suffering Alexithymia

• Main Authors: Özlem ŞENER, Serhat Armağan KÖSEOĞLU
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bülent Ecevit University 2020-08-01
• Series: Yükseköğretim ve Bilim Dergisi
• Subjects: alexithymia; pyschodrama; emotional expression; spontaneity
• Online Access: http://higheredu-sci.beun.edu.tr/pdf/pdf_HIG_1951.pdf

This study was carried out to analyze the effects of psychodrama with psychodrama exercises and group therapy to decrease alexithymic symptoms and increase the level of emotional recognition, expression, and spontaneity of university students who suffer from alexithymia. The Control group pretest-posttest semi-experimental design was used. 20 freshmen with alexithymia were selected among 26 students and equally divided into experimental and control groups. To collect data, the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS), Emotional Expression Questionnaire (EEQ), and Revised Spontaneity Assessment Inventory (SAI-R) were used. To construct the experimental and control groups TAS, EEQ, and SAI-R were applied to 290 freshman students at Hasan Ali Yucel Faculty of Education in 2017-2018. The subjects whose alexithymic levels were high were assigned to these groups. The experimental results show that psychodrama group therapy was effective in decreasing the alexithymia levels of the university students who suffered from it. It also has increased the emotional expression and spontaneity levels.