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Sifneos (1973) coined the term 'alexithymia' to describe a lack of words for emotions. The aim of this study was to investigate the levels of alexithymia found in 3 groups of participants, regarding how they experience and communicate their emotions/feelings to others. 105 participants were used, 35 classical musicians, 34 improvisational musicians and 36 office workers. A between subjects design was used. The procedure involved the participants' completion of the TAS-20 (Bagby, Parker & Taylor, 1994) measuring 3 factors, difficulty identifying feelings (F1), difficulty describing feelings (F2) and externally oriented thinking (F3). Scores among the three groups were compared with a MANOVA. Results did not support the hypoFinal Year Project. The office workers scored significantly higher on factor 2 when compared with the classical musicians. Implications and contributions of this study showed a novel inroad to this area of psychology.
