Comparison of Emotional Intelligence, Self Esteem and Alexithymia in Women with Major Depression and Normal Women in Shahrood

Mood disorders, including major depression (MD), are among the most frequent psychological problems. Emotional intelligence which is an important component of mental health plays an important role in one's health; and also, by enhancing self-esteem, it is considered as a major source for support by which people can deal with negative events of every day life. The alexithymia Barrie might prevent a one’s emotion to be regulated and adjusted. The present study was aimed to assess emotional intelligence, self esteem and Alexithymia among women with majer depression disorder and and then compare them with normal women. The present work is a causal comparative study. We studied 60 women, including (30 women with majer depression and another 30 ones with normal conditions.), these participants were selected based on a conventional method from Rasol-Akram and nor- medical centers in spring and summer of 2014 (1393) in Shahrood, Iran. In order to analyze the data, we applied the following measuring tools: Sherink's Emotional Intelligence questionnaire, Cooper Smiths, self-esteem Inventory, Toronto Alexithymia scale-20 (TAS-20) and Beck depression Inventory (BDI) and also several identical variances (MANOVA). Based on the results, there are significant differences between depressed and normal women, specifically at the levels of emotional intelligence, self-esteem and Alexithymia (P<0.001). Considering our findings, we suggest the importance and significance of the relationship between emotional intelligence, self-esteem and Alexithymia be taken into account in explaining depression. The findings in this work could be used in prevention and treatment of the programs.