An Study on the Alexithymia and Body Image in the Obese,Over-Weight and Normal Waight Subjects

Obesity is one of the problems which restricted the health. In this paper, the alexithymia and body image have been studied in the obese, over-weight and normal subjects. For this purpose, 214 subjects including 73 obese, 61 over-weight and 80 normal persons were selected. The data were collected using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ). The data were analyzed by SPSS and used the MANOVA to analysis the data. Results showed that the alexithymia in the obese, over-weight and normal groups have not a significant difference. Also, there was a significant difference between groups in the body image in its sub-scale including appearance evaluation, fitness evaluation, fitness orientation, subjective weight and body areas satisfaction. On the other hand, there was no significant difference in appearance orientation sub-scale. There was no a significant difference between groups in the alexithymia variable. It is explained that alexithymia is an independent personality trait which has not relative with appearance and body shape. There was a significant difference in the groups in the body image due to body shape of the obese subjects.