The research project „Lexithymia – a Language for Emotions. A Social Sciences Study to research Lexithymia as a constitutive element of the development of social competence“ tries to answer the question to what extent the ability to read emotions can be seen as a basic constituent of social competence. The term used to describe this ability – „Lexithymia“ – derives from the term „Alexithymia“ that has been established in the field of psychological research to denote the respective disability to read emotions of oneself and others.
The investigation was conducted at three Austrian and two Nicaraguan primary schools with 8 year old children. In order to conduct the research the team developed tools that can be used to measure the individual competence of Lexithymia in 8 year olds and the use of this competence in a social context. After a long period of developing and reviewing various tools two of those have proved to be particularly potent to measure these competences: „Bilder Legen“ („place images“) and „Emotion Acting“. While in „Bilder Legen“ the children were encouraged to match emotional notions and respective images portraying emotional situations, in „Emotion Acting“ children acted out a chosen emotion while three colleagues tried to guess that emotion right. The results revealed that in fact all children the team worked with were able to cope with the given tasks. This finding led to the conclusion that they all possess the capacity of Lexithymia. On the other hand the research team observed remarkable differences in the children’s performance concerning the social component of „Emotion Acting“. While the individual ability to read emotions has proven to exist in every person at the age of 8 the personal application of this competence seems to depend on its recognition in the children’s respective social context.
The research’s findings implicate that it is not necessarily important to focus on the individual training of Lexithymia in a person to foster social competence but rather to stimulate an attitude that recognises the importance of emotional competences in order to improve the social coherence of society.