Predicting Psychological Well-Being from Thinking Styles and Alexithymia among Employees
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Objective: This study investigated the extent to which thinking styles and alexithymia predict psychological well-being among gas company employees.
Methods and Materials: In a cross-sectional survey, 128 employees of a provincial gas company in Iran were selected through convenience sampling. Participants completed three validated self-report instruments: the Thinking Styles Inventory, the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, and the 18-item Ryff Psychological Well-Being Scale. Data were analyzed in SPSS 24 using Pearson’s correlation coefficients and stepwise multiple regression; statistical significance was set at p ≤ 0.05, and all assumptions for regression analysis were checked and met.
Findings: Correlational analyses showed that judicial thinking style was positively associated with psychological well-being, whereas liberal, extroverted, hierarchical, oligarchic, and monarchic styles were negatively associated with well-being. All three alexithymia components—difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings, and externally oriented thinking—showed moderate negative correlations with psychological well-being. In the final regression model, difficulty describing feelings, liberal, local, and conservative thinking styles, difficulty identifying feelings, and externally oriented thinking together explained 39% of the variance in psychological well-being (R² = 0.39, p<0.001).
Conclusion: Both cognitive preferences (thinking styles) and emotional processing difficulties (alexithymia) are significant correlates and predictors of employees’ psychological well-being. Interventions aimed at enhancing awareness and expression of emotions, alongside better alignment between job demands and employees’ thinking styles, may help organizations foster higher levels of psychological well-being and, in turn, improve performance, engagement, and long-term staff retention across different organizational units and locations.
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