Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - Assignment Example

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Student’s name Name of School Class name and section number Teacher’s name Date Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Section I: General Information The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory if most often referred to as the MMPI. It was originally authored by Starke Hathaway, Ph.D. and J. Charnley McKinley, M.D. while they were working at the University of Minnesota Hospital in 1943. At that time, the primary purpose of the instrument was to assess the patient for a diagnostic label. The MMPI was quickly adopted as the most widely used personality assessment inventory in the country. It remained in that position until 1989 when it was revised significantly by S.R. Hathaway and J.C. McKinley and that is the edition that is available today known as the MMPI-2. Much of the research for the MMP still applies to the MMPI-2. It is published by the University of Minnesota Press and distributed by NCS Assessments. To purchase and use the test, an individual must be a licensed Psychologist and show training in the interpretation of the profile (Stein,2000). The MMPI-2 can be computer scored and a computerized interpretation is provided. The computer version interprets the test scale by scale which is not the optimal way in which to read the profile. Seasoned veterans of interpretation always look at the trends of several scales together (Graham 1993). The MMPI-2 can be used with people who are 18 years or older and who have at least an eight grade reading ability. The second edition also has recorded copies for those who are visually impaired or are deemed to have a learning disability for which the recorded format would be better. An adolescent version, published in 1992, known as the MMPI-A is also available for ages 14 through 18. Some Psychologist use it to the age of 12, however, the norms for this test begin at age 14 (Stein 2000). Section II: Test Description/ Test Content The MMPI-2 is a true or false test consisting of 567 questions. The first 370 questions of the test make up the standard scales in the test so the administrator can choose to have the patient stop the test at that point. The questions after 370 give information for supplementary scales which are not as widely normed, therefore, they are less reliable. Some therapist use the results of those scales more for reference for therapy than for diagnosis. There are 13 standard scales on the test. The first six of these scales give the Psychologist information about the validity of the rest of the scores on the test. There is a scale that tell how many of the questions were unanswered. Tests with 30 or more unanswered questions cause the test to automatically be invalid. If 10 questions are unanswered the tester can proceed with caution in interpreting the rest of the test. The rest of the validity scales include an L scale which was intended to find a deliberate attempt on the part of the patient to make themselves look good. They have found that the education level of the patient also changes this scale. People with more education seem to show more self confidence and therefore their score is higher. It is important to have this information about the patient before interpreting the profile. The K scale was included to find examinees who are attempting to deny mental health concerns or to exaggerate mental health concerns. Again this scale is effected by educational levels. Racial differences have also been noted in this scale with African Americans often scoring about 10 points higher on this scale than other groups. There is an Fb validity scale which is to detect the test takes who appears to stop paying attention in the second half of the test. Since the test is 567 questions long this can be a problem of which the interpreter needs to be aware. There are two validity scales known as the Vrin and the Trin which tell if the test takes has answered in a pattern line way means he/she likely did not read the questions. This would be like a long true false true pattern or an all true pattern or an all false pattern. This would render the results invalid. All of these validity scale only tell the examiner if he/she should continue to interpret the results of the main scales of the test. The examiner would not interpret the rest of the scales if there were too many omitted answers, if the subject answered randomly, if the subject tried to look mentally ill such as exaggerating symptoms or is the subjective were excessively defensive trying to make them self look good (Garb 2006). Finally, we get to what are called the clinical scales. These scales all tell the examiner about different aspect of an individual’s personality. Scale 1 is called hypocondriasis. This scale shows the denial or admission of good health because the person is admitting to or not admitting to physical symptoms. It is important for the examiner to know the condition of an individual medical state before interpreting this scale. This is considered a scale that show the degree of discomfort and individual is experiencing in their life (Graham 1993). The 2 scale is sometimes and indicator of the level of depression an individual is experiencing. It shows levels of guilt, pessimism, degree of self confidence and the ease with which the individual makes decisions (Graham 1993). Scale 3 is sometimes called the Hysteria scale. It shows the level of hysteria the individual feels and/or expressed during stressful situations. It also gives some indication of how well this individual takes responsibility in their life. This scale is strongly connected to educational levels, intellectual ability and social class. The higher each of these characteristics are the better an individual would be expected to deal with stress. Taking that into consideration means the examiner would react differently based on the same test score based on each individual’s background. The lower scores on this scale seems to show characteristics that indicate a distrusting of people, the lack of impulsivity and/or people who are difficult to get to know (Graham 1993). Scale 4 is known as the psychopathic deviate scale. It was developed to recognized persons with amoral personality types. This included such things as lying, stealing, sexual promiscuity and excessive drinking. It tends to show an absence of satisfaction with life, family problems and delinquency, sexual problems and difficulty with authority. People who score high on this scale tend to have difficulty incorporating the values of society into their lifestyle. One may find their behavior to be that of risk taking and likely self-centered. Low scores, however, show the opposite. They would likely be individuals who are conforming and accepting of authority (Graham 1993). Scale 5 is sometimes called the Masculinity-Femininity scale. It was originally designed in the MMPI to discover homosexuality for the military. It was not successful in this attempt but it was kept in the MMPI-2 because it does show how closely an individual buys into the cultural norms of their gender. This scale is highly connected to intelligence, education and socioeconomic class. One can see how gender norms are different in different groups of people. Again, it is important that the examiner have a history of the individual before interpreting test scores (Graham 1993). Scale 6 is Paranoia. This was developed to identify people with feelings of paranoia. This would include feelings of persecution, suspiciousness, excessive sensitivity, rigid opinions and feelings of grandeur. Score elevation often indicates psychosis (Graham 1993). Scale 7 is called the Psychasthenia Scale. Psythasthenia was a popular diagnosis when the original test was written but it is not valid today. What the scale does show is symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorders. It is considered to be a good index of psychological turmoil and discomfort. One would expect to see anxieties and fears expressed on this scale (Graham 1993). Scale 8 is called the Schizophrenia Scale. This category picks up people who have disturbing imbalances of mood, thinking or behavior. It must be remembered that this scale is sensitive to age. The younger the patient is the higher the level on the scale. This can not be interpreted as a mental health disorder. Again, the examiner must know the individual’s background to interpret the scale correctly (Graham 1993). Scale 9 is called Hypomania. It basically measures energy. It would detect elevated mood, accelerated speech or motor activity, irritability, flight of ideas and brief periods of depression. Again this is related to age with younger individuals scoring higher than older individuals and it also has a connection to race. African-Americans consistently score higher that other races (Graham). Scale 0 shows social introversion. It is the newest scale developed. It picks up tendencies to be shy, reserved or timid. Conversely it shows extroverted tendencies as well (Stein 2000). It must be noted that these scales are not intended to be interpreted in isolation. The interpreter is trained to not only understand the scales but to recognize patterns amongst the scales. This appears to be one of the problems with computer scored profiles. The computer scores each scale independently, however, the profile was not intended to be looked at from that perspective so inaccurate readings are being produced. This becomes a particular issue when major corporations use this instrument to screen prospective employees (Thurmin 2002). Often a computer written report is used just because of the sheer numbers of test given and the high price of having a mental health professional interpret each test. If a Psychologist is on staff, or hired as a consultant, this is technically legal but it is highly unethical for that Psychologist to sign off on computer generated reports (Graham, 1993). There are more than 450 supplementary scales. This group of scales was normed on far fewer subject and has varying levels of validity and reliability. It appears that these are used more for therapy purposes than for diagnostic purposes. For example, if an individual shored high on the alcohol addiction scale that information would not be used for a diagnosis so much as it would be a subject brought up in therapy and addressed in therapy as needed (Graham 2993). The MMPI-2 was normed on a broadly representative group of the United States population. 1980 Census data was used to solicit subjects and determine percentages of minorities, gender and educational levels. There were seven testing sites across the entire country. 2900 subjects were tested. The racial composition was 81% white; 12% African-American ; 3% Hispanic; 3% Native-American; and 1% Asian American. The racial percentages as well as the percentages of college educated and gender were also calculated according to the Censes data (Becker 1999). Since the norming of the test is considered representational of the United States population, the next thing to consider is if the test is reliable. This was done by comparing diagnostic outcomes with confirmed testing outcomes in patients. Colorado Springs division of the University of Colorado took 1200 mental health patients with well documented diagnoses based on the DSM-IV which is the Mental Health Diagnostic Manual. It then tested each of these patience using the MMPI-2 and had them each interpreted by five different groups of Psychologists assigning a diagnosis to each subject. 92% of the time 4 of the 5 groups of psychologists diagnosed the patient with the same diagnosis as they had officially been given based on their interpretations of the MMPI-2 results. This results are Cronenberg’s alpha of .92 correlation of the MMPI-2 with the DSM-IV. The reliability of this instrument appears to have been researched in many different ways. There is variance based on the expertise of the interpreter and the reason for which the instrument is being used. The instrument was intended to look for psychopathology and it appears to do that well. It is weak in its ability to pick out positive traits in and individual. Therefore, it is best used for the purpose for which it shows both content and face validity, detecting psychopathology (Becker 1999). Section III: Summary Evaluation and Critique The MMPI-2 is the second edition of a personal test that was developed in the 1940. It became the most widely used personality test and remains so in the United States today. It is considered to be well normed according to the break down of people by the United States Censes. It included all races, gender and educational levels proportionately and interprets the profile with race, gender and educational level considered. The test is most commonly used in a mental health setting and it was originally developed for mental health diagnostics. It appears to be reliable for that purpose when compared to the Mental Health Diagnostic Manual (DSM-IV). The problem seems to be when this test is used for something for which it was not intended. It is used as a requirement in hiring employees in some businesses and different occupations. It is used for all police and fire fighters. Since it does not do a good job of identifying positive qualities it only rules out those individuals with mental health disorders. It has gone further than that in more recent years. Several companies require this test as a means of screening employees. What the employer learns from this is if the individual has any diagnosable mental health disorders, not whether or not the individual can do the job. The big problem that goes with that is that Psychologists are very expensive so employers are using computers to interpret the test results. Computer interpretation is not valid (Graham, 2003). While companies make it legal by hiring one Psychologist to sign off on the interpretations it is highly unethical. Repeatedly the literature stated that the interpreter needed to do an interview with the examinee first so the results would be interpreted properly. Several of the scales are age, race and gender and socioeconomic sensitive therefore the interpreter of the test needs to understand the examinee’s background. It should not be used on individuals under the age of 18 or with less than an eighth grade reading level. The interpreter of the test must be a trained psychologist with training and experience in interpreting the MMPI-2. The reliability of the interpretation depends on the appropriate training of the interpreter. While this is a valuable instrument it is only useful when used for which it was designed. It becomes not only invalid and unreliable but perhaps dangerous when used for something for which it was not designed or by someone not trained to interpret it properly. References Becker, Lee. (1999). relaibility and validity. Retrieved March 20, 2007. from Colorado University website:uccs.edu. Butcher, J., Lim J., Nezami, E.(1998). MMPI-2 reliability. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 29(1) p1-28. Garb, H., (2006). The conjunction effect and clinical judgement. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology ,25(9) p 1048-1955. Graham, J., (1993). MMPI-2 assessing personality andpPsychopathology. Oxford University Press. Haasse, T., (2001). Exploring reliability variations on MMPI-2 validity scale scores. Assessment 8(4) p 391. Richmond, R. (2006). Psychological Testing. Retrieved March 20, 2007 from www.guidetopsychology.com/testing. html. Stein, M. (2000). A beginners guide to the MMPI-2. Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences. 12 (1) p114. Thurmin,F., (2002). Comparison of the MMPI and MMPI-2 among job applicants. Journal of Business and Psychology. 12 (1) p73. Read More