Description of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

Description of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality livestockThe Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is a well-wornized questionnaire designed to bring forth a wide variety of self-descriptions scored to give a quantitative dimension of an individuals level of emotional modification and approach toward demonstrate taking. The MMPI has been known as the leading personality inventory, most psychologists who conduct assessments as part of their clinical and consulting practice utilize this canvass. The widespread intention of this test is accredited to several features ranging from its straightforwardness in mark and administration, a straightforward response format that is essential for research design, a large event consortium, many useful purposes and functions, and many practically open correlates.Psychologists make diagnostic and treatment decisions, through MMPI, it has been employed in inpatient and outpatient mental health facilities. It has been utili se by psychologists in clinical setting to evaluate the existence of psychological offices in physical issues and to service in predicting responses to a variety of therapy and treatment.Starke R. Hathaway and J. Charnley McKinley developed the MMPI in 1939 at the university of Minnesota. It was developed initially because of their vision of an instrument that could assist in evaluating patients during routine psychiatric case workups and could precisely determine the severity of their disorders.Hathaway believed the MMPI might aid researchers in assessing the usefulness of new treatment interventions by allowing methodical matching and evaluation of the participants.The MMPI was constructed using the criterion keying method also known as the semiempirical method of inventory turn of events. (Archer, 1997) The criterion keying method is utilized by testing with two or more multitudes of participants. One assort serves as the criterion group, this group has evidence of the defi ning trait, diagnosis or characteristic that test is intended to evaluate, and the other group/groups serve as a comparison group, where there is no evidence of the characteristics or diagnosis under evaluation. Responses of the criterion and comparison group be compared, and items are then selected for inventory membership that empirically demonstrate momentous differences in response frequency. (Archer, 1997)Hathaway and McKinley began their construction of the MMPI by creating an extensive item pool from which various scales could be constructed, the item pool consisted of a variety of statements from polar sources, ranging from previously established scales of personal and social attitudes, clinical reports, case histories, psychiatric interviewing manuals and personal clinical experience. (Groth-Marnat, 1997) the result of extensive exclusion and amendment were 504 statements, these statements were balanced amid positive and ostracize wording, and were developed to tap in to a broad area of an individuals life. The 504 items were divided into twenty-five content areas. These included items related to general medical and neurological symptoms, the clinical scales ranged from hypochondriasis, depression, ferocity psychopathic deviate, paranoia, schizophrenia, etc to scales to social introversion etc.An supernumerary 55 items thought to be related to masculinity-femininity were later added, and 9 items were subsequently deleted to achieve the final pool of550 items. (Nichols, 2001)The format of the inventory was first person declarative statements, composed of basic phrasing based on contemporary word-frequency tables. The responses were limited to true, false or cannot say. (Nichols, 2001)The tribe consisted of normals(Nichols) who were selected to contrast with the pathological criterion groups (N=724) ranging from the age of 16 to 65 referred also as the Minnesota normals(Groth-Marnat, 1997), the sample was closely representative of a typical grou p of individuals from the Minnesota population, as indicated through the 1930 census.The scales were cross- validatedated by selecting a different group of normals and contrasting their responses with a new group of clinical patients so that the items and scales would be valid for differential analysis in clinical setting.Hathaway and McKinley were interested in the fact that participants amend the impression they made on the test due to different test taking positions and opinions hence the created several scales that could identify the different types and magnitudes of various test-taking attitudes which could invalidate the clinical scales. They developed four scales the cannot say scale (?) was simply the total arrive of unanswered statements If amount of questions was high it would reduce the overall validity of the MMPI profile. The lie scale (L) was developed to indicates the examinees efforts to place himself/herself morally and culturally under an favorable lighten up a c reate an favorable impression. The infrequency scale (F) is used to assess the inclination of individuals to claim highly unusual attitudes, opinions, and behaviors that are classified as an component of psychopathology. The correction scale (k) assesses the examinees degree of psychological defensiveness (Groth-Marnat, 1997) this is considered the most important validity scale.Practical evaluation of the MMPIThe MMPI can be administered to an individual who is above the age of 16, with an reasonable sixth-grade reading level. As mentioned above an individual above the age of 16 is permitted to take the test, but adolescent norms needs to be addresses. Standard instruction are given prior to the test, test instruction are given regarding the nature and purpose of the test, and what it is designed to evaluate, and how the results will be used. Administering of the MMPI can be viewed as a relatively easy undertaking, and hence many practitioners tend to overlook indispensable elemen ts that influence the participants test-taking attitude and would eventually lead to invalid results. Prior to the administration, scoring, and interpretation of results, the executive should highlight the importance and consequences of the test in a serious manner to the test-taker, often the administrators do not high light the importance of the test to belittle performance anxiety. A clear elucidation oh how the results are significant and how it is going to be used will increase cooperation.Interpretation of data is an important and vital part of the MMPI the collected is useful in supplying information virtually attitudes toward assessment, cooperation, cognitive/ideation, mood and affect, conflict areas, coping styles, diagnostic consideration and treatment testimonialThe interpretation of the scores was based on the principle that a participant attains a raw score on each scale based on the number of items that they identified in the scored direction. The raw scores are th en later converted to T scores, with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10.The interpretation of the test can be done in three ways, first using the validity indicators, this is the first step in rendering any personality profile which is establishing the validity to assure the subjects cooperativeness in taking the test. MMPI has been established as having the most comprehensive validity indicators (Goldstein, 2000) among all established personality inventories and assessments. Secondly translation results involve Configural Interpretation (code type), this is due to the intercorrelations amongst scales and also the overlap amongst the similarities of clinical syndromes, evidence has been attained indicating several MMPI scales tend to increase together, therefore, interpretations of scales should wager on the elevations of other scales in the personality profile. Third and final approach to interpreting the results is content bases interpretation. The principal followed i n the content interpretation relies on the assertion that the participant when answering test items is reacting and responding with honesty and sincerity to the MMPI. Accordingly the content of the MMPI may represent a vital source of information that cannot be amicable through empirical test-interpretation.Technical evaluationThe reliability analysis of the MMPI indicate that its has moderate levels of temporal stability and internal consistency all MMPI scales are quite reliable, with values that range from a low of .71 to a high of .84. (Groth-Marnat, 1997) many studies have reported inconsistency in almost of the scales many argue that the scales of the MMPI try instability in the test scores that are to be anticipated. This is of importly due to the psychiatric population since the effects of treatment or stabilization in a temporary crisis situation is likely to be reflected in a patients test performance. (Groth-Marnat, 1997)To cross-validate the scales, participants of the criterion and the control groups were administered the items. To qualify as cross-validated, a scale had to ramify the criterion group from the control group at a 0.5 alpha level significance.Another issue that has surface about the MMPI is about the construction of the scales. The intercorrelations between most of the scales are relatively high, which is primarily due to the extensive amount of item overlap. Occasionally, the same item will be concurrently used for the scoring of a few other scales, and hence most of the scales have a relatively high percentage of items similar to other scalesThe problems associated with the reliability and scale construction have led to hurdles and speculation on the validity of the MMPI. MMPI has been commended about its strict psychometric properties that present complications, but it has been adequately compensated by its intensifier validity studiesDevelopment of the MMPI-2 and MMPI-AProblems concerning the MMPI were mainly about the g rowing issues related to scale construction, insufficiency of a standardized sample and problems with the item pool. The original norm had myopic representation of the minorities and hence was redundant in making conclusions about and with current test-takers. In 1982, the university of Minnesota instigated a major(ip) research in effort to revise, update, improve, and restandardize the MMPI. Its main inclinations were to delete the redundant, questionable, and problematic items. Maintain the efficacy of existing validity clinical and different widely utilized scales of the test. Develop a representative sample, Develop new, rewrite norms for the MMPI and the development of new scales.The MMPI was updated and restandardized and the new version was released in 1989 46 years after the original MMPI was published. The revised MMPI-2 differs from the older MMPI in various ways the T scores that the subject obtains are usually not as deviant as those from the previous version. In addi tion, the T scores designed to produce the same range and distribution right through the established clinical scales. The practical result is that T scores of 65 or greater are considered to be in clinical scale range also the percentile distributions are consistent throughout the different type of scales. The test booklet itself contains 567 items, but the specimen has been changed so that the previously established scales (the 10 clinical and 3 validity scales) can be derived from the first 370 items. The proceeding 197 items provide different content, supplementary scales. A number of new and revised scales have been included along with new, revised, adjunctive procedures of test validity, separate measure of masculinity and femininity and 15 other additional content scales measuring unambiguous and specific personality traits and factors. (Groth-Marnat, 1997)The MMPI-2 shares a lot of psychometric property with the original MMPI. The median split-half reliability coefficients f or the MMPI and the MMPI-2 are in the .70s with some coefficients as high as .96 but others much lower. Median of the test-retest coefficients range from a low .50 to .90 when one observes the basic higher-order factor structure the MMPI and the MMPI-2 are super reliable, with coefficients running as high as .90.The MMPI and the MMPI have been criticized due to the item overlap and this issue was not confronted in the revision of the original MMPI, as the goal was to retain all the original scales. Another criticism associated with the MMPI and MMPI-2 is the imbalance in the way the items are keyed(Kaplan Saccuzzo, 2009). the MMPI and the MMPI-2 strongly emphasize the importance of taking the participants demographics into account when interpreting profiles.The MMPI-A was published for the sole interest of creating an instrument for adolescents, with a normative sample depicting the broad teenage population. This occurred because MMPI produced different scale elevations for adoles cence than for adults. This resulted in the construction of different sets of recommended norms for use with adolescent populations. To counter argue that the MMPI is too long, especially for adolescent, the MMPI-A contains 478 items, there by shortening the administration. (Groth-Marnat, 1997)Significant features of the MMPI include descriptive and diagnostic information about the personality profiles, flexible administration and scoring. The most important feature of the MMPI is its validity scales and it has been translated and published into over 20 languagesThe most needed amendment of the MMPI apparently has been a major accomplishment the majority of psychologist, researchers, and clinicians have supported its utility and practical value resulting in its rising popularity among them. The MMPI serves to assist in distinguishing the normal from abnormal groups specifically the test was designed to help aid in diagnosis and evaluation of major psychiatric or psychological disord ers.