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MMPI-2 Psychological Test: Controversial, but Hard to Fake

Uploaded 12/10/2012, approx. 3 minute read

My name is Sam Vaknin, and I am the author of Malignant Self-Love, Narcissism Revisited.

My name is Sam Vaknin, and I am the author of Malignant Self-Love.

It is true or false as applied to me. There are no correct answers.

The test booklet allows the diagnostician to provide a rough assessment of the patient, the basics case, based on the first 370 queries.

It is recommended, though, to administer all 567 items in order to reach a much better founded diagnosis.

Based on numerous studies, the items are arranged in scales. The responses are compared to answers provided by control subjects. The scales allow the diagnostician to identify traits and mental death problems based on this comparison.

In other words, there are no answers that are typical to a paranoid or a narcissistic or an antisocial patient. They are only responses that deviate from an overall statistical pattern and conform to the reaction patterns of other patients with similar scores.

The nature of the deviation determines the patient's traits and tendencies, but not his or her diagnosis.

The interpreted outcomes of the MMPI-2 are phrased this way.

The test results place subject X in this group of patients who, statistically speaking, reacted similarly. The test results also get subject X apart from these groups of people who, statistically speaking, reacted or responded differently to subject X.

The test results would never say subject X suffers from this or that mental health problems.

There are three validity scales and ten clinical ones in the original MMPI-2, but other scholars derived hundreds of additional scales.

For instance, to helping diagnosing personality disorders, most diagnosticians use either the MMPI-1 with the Maury-Wright-Bashfield scales in conjunction with the Wiggins-Cannon-Onston scales, or, more rarely, the MMPI-2 updated to include the Colligan-Maury-Offron scales.

The validity scales indicate whether the patient responded truthfully and accurately or was trying to manipulate the test.

They pick up patterns. Some patients want to appear normal. Some patients want to appear abnormal and consistently choose what they believe are the correct answers to reflect their choices.

And this kind of behavior triggers the validity scales.

These are so sensitive that they can indicate whether the subject lost his or her place on the answer sheet and was responding randomly.

The validity scales also alert the diagnosticians to problems in reading comprehension and other inconsistencies in response patterns of the subject.

The clinical scales are dimensional, though not multiphasic, as the test misleading name implies.

Clinical scales measure hypochondriacids, depression, hysteria, psychopathic deviation, masculinity, femininity, paranoia, schizophrenia, schizophrenia, hypomania, and social introversion. They also scale for alcoholism, post-traumatic stress disorder, and a variety of personality disorders.

The interpretation of the MMPI-2 is now fully computerized. A computer is fed with a patient's sex, age, educational level, and marital status, and does the rest.

Still, many scholars have criticized the scoring of the MMPI-2, and it is a hotly debated issue.

Thank you.

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Is S/he a Narcissist? Use These TESTS! (Compilation)

Professor Sam Vaknin discusses various personality assessment tests in this section. He talks about the three R's test, which helps determine whether someone is a full-fledged narcissist or merely narcissistic. He also discusses the characteristics that attract narcissists to potential partners and briefly touches on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality assessment test. He then discusses the weaknesses and criticisms of the MBTI and Jungian theory. Finally, he talks about the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2), the Psychopathy Checklist Revised Test (PCLR), and the Rorschach ink blots test, and notes that personality assessment is more of an art form than a science.


Psychological Tests and Structured Interviews: Introduction

Personality assessment is an art form that uses psychological tests and structured interviews to render it as objective and standardized as possible. Most tests restrict the repertory of permitted answers, and the scoring and keying of results are automated. Interpretation is arguably more important than data gathering, and most practitioners administer a battery of tests and structured interviews. Projective tests are far less structured and thus a lot more ambiguous, and the scoring is done exclusively by humans and involves judgment and bias.


PCL-R (Psychopathy Checklist Revised) Test

The Psychopathy Checklist Revised Test (PCLR) is a structured interview that is used to rate symptoms common among psychopaths in forensic populations. The test is designed to cover the major psychopathic traits and behaviors, but it has very dubious, predictive and retrodictive power. The PCLR is based on a structured interview and collateral data gathered from family, friends, and colleagues and from documents. The hope of the designers of the PCLR test is that information gathered outside the scope of a structured interview will serve to rectify any potential abuse, diagnostic bias, and manipulation by both the testee and the tester.


Rorschach's Inkblot Test

The Rorschach Ink Blots Test is a diagnostic tool developed by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach. The test uses ambiguous ink blots to provoke free associations in the test subject, and the diagnostician records the patient's responses as well as the ink blots' spatial position and orientation. The test is highly subjective and depends on the skills and training of the diagnostician and his interpretative abilities. It cannot be used to reliably diagnose patients, but it can draw attention to the patient's defenses and personal style.


Abolish Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) in DSM V?

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) is criticized for its inadequate classificatory model and diagnostic criteria, which are vague and equivocal. The DSM-5 committee proposes to abolish some personality disorders and merge them into a single diagnostic category, using a dimensional approach that reflects reality better. The DSM-5 is expected to address the longitudinal course of disorders, genetic and biological underpinnings, and effectiveness of various treatments. The DSM-5 is expected to be a significant improvement over the DSM-4 in addressing personality disorders.


Controversial P Factor Unifying Mental Illness

The P factor is a controversial concept in psychology that suggests a common denominator to all mental disorders. It challenges the traditional approach of diagnosing people based on lists of symptoms or behaviors. The debate surrounding the P factor raises questions about the usefulness of labels and the need for customized treatments. Early intervention is key to preventing severe mental illness later in life.


Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): Fortune Cookie or Reliable Test?

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a widely used and contested personality assessment test with various versions and millions of users worldwide. It is based on Jungian theory and classifies individuals into one of 16 personality types. While some studies have found the MBTI to be valid and useful, others criticize its dichotomous nature, lack of reliability, and deviation from Jung's original theory. Despite these criticisms, the MBTI remains popular and can provide insight, raise self-awareness, and help individuals understand their past experiences and relationships.


Normal Personality and Personality Disorders

Personality is a complex pattern of deeply embedded psychological characteristics that are expressed automatically in almost every area of psychological function. Personality traits are enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to and thinking about the environment in oneself that are exhibited in a wide variety of social and personal contexts. Our temperament is the biological genetic template that interacts with our environment. Our character is largely the outcome of the process of socialization, the acts and imprints and edicts of our environment and nurture, and how they work on our psyche during the formative years, 0 to 6 and in other lists. Personality disorders are dysfunctions of our entire identity, tears in the fabric of who we are.


Morally Insane Psychopath: A Brief History of Psychopaths and Antisocials

The concept of personality disorders began less than a hundred years ago, with the French psychiatrist Pinel coining the phrase "mal de son" to describe patients who lacked impulse control and were prone to outbursts of violence. The term "moral insanity" was widely used for almost a century, but physicians sought to replace it with something more objective and scientific. The diagnosis of psychopathy has been expanded to include people who harm and inconvenience themselves, as well as others. Today, most practitioners rely on either the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual or the International Classification of Diseases to diagnose personality disorders.


The Habit of Identity

Habits are reflexive and form part of our identity, but they are not our true identity. Our true identity is our personality, which is a loosely interconnected pattern of reactions to our changing environment. Personality is able to combine, recombine and permute in hundreds of unforeseeable ways, and the constancy of these vicissitudes and changes is what gives us a sense of identity. People with personality disorders cannot change and are incapable of loving and living.

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