Evading detection on the MMPI-2: does caution produce more realistic patterns of responding?

Studies on MMPI and MMPI-2 malingering indexes often sacrifice generalizability in an attempt to control internal validity. This study improves external validity while still maintaining internal validity by providing graduate student participants with a realistic context for malingering on the MMPI-2 (n=94) and MMPI (n=30). Contextual parameters include a realistic life predicament, psychological knowledge, an incentive, the presence versus absence of a specific diagnosis, and a caution to be realistic. This study found that cautioning participants not to overexaggerate their responses significantly improves their ability to evade detection on the MMPI-2 and MMPI. Standard malingering indexes (Infrequency, F; Back Side, F, Fb; F-Correction, F-K; and Infrequency-Psychopathology, F(p)) were insufficiently sensitive in identifying simulators using common cutoff scores for these cautious simulators.     

Development and Validation of the False Disorder Score: The Focal Scale of the Inventory of Problems

Abstract

This article introduces the Inventory of Problems (IOP)—a new, computerized, 181-item tool designed to discriminate bona fide from feigned mental illness and cognitive impairment—and presents the development and validation of its focal, feigning scale, the False Disorder Score (IOP–FDS). The initial sample included (a) 211 patients and 64 offenders who took the IOP under standard conditions, and (b) 210 community volunteers and 64 offenders who feigned mental illness. We split this sample into three subsamples. The first (n?=?301) was used to select the variables to generate the IOP–FDS; the second (n?=?148) scaled the IOP–FDS into a probability score; and the third (n?=?100) tested its validity with an independent data set. In this third subsample, the IOP–FDS had sensitivity?=?.90, specificity?=?.80, and a greater area under the curve (AUC?=?.95) than the IOP–29 (.91). For 40 participants, the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) was available, too. Within this subgroup, the IOP–FDS outperformed the selected PAI validity scales (AUC?=?.99 vs. AUC ≤ .85).