The Assessment of Individual Personality by Projective Tests: Current Problems

The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) has been recently developed as an alternative to the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and shares some of its psychometric advantages and disadvantages with the MMPI-168, a short form of the MMPI. The current study compared the structure and utility of the MCMI and MMPI-168 for a general hospital inpatient psychiatric population. Overall, the two instruments were highly correlated and found to have conceptually similar factor structures. Empirical comparison of the factor structures indicated that construct validity is greatest for neurotic traits. Both instruments demonstrated a similar utility in predicting discharge diagnosis.