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MMPI-2 scale F(p) and symptom feigning: scale refinement.

C S Gass1, C A Luis

  • 1Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Miami, Florida, USA.

Assessment
|January 12, 2002
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

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The F(p) scale of the MMPI-2 may inflate scores due to four items measuring defensiveness, not exaggeration. Removing these items improves the scale's accuracy in detecting symptom exaggeration in clinical settings.

Area of Science:

  • Psychological assessment
  • Clinical psychology
  • Psychometrics

Background:

  • The F(p) scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) is utilized to detect symptom exaggeration and malingering.
  • Four items within the F(p) scale also load on the Lie (L) scale, traditionally associated with defensiveness and underreporting.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate whether the four MMPI-2 L scale items within the F(p) scale measure defensiveness rather than exaggeration.
  • To determine if removing these four items enhances the F(p) scale's effectiveness in assessing symptom exaggeration.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of 150 neuropsychological referrals.
  • Testing hypotheses regarding the L scale items' contribution to F(p) scores.
  • Utilizing the K scale as a criterion for problem disclosure levels.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

  • The four L scale items were found to be associated with defensiveness, not symptom exaggeration.
  • Endorsement of these items artifactually inflated F(p) scores by an average of 9.5 T-score points in one-third of patients.
  • A modified F(p) scale, excluding the four L items, demonstrated superior utility in measuring symptom exaggeration (r = -.46) compared to the original F(p) scale (r = -.36).

Conclusions:

  • The four MMPI-2 L scale items should be reconsidered for inclusion in the F(p) scale due to their association with defensiveness.
  • A shortened F(p) scale, omitting these items, offers improved accuracy for detecting symptom exaggeration in clinical and forensic evaluations.