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Assessing the misrepresentation of health problems
1Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, rlanyon@asu.edu
Journal of Personality Assessment
|July 5, 2003
Summary
This study developed and validated scales to detect misrepresentation in health assessments. New scales accurately identify individuals faking health problems in psychological evaluations.
Area of Science:
- Psychological assessment
- Health psychology
- Psychometrics
Background:
- Respondent misrepresentation is well-studied in psychological testing, but not in health assessments.
- Existing screening inventories lack methods to evaluate health-related misrepresentation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To empirically develop and validate scales for detecting misrepresentation in health assessments.
- To adapt existing inventories for evaluating simulated health problems.
Main Methods:
- Judges simulated misrepresentation of health problems for scale development.
- Items with differing response frequencies were selected and refined.
- Validation involved comparing scores of genuine, suspected, and actual simulators.
Main Results:
- Developed HPO scale (Psychological Screening Inventory) and HPE scale (Multidimensional Health Profile).
- Scores for individuals with genuine health problems were elevated compared to norms.
- Scores for simulators were significantly higher than for those with genuine health problems.
Conclusions:
- The developed scales effectively differentiate between genuine health issues and simulated problems.
- These scales enhance the validity of health-related psychological assessments by detecting respondent misrepresentation.