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The construct validity of the Lees-Haley Fake Bad Scale. Does this scale measure somatic malingering and feigned

James N Butcher1, Paul A Arbisi, Mera M Atlis

  • 1Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota, 75 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. butch001@tc.umn.edu

Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology : the Official Journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists
|November 1, 2003
PubMed

Insights

The Fake Bad Scale (FBS) may inaccurately identify individuals as malingerers, often flagging those with genuine distress. This scale is not recommended for clinical or disability evaluations due to high false positive rates.

Area of Science:

  • Psychological assessment
  • Psychometrics
  • Forensic psychology

Background:

  • The Fake Bad Scale (FBS) was developed using MMPI-2 items to detect faking of physical complaints in personal injury cases.
  • Limited psychometric data exists for the FBS, necessitating further investigation into its validity and reliability.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine the psychometric properties of the FBS.
  • To evaluate the FBS's effectiveness in identifying malingering across diverse clinical and forensic populations.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of MMPI-2 profiles from six distinct samples: psychiatric inpatient, correctional facility, chronic pain program, general medical, VA hospital inpatient, and personal injury litigation.
  • Correlational analyses were performed between FBS scores and MMPI-2 validity, clinical, and content scales.

Main Results:

  • The FBS showed positive correlations with most MMPI-2 raw scores, particularly Hs, D, Hy, HEA, and DEP.
  • Using a cutoff of 26, the FBS classified between 2.4% and 30.6% of individuals as malingerers, with higher rates in women and personal injury samples.
  • The FBS appears to measure general maladjustment and somatic complaints more than actual malingering, exhibiting unacceptably high false positive rates.

Conclusions:

  • The FBS is not a reliable measure for detecting malingering.
  • The scale's high false positive rate, especially in psychiatric settings, risks misclassifying individuals with genuine psychological distress.
  • The FBS should not be utilized in clinical settings or for disability evaluations to assess malingering.

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