Assessment of global psychiatric categories: the PSI/PSI-2 and the MMPI-2-RF

The 3 Higher Order (HO) scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form and the 3 core clinical scales of the Psychological Screening Inventory/Psychological Screening Inventory-2 were developed to broadly represent the 3 traditional psychiatric categories of mental disorder: major psychiatric disorder ("psychotic"), general psychological distress ("neurotic"), and significant antisocial characteristics ("character disorder"). The present article reports 2 studies that assessed the validity of test scores from each scale for their intended purpose. Participants included 2 groups of forensic clients (n=138 and 78), college undergraduates (n=100), and previously reported data on larger groups of participants. Validity was supported in 2 ways: high loadings in confirmatory factor models based on the 3 psychiatric categories and medium to large effect sizes in discriminating between relevant disordered groups and normative groups. The tests showed comparable results. Limitations included co-morbidity in some participant groups and the relatively narrow range of psychopathology in undergraduate participants.