An easily comprehensible MMPI short form for rapid assessment of illiterate patients

An abbreviation of the MMPI was constructed from a 167-item, highly comprehensible MMPI short form. Scales MF and SI were omitted, and item analyses of data from 101 illiterate patients, who had been read the 167 items, were used to shorten the other scales. Estimation equations for the resulting 79-item test were calculated on MMPI data from 200 psychiatric inpatients, and the new form was compared with the Mini-Mult in literate samples of psychiatric inpatients, psychiatric outpatients, male alcoholics, and male prisoners. Correspondence of the new abbreviated form with the full MMPI was respectable in all groups, and in comparison to the Mini-Mult, there were no strong reasons for preferring one form over the other. The new test was poorer than the Mini-Mult in predicting K and HY, but better in estimating SC. It was concluded that the abbreviation has potential usefulness with cognitively impaired patients.