The Detection of Invalid Responses Using the Dissociative Experiences Scale-V (DES-V)

Area of Science:

• Psychological assessment
• Clinical psychology
• Psychometrics

Background:

• The Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) is a key measure for dissociation but lacks a validity scale.
• Previous work created the DES-V, identifying atypicality items as promising for detecting feigning.
• Limitations included a homogeneous clinical sample and potential need for item refinement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To refine the DES-V by improving atypical items with expert input.
• To enhance the scale's ability to differentiate honest from feigning respondents across diverse samples.
• To increase the precision of validity assessment for online research.

Main Methods:

• Dissociation experts revised atypical items for believability without indicating actual symptoms.
• A clinical sample with various dissociative disorders was added to an online sample.
• Eight data cleaning techniques were applied to the online sample; all groups completed assessments.

Main Results:

• The revised atypicality scale effectively discriminated between honest (online/clinical) and feigning groups.
• Feigning participants scored significantly higher on atypicality than honest participants.
• The revised DES-V showed improved predictive accuracy over the original DES-V for identifying feigning.

Conclusions:

• The refined DES-V offers a more precise tool for validating online research samples.
• Improved atypicality items enhance the detection of response bias in dissociation research.
• This validated scale is crucial given the increasing use of online data collection.