Lecture 18

Question 1

True or False: Malingering refers to deliberately exaggerating psychological symptoms during a clinical assessment.

A. True
B. False

Answer 1

A. True

Question 2

True or False: The Clinical scales on the MMPI are commonly used to evaluate malingering.

A. True
B. False

Answer 2

B. False

Question 3

Which of the following statements about personality assessment is TRUE?

A. Reliability, validity, and utility of projective personality assessments exceed that of objective personality assessments
B. Objective personality assessments provide more freedom of response
C. Responses to objective personality assessments are assumed to reflect a person’s unconscious thoughts, urges, memories, etc.
D. Questions on objective personality assessments include a fixed set of potential responses
E. The administration and scoring of objective personality assessments is more complex and expensive than of projective personality assessments.

Answer 3

D. Questions on objective personality assessments include a fixed set of potential responses

Question 4

Which assessment strategy contains over 300 self-descriptive true/false sentences?

A. Rorschach Inkblot Test
B. Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5
C. Minnesota-Multiphasic Personality Inventory-3
D. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV
E. None of the Above

Answer 4

C. Minnesota-Multiphasic Personality Inventory-3

Question 5

True or False: The Content Scales on the MMPI were developed to identify contemporary clinical psychological phenomena

A. True
B. False

Answer 5

A. True

Question 6

An extremely high F scale score on the MMPI

A. Indicates a tendency to under-report psychological problems
B. Indicates a tendency to respond randomly
C. Indicates a tendency to over-report psychological problems
D. Indicates a tendency to respond either true or false much more of the time
E. None of the above

Answer 6

C. Indicates a tendency to over-report psychological problems

Question 7

Using a large sample of largely Caucasian Minnesota farmers as a normative sample for the first version of the MMPI reduced its __________

A. Test-retest reliability
B. interrater reliability
C. Internal consistency
D. External validity
E. Internal validity

Answer 7

D. External validity

Question 8

The validity scale profile below for the MMPI suggests that the respondent is

A. Under-reporting psychological problems
B. Responding randomly
C. Over-reporting psychological problems
D. Responding either true or false much more of the time
E. None of the above

Answer 8

A. Under-reporting psychological problems

Question 9

Which of the following statements about the Empirical Approach to the construction of the MMPI is TRUE?

A. This approach was used to develop the second version of MMPI
B. Items were included only if responses discriminated between clinical and control groups
C. This approach has high content validity
D. This is a highly theoretical approach
E. None of the above

Answer 9

B. Items were included only if responses discriminated between clinical and control groups

Question 10

The second version of the MMPI

A. Used a less externally valid normative sample
B. Developed new items using a Theoretical Approach
C. Showed greater content validity
D. B and C
E. A, B, and C

Answer 10

D. B and C

Question 11

A T score greater than __________ is of potential interest on the MMPI

A. 30 or 40
B. 40 or 50
C. 50 or 60
D. 60 or 70
E. 70 or 80

Answer 11

E. 70 or 80

Question 12

Which of the following statements about objective personality assessments is FALSE?

A. Standardization is high
B. Questions can be misinterpreted
C. Responses can be faked
D. Administration and scoring are simple
E. None of the above

Answer 12

E. None of the above

Question 13

The L scale on the MMPI

A. Measures the tendency to under-report psychological problems
B. Measures the tendency to respond randomly
C. Measures the tendency to over-report psychological problems
D. Measures the tendency to respond either true or false much more of the time
E. None of the Above

Answer 13

A. Measures the tendency to under-report psychological problems

Question 14

Which of the following statements about projective personality assessments is FALSE?

A. Reliability and validity are generally excellent
B. There is more freedom of response than on objective personality assessments
C. Administration and scoring are complex
D. It is harder to misrepresent yourself that on objective personality assessments
E. None of the above

Answer 14

A. Reliability and validity are generally excellent

Question 15

According to the study discussed in class, which validity scale(s) best detected faked depression on the MMPI-2?

A. L scale
B. F scale
C. K scale
D. L and F scales
E. L, F, and K scales

Answer 15

B. F scale

Question 16

Which of the following statements about the MMPI is FALSE?

A. Reliability is high
B. It is possible to detect untruthful responses
C. Predictive validity is low
D. Concurrent validity is high
E. It is very long

Answer 16

C. Predictive validity is low

Question 17

While the current DSM-5 presentation of personality disorders treats personality pathology as __________, the hybrid model in the appendix attempts to emphasize an additional role for the _________ aspects of personality pathology

A. Categorical; Dimensional
B. Dimensional; Categorical
C. Empirically-driven; Theoretical
D. Complex; Simpler
E. Interchangeable; True

Answer 17

A. Categorical; Dimensional

Question 18

True or False: Personality disorders tend to come and go, rather than enduring throughout a person’s life

A. True
B. False

Answer 18

B. False

Question 19

Which of the following statements about personality disorders in DSM-5 (in the main body of the DSM) are TRUE?

A. Disordered personality is represented categorically, rather than dimensionally
B. Personality disordered behavior is typically evident in only one kind of social situation
C. Personality disorders are assumed to onset in childhood, adolescence, or early childhood
D. A and C
E. A, B, and C

Answer 19

D. A and C

Question 20

Concerns regarding personality disorders in DSM-5 (in the main body of the DSM) include which of the following?

A. There is substantial variability among persons receiving the same personality disorder diagnosis
B. Personality disorders tend to endure across a personal’s life
C. Almost everyone with significant personality psychopathology can be diagnosed with one of the 10 personality disorders.
D. Different measures of the same personality disorder correlate strongly
E. Comorbidity is limited

Answer 20

A. There is substantial validity among persons receiving the same personality disorder diagnosis

Question 21

True or False: Comorbidity among personality disorders is extensive.

A. True
B. False

Answer 21

A. True

Question 22

In what ways might some scales on the MMPI-3 provide a kind of “lie-detector” test?

Answer 22

The L and F (or FB) validity scales both detect respondent misrepresentation of difficulties. The L scale detects under-reporting of symptoms (i.e., presentation of oneself in an overly positive or favorable light), and the F (or FB) scale detects over-reporting of symptoms (i.e., exaggeration of symptoms). Thus, if respondents are trying to present themselves erroneously as not having any problems, then we would expect to see elevated L scale scores. If respondents are trying to present themselves erroneously as having many problems, then we would expect to see elevated F (or FB) scale scores.

Question 23

How do the Theoretical and Empirical Approaches to development of MMPI items differ?

Answer 23

The Theoretical Approach prioritizes content validity by including items that clearly assess the clinical phenomena of interest, whereas the Empirical Approach includes items that discriminate persons who are and are not experiencing the clinical phenomena of interest.

Question 24

Suppose that you’ve already given a full structured clinical interview to a client (the SCID), but you still are uncertain about his diagnostic picture, because he responded “I don’t know” or “it depends” to a majority of the questions that you asked . How might the MMPI be helpful under these circumstances?

Answer 24

Assuming that the client was willing to answer all the questions, the MMPI might provide an
alternative picture of the clinically significant difficulties facing him. Even though the MMPI doesn’t provide diagnoses, it gives you a good sense of the extent to which someone is struggling with depression, anxiety, paranoia, and bizarre thinking. This could be helpful for case conceptualization and treatment planning.

Question 25

Suppose that you wanted to use the Empirical Approach to develop a scale assessing Creativity. How could you use the existing MMPI-2 items to do this?

Answer 25

The Empirical Approach to scale development involves selecting items for a scale that discriminate well those with and without the characteristic of interest, such as creativity. You might ask two groups of highly creative and non-creative individuals to complete the MMPI-2. Then you would look to see which items distinguish these two groups. For example, 10% of one group might endorse “I give up too easily when discussing things with others,” whereas 40% of the other group endorse the item. You then would create a
Creativity Scale based on the items that distinguish the two groups.

Question 26

Despite the movement to a more empirically based hybrid dimensional-categorical model for personality disorders, the APA ultimately decided to exclude it from the main text of the DSM-5 and placed in the manual’s appendix. What were some of the reasons for this decision?

Answer 26

The change from a purely categorical model to a hybrid dimensional-categorical model occurred in a short period of time, making it difficult or both researchers and practitioners to fully grasp what the model was implying 2) Due to its short existence prior to DSM-5, there were very few studies to investigate the psychometric properties of the hybrid dimensional-categorical model (utility, reliability, validity, etc.). 3) Given the use of dimensionality in diagnoses, few practitioners have been trained to interpret these data. This ultimately could make it too complicated to utilize in practice.

Question 27

What are two key ways in which personality disorders differ from clinical disorders?

Answer 27

Personality disorders tend to endure throughout life and typically begin by adolescence or early adulthood. Clinical disorders tend to come and go and do not necessarily begin by early adulthood.

Question 28

How does the proposed (but rejected) personality-disorder model for DSM-5 differ from that in DSM-IV (or in the main body of DSM-5)?

Answer 28

In DSM-V and in the main body of DSM-5, personality disorders include 10 categorical disorders. In the proposed-but-rejected personality-disorder model for DSM-5, only 6 categorical disorders are included, and a dimensional diagnosis also can be made based on elevated values in at least one pathological trait domain.