MCMI-III Flashcards
Based on
Millon’s(1990) evolutionary theory of personality disorders
- DIMENSIONAL model
Millon believed that personality disorders
- regard the entire matrix of the person
- are intrinsically multioperational phenomena
- are expressed across domains or perspectives
MCMI items validated
- rationally, internally, and externally
- consistent with theory
- homogeneous, internal validity
- predictive and clinical validity
Base rates
- diagnoses number of individuals equal to number that actually have disorder in normative sample
MCMI-III scales standardized as base rates (BR) scores
range from 0 to 115
BR scores =/> 75
indicate presence of clinically significant personality style or syndrome, i.e., met criteria for disorder
BR scores =/> 85 indicate
particular personality style or syndrome is prominent for the individual; i.e., primary problem
BR score of 60
represents the median for all patients
Scale categories
- Modifying indices
- Clinical personality patterns
- Severe personality patterns
- Clinical syndromes
- Severe syndromes
Modifying indices
Provide a validity indicator and clues to test taking attitudes including careless responding, over-reporting, under-reporting, and social desirability
Clinical personality patterns
Corresponds to 11 DSM-IV personality disorder diagnosis and assess dimensions of construct as defined by Million’s theory of personality
Severe personality problems
Represents more severe levels of pathology
Clinical syndromes
Axis I syndromes viewed as distortions of client’s basis personality patterns.
- Seen as reactive and often precipitated by external events and are of more brief duration than the personality disorders
Severe clinical syndromes
More severe syndromes than the clinical syndromes
Steps to interpretation
- Determine profile validity
- Interpret the Personality Disorder Scales
- Interpret Clinical Syndrome Scales
- Review noteworthy responses
- Provide diagnostic impressions
- Write a personality description
- Treatment implications and
- Recommendations
Determine profile validity
Scale V (Validity Index) Scale X (Disclosure Index) Scale Y - (Desirability Index) Scale Z (Debasement Index)
Scale V
Validity index
Items 65, 110, 157
2 or more true responses - invalid profile
1 true response - “questionable validity”
Scale X
Disclosure index
Validity
If raw score is below 34 - invalid and defensive underreporting
If raw score is above 178 - invalid and exaggeration of symptoms
Scale Y
Defensiveness index
- Measure of defensive responding
- BR above 75 (not necessarily invalid) indicates presenting self in an overly positive, moral, emotionally stable, gregarious manner – “faking good”
- the higher the score, the more the person is concealing
Scale Z
Debasement index
- Opposite from Desirability Index
- BR above 75 - self description is negative, pathological
- Above 85 - could be a cry for help
Severe personality patterns scales (3)
- Scale S (Schizotypal)
- Scale C (Borderline)
- Scale P (paranoid)
Severe personality pathology
personality styles reflect deeply etched and pervasive characteristics of functioning that perpetuate and aggravate everyday difficulties
Clinical personality patterns (11)
- Axis II prototypes
1. Scale 1 (Schizoid)
2. Scale 2A: Avoidant
3. Scale 2B: Depressive
4. Scale 3 (Dependent)
5. Scale 4 (Histrionic)
6. Scale 5 (Narcissistic)
7. Scale 6A (Antisocial)
8. Scale 6B (Aggressive-Sadistic)
9. Scale 7 (Compulsive)
10. Scale 8A (Passive- Aggressive- Negativistic)
11. Scale 8B (Self-Defeating-Masochistic)
Clinical syndromes
- Axis I Scale A (Anxiety) Scale H (Somatoform) Scale N (Bipolar – Manic) Scale D (Dysthmia) Scale B (Alcohol Dependence) Scale T (Drug Dependence) Scale R (PTSD)
