MMPI Validity Scales Flashcards
Frequency Scale “F”
■ Very good scale: tendency to respond in unusual manner, i.e. the degree to which responses differ from normative population.
● Items to which 90% of standardization group responded in opposite directions
■ Reflects a broad range of content that suggests deviant behavior in an obvious way, so its easy to deny or overclaim.
Less than 3% of population over F=12, most should be 3-5
Scores reflect answers that less than 10% of people answer in that direction
*no theoretical implication, just unusual
Expect F=4, double digits just pathology
The scale works so well, convicts can’t beat it
High F
Elevated F could be many things: ● Faking bad (malingering) ● Random responding (reading issues) ● Keying off by one point (answer doesn’t fit the question) ● Miscoring by the clinician ● General maladjustment ● Cries for help ● High psychopathology (least likely)
6-10: Neurotics and character disorders, maybe in-tact psychotics, good sealed-over paranoid (perhaps Nixon)
○ normal individuals responding w/ usual care and understanding will not obtain above a 6.
○ 10 is a fair amount of unusual behaviors and validity is suspicious, some even draw the line at 6
11-15: very severe neurotic, psychotic individual
● 12-16 ○ Independent thinking normal ○ Motivated to appear weak/incompetent ○ Reflection of sadistic/aggressive tendencies ● Rare on inpatient facilities
16-20: psychotic
21+: severe psychopathology or random responding/clerical error
Could even be as high as a 25 on F
Higher than that, likely disturbed/confused or test is invalid
“Crazy is 18, too crazy is 28”
■ many items also scored on psychotic tetrad scales (6,7,8,9), so F could be assoc with inc psychotic scale elevations
F: “High Normals”
○ Critical
○ Complaining
○ Sarcastic
○ Doubtful
○ Intentionally unconventional
○ Bohemian/Progressive
○ Verbal thinkers
○ Most normals score high by answering unusual parental numbers
■ “My father was a good man”
F & K
F low, K high: fake good (along with F-K neg elevation)
F high, K low: fake bad
*High F with low K may be psychotic faking neurotic
High F with scores seeming too low on 1, 2, 3, and maybe 7, and too high on 6, 8, and 9 may be a neurotic faking psychotic
Low F
● So common hard to say anything
Less than 4
○ Sincere, calm, unpretentious, dependable, honest, unpretentious, cooperative, wide-range of recreational interests
○ Could be conventional, inhibited
0-2 is low.
● Scoring too low also not good→ suggests conformity, lack of individuality, overcontrolled, inhibited, dull, not a risk taker, conventional, boring, dull. Want a little F, but not too much!
Lie scale: “L”
Validity indicator to detect intentional efforts to under-report problems and present self in positive light, aka “fake good.” Anything answered false gives you one point on L scale.
Items that are obviously false unless you are
a) Defensive, faking good, trying to convey image that is inaccurate
OR
b) This is who they are really are→ not lying, simply naive, or rigid, moralistic, hung up on everything. Even if faking good, doing it in unsophisticated and naive way.
Items represent socially virtuous behaviors that may be desirable for many people but are rarely true for most people.
● Mean raw is 2, 3
● Mode is 0
● 1-2 may show perfectionism show perfectionism.
High L
4 is high (especially among college students)
○ really start to question this at 4 and become comfortable questioning it at 5.
6+ is lying
People who score high are:
● Highly conventional
● Strict moral code
● Slow, tense, passive and insecure
● Naive about psychological testing
● Lacking insight
● Limited intelligence/lower education
○ inversely correlated with intelligence.
● Low SES
○ item content is fairly obvious, and sophisticated individuals rarely elevate the scale b/c it would be unconvincing.
Low L
Sarcastic
Cynical
Intelligent
Comfortable admitting common faults
Possibly exhibitionistic
Likely test-wise or knowledgeable with psychology
High L and other scales
High L likely high 3 (hysteria)
○ claim superior virtue/righteous
High L likely high 6 (paranoid)
○ rigidity; black and white thinking
High L likely high 4 (psychopathic deviate)
○ Psychopaths often lie naively. For example, mark off “I have never been in trouble because of my behavior.”
K Scale
Correction Scale: developed to reduce false negatives by assessing attitude of denying psychiatric problems
Fake bad: self-critical and overly disclosing
Fake good: defensive and over-portray virtues
*Interpret scale on a continuum: willingness to be open to admitting problems, including over-declaration to minimizing problems or being closed to admitting any at all.
We add differential proportions of K scores to 5 clinical scales to improve ability of scales to differentiate between normals and criterion groups. Scales that are easy to fake add K. More subtle scales don’t need the K correction (easiest scales to fake are 7 and 8 and have big K corrections).
may be inappropriate altogether for normals.
■ Elevated K assoc w/ lower ranging clinical scale scores and converse true for lower K.
High K
High Ego Strength
○ Not necessarily faking, actually believe this
○ Actually believe you are wonderful
OR
Lying and Denying Pathology
Denial of the Following: ● Schizophrenia ● Cynicism ● Euphoria ● Hostility ● Tendencies to Worry ● Family problems
Low K
Poor self-concept
May be exhibitionistic
K Correlations
K and Hysteria
○ think highly of themselves; very into appearance; socially appropriate, etc.
Socio-economic status
○ Success and thinking highly of themselves.
Correlation with measures of good adjustment
○ e.g. control and coping
○ could mean well-functioning person who is in control and has a life well-managed
K score ranges
O’Brien’s Cutoffs:
○ low: 0-10, moderate 11-19, high 20-30
Cutoffs in the book:
Very low (7-):
○ check other validity for intentional exaggeration.
○ w/ clinical elevations, severe disturbance w/ inability to modulate feelings and behaviors.
Low (8-13):
○ poor self-concept, compromised coping, low emotional/behavioral control
○ low esteem, self-critical, low confidence.
○ could be a cry for help.
Normal elevation (14-18): ○ coping ability w/ balance of emotional spontaneity and constraint.
Moderate elevation (19-22): ○ no clinical elevation: independent, ingenious, good mental health, in control and life well managed ○ clinical elevation: still in control, coping and functioning despite
High (23+):
○ clinical populations: extremely defensive and judgmental about nonconformist and unconventional behavior in others. View themselves as rational, normal, and balanced.
○ could be high SES and unconscious defensiveness.
F-K Ratio
+10 to -15 = Valid
[Use as a guideline, and don’t treat as an explicit rule]
Additional validity indicator to detect exaggerated psychopathology.
Overreporters should obtain High F+ Low K
Underreporters should obtain Low F + High K
Good at detecting malingering or faking bad (high F-K) but not as good w/ underreporting or fake good due to overlap in distributions among honest and underreporting participants.
