Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventories
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) was originally devised for psychiatric diagnosis. To identify the clinical scales, the psychologists contrasted item responses of psychiatric patients with item responses of control subjects. The initial version consisted of 566 items and was later revised restandardized with 567 items. The general themes of MMPI-2 include health concerns, family difficulties, marital relationships, neurological illnesses, antisocial practices, among many others. The requirement to take the test is a sixth-grade reading level. It can be completed by a test-taker in a maximum of 1.5 hours.
The clinical scales of MMPI-2 are hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, psychopathic deviation, masculinity-femininity orientation, paranoia, psychasthenia, schizophrenia, hypomania and social introversion. The first scale, hypochondriasis, measures the test-takers excessive concern over one’s own physical condition while scale 2 indicates sad feelings and hopelessness. Hysteria measures immaturity and rampant use of defence mechanisms while psychopathic deviation signifies conflicts with authority and impulsive behaviour. The scale on masculinity-femininity orientation uncovers gender interests while paranoia indicates suspicious and hostile demeanour. Psychasthenia signifies anxiety and obsessive thinking while schizophrenia suggests preference for alienation. Hypomania scale indicates extremely high energy while the last scale refers to shyness and preference for social isolation.
Aside from the ten clinical scales, the assessment also contains four validity scales referred to as Cannot Say (or ?), L scale, F scale, and K scale. The first scale refers to the total numbers unanswered or double-answered. High scores on this scale signify a reading problem, conflicts with authority, defensiveness, or indecisiveness. The second scale, L, consists of 15 statements scored in the false direction. High scores in the L scale also indicate a defensive test-taking attitude. The F scale consists of 60 items that were answered no more than 10 percent of the time, thus high scores on this scale characterize serious maladjustment. The last validity scale, K, is used to spot a subtle form of defensiveness. High scores serve as signals for defensiveness while normal scores suggest normal functioning and ego strength in the face of internal conflict.