Attributes of the MMPI
- Key People:
- June Etta Downey
- Henry Murray
- Related Topics:
- phrenology
- Barnum Effect
- projective test
- normative measurement
- graphology
The MMPI as originally published consists of nine clinical scales (or sets of items), each scale having been found in practice to discriminate a particular clinical group, such as people suffering from schizophrenia, depression, or paranoia (see mental disorder). Each of these scales (or others produced later) was developed by determining patterns of response to the inventory that were observed to be distinctive of groups of individuals who had been psychiatrically classified by other means (e.g., by long-term observation). The responses of apparently normal subjects were compared with those of hospital patients with a particular psychiatric diagnosis—for example, with symptoms of schizophrenia. Items to which the greatest percentage of “normals” gave answers that differed from those more typically given by patients came to constitute each clinical scale.
In addition to the nine clinical scales and many specially developed scales, there are four so-called control scales on the inventory. One of these is simply the number of items placed by the subject in the “cannot say” category. The L (or lie) scale was devised to measure the tendency of the test taker to attribute socially desirable attributes to himself. In response to “I get angry sometimes” he should tend to mark false; extreme L scorers in the other direction appear to be too good, too virtuous. Another so-called F scale was included to provide a reflection of the subjects’ carelessness and confusion in taking the inventory (e.g., “Everything tastes the same” tends to be answered true by careless or confused people). More subtle than either the L or F scales is what is called the K scale. Its construction was based on the observation that some persons tend to exaggerate their symptoms because of excessive openness and frankness and may obtain high scores on the clinical scales; others may exhibit unusually low scores because of defensiveness. On the K-scale item “I think nearly anyone would tell a lie to keep out of trouble,” the defensive person is apt to answer false, giving the same response to “I certainly feel useless at times.” The K scale was designed to reduce these biasing factors; by weighting clinical-scale scores with K scores, the distorting effect of test-taking defensiveness may be reduced.
In general, it has been found that the greater the number and magnitude of one’s unusually high scores on the MMPI, the more likely it is that one is in need of psychiatric attention. Most professionals who use the device refuse to make assumptions about the factualness of the subject’s answers and about his personal interpretations of the meanings of the items. Their approach does not depend heavily on theoretical predilections and hypotheses. For this reason the inventory has proved particularly popular with those who have strong doubts about the eventual validity that many theoretical formulations will show in connection with personality measurement after they have been tested through painstaking research. The MMPI also appeals to those who demand firm experimental evidence that any personality assessment method can make valid discriminations among individuals.
In recent years there has been growing interest in actuarial personality description—that is, in personality description based on traits shared in common by groups of people. Actuarial description studies yield rules by which persons may be classified according to their personal attributes as revealed by their behaviour (on tests, for example). Computer programs are now available for diagnosing such disorders as hysteria, schizophrenia, and paranoia on the basis of typical group profiles of MMPI responses. Computerized methods for integrating large amounts of personal data are not limited to this inventory and are applicable to other inventories, personality tests (e.g., inkblots), and life-history information. Computerized classification of MMPI profiles, however, has been explored most intensively.
Comparison of the MMPI and CPI
The MMPI has been considered in some detail here because of its wide usage and because it illustrates a number of important problems confronting those who attempt to assess personality characteristics. Many other omnibus personality inventories are also used in applied settings and in research. The California Psychological Inventory (CPI), for example, is keyed for several personality variables that include sociability, self-control, flexibility, and tolerance. Unlike the MMPI, it was developed specifically for use with “normal” groups of people. Whereas the judgments of experts (usually psychiatric workers) were used in categorizing subjects given the MMPI during the early item-writing phase of its development, nominations by peers (such as respondents or friends) of the subjects were relied upon in work with the CPI. Its technical development has been evaluated by test authorities to be of high order, in part because its developers profited from lessons learned in the construction and use of the MMPI. It also provides measures of response sets and has been subjected to considerable research study.
From time to time, most personality inventories are revised for a variety of reasons, including the need to take account of cultural and social changes and to improve them. For example, a revision of the CPI was published in 1987. In the revision, the inventory itself was modified to improve clarity, update content, and delete items that might be objectionable to some respondents. Because the item pool remained largely unchanged, data from the original samples were used in computing norms and in evaluating reliability and validity for new scales and new composite scores. The descriptions of high and low scorers on each scale have been refined and sharpened, and correlations of scale scores with other personality tests have been reported.
Other self-report techniques
Beyond personality inventories, there are other self-report approaches to personality measurement available for research and applied purposes. Mention was made earlier of the use of rating scales. The rating-scale technique permits quantification of an individual’s reactions to himself, to others, and, in fact, to any object or concept in terms of a standard set of semantic (word) polarities such as “hot-cold” or “good-bad.” It is a general method for assessing the meanings of these semantic concepts to individuals.
Another method of self-report called the Q-sort is devised for problems similar to those for which rating scales are used. In a Q-sort a person is given a set of sentences, phrases, or words (usually presented individually on cards) and is asked to use them to describe himself (as he thinks he is or as he would like to be) or someone else. This description is carried out by having the subject sort the items on the cards in terms of their degree of relevance so that they can be distributed along what amounts to a rating scale. Examples of descriptive items that might be included in a Q-sort are “worries a lot,” “works hard,” and “is cheerful.”
Typical paper-and-pencil instruments such as personality inventories involve verbal stimuli (words) intended to call forth designated types of responses from the individual. There are clearly stated ground rules under which he makes his responses. Paper-and-pencil devices are relatively easy and economical to administer and can be scored accurately and reliably by relatively inexperienced clerical workers. They are generally regarded by professional personality evaluators as especially valuable assessment tools in screening large numbers of people, as in military or industrial personnel selection. Assessment specialists do not assume that self-reports are accurate indicators of personality traits. They are accepted, rather, as samples of behaviour for which validity in predicting one’s everyday activities or traits must be established empirically (i.e., by direct observation or experiment). Paper-and-pencil techniques have moved from their early stage of assumed (face) validity to more advanced notions in which improvements in conceptualization and methodology are clearly recognized as basic to the determination of empirical validity.
Projective techniques
One group of assessment specialists believes that the more freedom people have in picking their responses, the more meaningful the description and classification that can be obtained. Because personality inventories do not permit much freedom of choice, some researchers and clinicians prefer to use projective techniques, in which a person is shown ambiguous stimuli (such as shapes or pictures) and asked to interpret them in some way. (Such stimuli allow relative freedom in projecting one’s own interests and feelings into them, reacting in any way that seems appropriate.) Projective techniques are believed to be sensitive to unconscious dimensions of personality. Defense mechanisms, latent impulses, and anxieties have all been inferred from data gathered in projective situations.
Personality inventories and projective techniques do have some elements in common; inkblots, for example, are ambiguous, but so also are many of the statements on inventories such as the MMPI. These techniques differ in that the subject is given substantially free rein in responding to projective stimuli rather than merely answering true or false, for example. Another similarity between projective and questionnaire or inventory approaches is that all involve the use of relatively standardized testing situations.
While projective techniques are often lumped together as one general methodology, in actual practice there are several approaches to assessment from a projective point of view. Although projective techniques share the common characteristic that they permit the subject wide latitude in responding, they still may be distinguished broadly as follows: (1) associative techniques, in which the subject is asked to react to words, to inkblots, or to other stimuli with the first associated thoughts that come to mind; (2) construction techniques, in which the subject is asked to create something—for example, make up a story or draw a self-portrait; (3) completion techniques, in which the subject is asked to finish a partially developed stimulus, such as adding the last words to an incomplete sentence; (4) choice or ordering techniques, in which the subject is asked to choose from among or to give some orderly sequence to stimuli—for example, to choose from or arrange a set of pictures or inkblots; (5) expressive techniques, in which the subject is asked to use free expression in some manner, such as in finger painting.
Hidden personality defense mechanisms, latent emotional impulses, and inner anxieties all have been attributed to test takers by making theoretical inferences from data gathered as they responded in projective situations. While projective stimuli are ambiguous, they are usually administered under fairly standardized conditions. Quantitative (numerical) measures can be derived from subjects’ responses to them. These include the number of responses one makes to a series of inkblots and the number of responses to the blots in which the subject perceives what seem to him to be moving animals.
The Rorschach Inkblot Test
The Rorschach inkblots were developed by a Swiss psychiatrist, Hermann Rorschach, in an effort to reduce the time required in psychiatric diagnosis. His test consists of 10 cards, half of which are in colour and half in black and white. The test is administered by showing the subject the 10 blots one at a time; the subject’s task is to describe what he sees in the blots or what they remind him of. The subject is usually told that the inkblots are not a test of the kind he took in school and that there are no right or wrong answers.
Rorschach’s work was stimulated by his interest in the relationship between perception and personality. He held that a person’s perceptual responses to inkblots could serve as clues to basic personality tendencies. Despite Rorschach’s original claims for the validity of his test, subsequent negative research findings have led many users of projective techniques to become dubious about the role assigned the inkblots in delineating relationships between perception and personality. In recent years, emphasis has tended to shift to the analysis of nuances of the subject’s social behaviour during the test and to the content of his verbal responses to the examiner—whether, for example, he seeks to obtain the assistance of the examiner in “solving” the inkblots presented to him, sees “angry lions” or “meek lambs” in the inkblots, or is apologetic or combative about his responses.
Over the years, considerable research has been carried out on Rorschach’s inkblots; important statistical problems in analyzing data gathered with projective techniques have been identified, and researchers have continued in their largely unsuccessful efforts to overcome them. There is a vast experimental literature to suggest that the Rorschach technique lacks empirical validity. Recently, researchers have sought to put the Rorschach on a sounder psychometric (mental testing) basis. New comprehensive scoring systems have been developed, and there have been improvements in standardization and norms. These developments have injected new life into the Rorschach as a psychometric instrument.
A similar method, the Holtzman Inkblot Test, has been developed in an effort to eliminate some of the statistical problems that beset the Rorschach test. It involves the administration of a series of 45 inkblots, the subject being permitted to make only one response per card. The Holtzman has the desirable feature that it provides an alternate series of 45 additional cards for use in retesting the same person.
Research with the Rorschach and Holtzman has proceeded in a number of directions; many studies have compared psychiatric patients and other groups of special interest (delinquents, underachieving students) with ostensibly normal people. Some investigators have sought to derive indexes or predictions of future behaviour from responses to inkblots and have checked, for example, to see if anxiety and hostility (as inferred from content analyses of verbal responses) are related to favourable or unfavourable response to psychotherapy. A sizable area of exploration concerns the effects of special conditions (e.g., experimentally induced anxiety or hostility) on the inkblot perceptions reported by the subject and the content of his speech.
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
There are other personality assessment devices, which, like the Rorschach, are based on the idea that an individual will project something of himself into his description of an ambiguous stimulus.
The TAT, for example, presents the subject with pictures of persons engaged in a variety of activities (e.g., someone with a violin). While the pictures leave much to one’s imagination, they are more highly specific, organized visual stimuli than are inkblots. The test consists of 30 black and white pictures and one blank card (to test imagination under very limited stimulation). The cards are presented to the subject one at a time, and he is asked to make up a story that describes each picture and that indicates the events that led to the scene and the events that will grow out of it. He is also asked to describe the thoughts and feelings of the persons in his story.
Although some content-analysis scoring systems have been developed for the TAT, attempts to score it in a standardized quantitative fashion tend to be limited to research and have been fewer than has been the case for the Rorschach. This is especially the state of affairs in applied settings in which the test is often used as a basis for conducting a kind of clinical interview; the pictures are used to elicit a sample of verbal behaviour on the basis of which inferences are drawn by the clinician.
In one popular approach, interpretation of a TAT story usually begins with an effort to determine who is the hero (i.e., to identify the character with whom the subject seems to have identified himself). The content of the stories is often analyzed in terms of a so-called need-press system. Needs are defined as the internal motivations of the hero. Press refers to environmental forces that may facilitate or interfere with the satisfaction of needs (e.g., in the story the hero may be physically attacked, frustrated by poverty, or suffer the effects of rumours being spread about him). In assessing the importance or strength of a particular inferred need or press for the individual who takes the test, special attention is given to signs of its pervasiveness and consistency in different stories. Analysis of the test may depend considerably on the subjective, personal characteristics of the evaluator, who usually seeks to interpret the subjects’ behaviour in the testing situation; the characteristics of his utterances; the emotional tone of the stories; the kinds of fantasies he offers; the outcomes of the stories; and the conscious and unconscious needs speculatively inferred from the stories.
Word-association techniques
The list of projective approaches to personality assessment is long, one of the most venerable being the so-called word-association test. Jung used associations to groups of related words as a basis for inferring personality traits (e.g., the inferiority “complex”). Administering a word-association test is relatively uncomplicated; a list of words is presented one at a time to the subject who is asked to respond with the first word or idea that comes to mind. Many of the stimulus words may appear to be emotionally neutral (e.g., building, first, tree); of special interest are words that tend to elicit personalized reactions (e.g., mother, hit, love). The amount of time the subject takes before beginning each response and the response itself are used in efforts to analyze a word association test. The idiosyncratic, or unusual, nature of one’s word-association responses may be gauged by comparing them to standard published tables of the specific associations given by large groups of other people.
Sentence-completion techniques
The sentence-comple-tion technique may be considered a logical extension of word-association methods. In administering a sentence-completion test, the evaluator presents the subject with a series of partial sentences that he is asked to finish in his own words (e.g., “I feel upset when . . . ”; “What burns me up is . . . ”). Users of sentence-completion methods in assessing personality typically analyze them in terms of what they judge to be recurring attitudes, conflicts, and motives reflected in them. Such analyses, like those of TAT, contain a subjective element.
