A Study of Malingering on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

Towards an empirical model of malingering and deception

“…First, the L scale consists of 15 items whose content represents unusually laudable behavior that is rarely seen in most people. Research on the L scale suggests that through its endorsement of unrealistically positive attributes, it may identify naive individuals attempting to respond defensively (Dahlstrom, Welsh, & Dahlstrom, 1972). It, however, may fail to identify more sophisticated subjects who apparently recognize that such blatant denial of human foibles is obvious dissimulation.…”

Response Styles as Personality Variables: A Theoretical Integration of Multivariate Research1

“…He concluded that "social desirability is associated with attempts to make a good impression on persons of authority and with a generally high level of performance both in terms of quality and quantity." : The best measures of this sort of desirable responding are unlikely to be the factorially complex lie scale~but rather, the· role-playing scales deVised, for example, by Cofer, Chance, and Judson (1949) and Wiggins (1959). Furthermore, the techniques used to construct such scales are not limited to questionnaire items.…”

“…:Etlwards also developed a measure of the tendency to respond in a socially desirable manner (the SD scale) and, along with others, found that this SD scale had extremely high correlations with certain other questionnaire measures of personality (Edwards, 1957;:Etlwards, Heathers, & Fordyce, 1960;Fordyce, 1956;Hanley, 1956). The latter scales fall into three large groups: measures of test-taking attitude, such as the 'three "validity" scales of the 1VlMPI; measures of adjustment-maladjustment, such as the Pt, Sc, and D scales of the MMPI and many scales of free anxiety; end measures of self-ideal congruence, self-acceptance, end self-esteem which have been used so often in studies of outcome in psychotherapy (Bendig, 1959(Bendig, , 1960Crowne, Stephens, & Kelly, 1961;:Etlwards, 1957;Kenny, 1956;Spilka, 1961 (1942 J andCofer, Chance, andJudson (1949). Crowne and Marlowe (1960) saw pathological implications in some of the items in the SD scale, and they returned to the lie-scale approach for their new measure of social desirability.…”

The Predictive Validity of Subtle and Obvious Empirically Derived Psychological Test Items Under Faking Conditions

“…These involve mathematical manipulations of "X" and "O" scores, as well as a separate validity scale developed by Cofer (1949). Given the demonstrated effectiveness of these methods, it is possible that subtle items may be useful in improving score accuracy under faking conditions as identified by these methods.…”