Assessment of Feigned Psychological Symptoms

Abstract

Feigned-symptom reports have become of increasing interest in recent years, in part because the results of psychological evaluations are more widely accepted in legal proceedings. This article examines several pertinent issues regarding assessment of malingering, including methodological concerns, base rates of feigning, and coaching to avoid detection. It evaluates several frequently used measures of malingering, including the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2), Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III, Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology, Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Test, and Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms (SIRS). The article provides cutting scores, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive powers at various base rates of feigning. After the SIRS, the feigning scales of the MMPI-2 have the most support for malingering detection, followed by the PAI scales. Generally, all measures reviewed showed greater negative predictive power rates; thus, a two-stage sequential process for malingering detection is discussed.

Assessment of personality and psychopathology with self-report inventories.

“…Some personality assessment measures include procedures that detect response sets whereas others do not. Contemporary personality scales address response sets differently, and psychologists need to take into consideration their proven capability of identifying deviant responding (see Arbisi, & Butcher, 2004;Berry, Sollman, Schipper, Clark, & Shandera, 2009;Pope, Butcher, & Seelen, 2006).…”

DSM-5 and Malingering: a Modest Proposal

“…Additionally dedicated instruments validated for this purpose include the SIRS and the Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Test. The varying operating characteristics of these instruments and scales are reviewed by Berry et al (2008). Thus, using appropriate methods, it is possible to achieve reliable and valid identification of false psychiatric symptom reports.…”

Are exaggerated health complaints continuous or categorical? A taxometric analysis of the Health Problem Overstatement Scale.

“…A significant minority of individuals undergoing psychological or neuropsychological evaluations in compensation-seeking circumstances have been shown to feign symptoms and deficits (Berry, Sollman, Schipper, Clark, & Shandera, in press). This phenomenon has been documented in surveys of forensic clinicians as well as in reports on consecutively sampled evaluees administered objective and well-validated tests of feigned symptomatology.…”