Comparing the empirical validity of the standard form with two abbreviated MMPIs.

Abstract

The standard form Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and two abbreviated forms, the MMPI-168 and the Faschingbauer Abbreviated MMPI (FAM), were compared with direct measures of psychopathology obtained from the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) with psychiatric inpatients. Each patient was interviewed using the Mental Status Schedule by one rater while another rater observed this initial diagnostic interview behind a one-way mirror. Thus, each patient was rated on the BPRS by two raters to assess interrater reliability. Since MMPI scales contain more than one interpretative factor, these scales were correlated with the means of more than one BPRS symptom using multiple correlation coefficients. The multiple correlation coefficients between the BPRS ratings and the corresponding MMPI and abbreviated-form scales were significantly high and comparable. Only on Pd for females did a significant difference occur, with the FAM correlation being significantly higher. These findings suggest that these abbreviated forms are an accurate substitute for the standard-form MMPI in predicting objective measures of psychopathology.The recent development of several abbreviated forms of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) has precipitated a plethora of investigations assessing the practical utility of these instruments. The majority of these studies focused solely on comparisons with the standard MMPI of group mean data and individual profile pairs concerning validity, high points, general elevations, code-type correspondence, configural analyses, and application of various MMPIderived diagnostic rules. Of the six abbreviated MMPIs now available for clinical use, namely Kincannon's (1968) Mini-Mult, Dean's (1972) Midi-Mult, Hugo's (1971)

Scale Properties of the Holtzman Inkblots

“…The ranges for the MiniMult were somewhat more extreme. The percentages of perfect predictions of the full-form scales were similarly niuch lower than those reported by Newmark et al (1978). The percentages for FAM ranged from 5 3 % on scales F a n d Pand to 31.7% on L. For the MMPI-168 they ranged from 0.7% on $i to 24.7% on L. The Mini-Mult gave equivalent percentages.…”

“…If not, the empirically derived information, though requiring oomputer generation of scores, may still be worthy of further consideration. Newmark et al (1978). The smallest range for the FAM clinical scales was Si (10 to -10) and for the MMPi-168…”

Use of Local Norms to Improve Configural Reproducibility of an MMPI Short Form

“…In addition, Poythress and Blaney (1978) have pointed out that discordance of code-type does not necessarily mean discordance of interpretation. This has been demonstrated in empirical validity studies of short forms of the MMPI (Poythress, 1978;Newmark, Ziff, Finch, & Kendall, 1978). Therefore, while the code-types of the short form MMPI may not duplicate exactly those of the full length MMPI, the interpretative statements based on these short forms have been found to be valid.…”

Psychopathic Deviation Among Female Suburban Adolescents

“…Participants were administered the MMPI-168, an abbreviated version of the MMPI whose validity and clinical scales correlate with full-length MMPI scale scores at levels approaching the reliability of the scales themselves (Overall and Gomez-Mont, 1974;Hedlund et al, 1975;Hoffmann and Butcher, 1975). MMPI-168 scales also predict independent psychiatric ratings, as do the full-length scales (Newmark et al, 1978).…”