New Measures for Assessing Alcohol and Drug Abuse With the MMPI-2: The APS and AAS

Abstract

We introduce two new scales for assessing substance abuse problems with the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2): the Addiction Potential Scale (APS), a 39-item empirically derived scale, developed by contrasting the responses of a large residential substance abuse sample with responses from both normative and psychiatric control groups; and the Addiction Acknowledgement Scale (AAS), a 13-item face-valid scale, constructed rationally and with attention to internal consistency. Both new scales are shown to discriminate well between groups and substantially better than other selected substance abuse scales. Covariation between the scales and joint effectiveness are examined. Finally, limitations for their practical utility are expressed, and considerations for future research are identified.

Psychological Predictors of Problem Mobile Phone Use

“…Another suitable indicator of the MPPUS construct validity is to determine its relationship with an already established measure of addiction. For this purpose, the MMPI-2 Addiction Potential Scale, 59 which is currently used to measure the potential for substance abuse and alcoholism, will be correlated with the MPPUS.…”

Relationship Between Hardiness and Addiction Potential in Medical Students

“…A four-point Likert scale ranging from completely disagree (0) to completely agree (3) was applied, with the possible total scores ranging from 0 to 108. A higher score indicates higher desire to addiction (24). Upon examining the criterion validity of the APS, Zargar et al (2008) found that it could differentiate well between addicts and non-addicts (22).…”

The Association Between Islamic Lifestyle and Addiction Potential Among Adolescents

“…We estimated Cronbach α at 0.88. Weed and Butcher in 1992. This questionnaire was standardized in Iran by Zargar (2006).…”

“…Criterion validity evaluation showed that the scale differentiated very well between addicts and nonaddicts. The construct validity of the scale was calculated at 0.45 through correlating it with the symptom checklist (SCL-25), which was significant (Weed, Butcher, McKenna, & Ben-Porath, 1992). The validity of the scale was calculated with Cronbach α and was estimated at 0.90, which was desirable (Zargar, Najarian, & Naami, 2008).…”