Relative practical utility of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–2 Restructured Clinical Scales versus the Clinical Scales in a chronic pain patient sample

Abstract

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) Restructured Clinical (RC) Scales comprise the core of the new MMPI-2 Restructured Form. They were developed to retain the familiar clinical descriptive characteristics of the original basic scales while correcting a number of major psychometric shortcomings. The resulting scales are intended to be more unidimensional and unique, with improved convergent and discriminant validity. These improvements should be most evident in client samples where the traditional scales yield global and diffuse elevations, interpretively very challenging to the clinician. In the present study the RC Scales were compared to the traditional Clinical Scales in differentiating depressed (n = 239) versus nondepressed (n = 77) neuropsychology outpatients, all of whom experienced chronic pain, and most also reported other syndromes. Multiaxial diagnoses were assigned by practicing clinicians using a variety of data sources, including MMPI-2 Clinical Scales but not the RC Scales. Whereas both sets of scales achieved good overall classification rates of about 85%, the RC Scales did so using significantly fewer scales, yielding a more focused, efficient, and clinically useful profile. In the depressed group, 7 of the 8 basic scales (which exclude Scales 5 and 0) were clinically elevated, whereas only 2 of the 8 RC Scales were elevated (in addition to the demoralization scale RCd). These findings offer significant implications for the psychological assessment of chronic pain patients.

Prospective Comparison of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) and MMPI-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) in Predicting Treatment Outcomes Among Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain

“…Moreover, the MMPI-2 Clinical Scales evidenced subthreshold to threshold mean elevations on scales that did not reflect psychopathology commonly found in this population (Psychopathic Deviate, Paranoia, and Schizophrenia). Taken together and in line with past research (McCord & Drerup, 2011), the MMPI-2-RF RC Scales appeared to evidence more interpretive utility and particularly discriminant validity than did the MMPI-2 Clinical Scales in this setting.…”

Use of Prehire Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2–Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) Police Candidate Scores to Predict Supervisor Ratings of Posthire Performance

“…We scored the MMPI-2-RF scales from MMPI-2 responses, which can be accomplished because all 338 MMPI-2-RF items are included in the MMPI-2 booklet. Past research has supported the score comparability of MMPI-2-RF scales derived from the MMPI-2 and MMPI-2-RF booklets (Tellegen & Ben-Porath, 2008-2011van der Heijden, Egger, Rossi, van der Veld, & Derksen, 2013) & Tellegen, 2008& Tellegen, -2011, yielding a final sample of 131 hired male police officers. The sample ranged in age from 20 to 46 years (M = 26.3 years, SD = 4.9), and years of education ranged from 11 to 18 (M = 14.1 years, SD = 1.6).…”

“…MMPI-2-RF. The MMPI-2-RF (Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008-2011) is a broadband self-report measure with 338 items and true-false response options. It has 51 scales, 9 of which assess protocol validity concerns, including random responding, acquiescent responding, counter-acquiescent responding, overreporting, and underreporting.…”

“…Cochrane et al (2003) surveyed police departments across the country and found that the most frequently administered psychological test was the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2), which was used in more than 70% of police officer candidate evaluations. The MMPI-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF; Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008-2011 is an updated version of the MMPI-2, which was released in 2008. Construction of the inventory began shortly after release of the Restructured Clinical (RC) scales (Tellegen et al, 2003), which are psychometrically improved measures derived from the MMPI-2 Clinical Scales that were virtually unchanged since the release of the original MMPI (Hathaway & McKinley, 1943).…”

Reliability and validity of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) in evaluations of chronic low back pain patients.

“…Relatedly, McCord and Drerup (2011) demonstrated improved interpretive utility of the RC Scales in comparison with the Clinical Scales among chronic pain patients. These authors categorized 316 chronic pain patients into depressed and nondepressed diagnostic groups.…”