The MMPI has been used extensively for the clinical assessment of deviancy among sexual offenders. In order to derive a diagnostic scale for the specific identification of male incest offenders, an item analysis, using MMPI data from offenders, compared MMPI data from a nonoffending control sample. The item analysis results were cross validated with MMPI data from a separate sample of incest offenders.Eleven MMPI items were found to be critical in discriminating male incest offenders from nonoffenders, and these items comprise the .!.£ experimental scale. On the basis of the .!.£ scale, male incest offenders evidence characterological disturbances in the form of pervasive feelings of psychological and social inadequacy.
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TO THE OFFICE OF GRADUATE STUDIES AND RESEARCH:The members of the Committee approve the thesis of Mary S. Dolan presented February 27, 1985.Hug