Trying to beat the system: Misuse of the Internet to assist in avoiding the detection of psychological symptom dissimulation.

Abstract

Although the Internet may be beneficial to clinical practice, its potential for misuse cannot be overlooked. The current probe identified Internet Web sites that contained information that violated the test security of psychological assessment instruments. Five individuals, using multiple search engines, conducted Internet searches to evaluate samples of Web sites. Sites were classified into 1 of 3 levels according to the degree of threat they posed to test security. A small number (2-5%) appeared to be a direct threat to test security. The findings are discussed and recommendations for promoting more ethical use of the Internet are made.

Symptom Validity Testing in Claimants with Alleged Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Comparing the Morel Emotional Numbing Test, the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology, and the Word Memory Test

“…The use of multiple methods for assessing possible response distortion is necessary also because claimants may have been coached or prepared themselves through the Internet to cope with the experts' approaches to detect deception (Ruiz et al 2002). The employment of sophisti- cated methods to reveal negative response bias and knowledge that such techniques exist may in turn result in claimants being increasingly better prepared by their lawyers.…”

Detection of inadequate effort on the California Verbal Learning Test-Second edition: Forced choice recognition and critical item analysis

“…Base rates for inadequate effort among litigating populations, however, have been estimated to range from 8.5 to 14% (Frederick et al, 1994), 18 to 33% (Binder, 1993), 40% (Larrabee, 2003), and as high as 64% (Heaton et al, 1978), with a survey of clinicians' estimates of inadequate effort ranging from 19 to 30% (Mittenberg et al, 2002) To address the problem of inadequate effort, numerous freestanding tests have been developed specifically to detect inadequate effort: the Rey 15-Item Test (Arnett et al, 1995;Lee et al, 1992), the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM; Tombaugh, 1996), the Validity Indicator Profile (VIP; Frederick, 1997), the Computerized Assessment of Response Bias (CARB: Conder et al, 1992), and the Word Memory Test (WMT; Green et al, 1996), among others. Whereas a subset of these instruments has proven to be valid and reliable in measuring inadequate effort, problems remain in adequate detection both due to test characteristics (Vallabhajosula & van Gorp, 2001) as well as to increasing availability of information about the measures and methods used to assess effort available to evaluees (Bauer & McCaffrey, 2006;Ruiz et al, 2002).…”

Critiquing symptom validity tests for posttraumatic stress disorder: A modification of Hartman's criteria

“…How many studies need to be published before an SVT is regarded as an accepted psychometric test? These questions illustrate a number of challenging issues with that researchers have brought to light (e.g., Bauer & McCaffrey, 2006;Conroy & Kwartner, 2006;Ruiz et al, 2002) and that make meeting Hartman's criterion of being supported by current research more complicated.…”

“…Due to test security issues that are especially pertinent to SVTs, descriptions of such tests in public media, such as this article, must be kept necessarily brief and global (Bauer & McCaffrey, 2006;Conroy & Kwartner, 2006;Ruiz, Drake, Glass, Marcotte, & Van Gorp, 2002). Thus, the following description of the MENT is brief and additional information can be obtained from the first author.…”