Wie häufig treten Simulation und Aggravation in der Begutachtung auf? Schätzungen von Laien

Merten, Thomas; Giger, Peter

doi:10.1007/s11757-018-0465-4

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Also, 45% said they had feigned symptoms themselves. Our results are in line with a survey among 39 Swiss lay persons: 41% of them said they had simulated symptoms in the past in the context of school absenteeism, exemption from military service, sports, or testing (Merten & Giger, 2018). The relatively high rates of selfadmitted feigning of symptoms/illness in non-clinical samples run counter to the widely voiced view that feigning is a special class of behaviors connected to deviant personality traits such as antisocial features (see, for a critical analysis: Berry & Nelson, 2010).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Do You Know People Who Feign? Proxy Respondents About Feigned Symptoms

Dandachi-FitzGerald

Bošković

Jelícic

2020

Psychol. Inj. and Law

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We asked students, clinicians, and people from the general population attending a public university lecture (n = 401) whether they knew others who (had) feigned symptoms. We also asked about the type of symptoms and the motives involved. A slight majority of proxy respondents (59%) reported that they knew a person who (had) feigned symptoms, and 34% knew a person who had admitted to them having feigned symptoms. According to our respondents, the most often feigned symptoms were headache/migraine, common cold/fever, and stomachache/nausea, and the most important reasons for doing so were sick leave from work, excusing a failure, and seeking attention from others. We conclude that feigning is part of the normal behavioral repertoire of people and has little to do with deviant personality traits and/or criminal motives. Also, the current emphasis in the neuropsychological literature on malingering, i.e., feigning motivated by external incentives, might be one-sided given that psychological motives, notably seeking attention from others and excuse making, seem to be important determinants of everyday feigning.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Do You Know People Who Feign? Proxy Respondents About Feigned Symptoms

Dandachi-FitzGerald

Bošković

Jelícic

2020

Psychol. Inj. and Law

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“…There followed a structured interview about the picture of malingered symptom presentations in the public opinion, based on a previous pilot study by Schlicht and Merten (2014). The results of the interview data available for 39 participants have been analyzed elsewhere (Merten & Giger, 2018).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Equivalence of the German and the French Versions of the Self-Report Symptom Inventory

Giger

Merten

2019

Swiss Journal of Psychology

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Abstract. Against the background of the growing importance of symptom validity assessment both in forensic and clinical or rehabilitation contexts, a new instrument for identifying overreporting was developed. In order to study the equivalence of the German and the French versions, we divided the item pool of the Self-Report Symptom Inventory (SRSI) into two presumably equivalent half-forms. A sample of 40 adult bilingual Swiss nationals with a mean age of 39.9 years responded honestly to one of the half-forms in German and to the other in French. In a subsequent experimental malingering condition, they were asked to simulate sequelae of a whiplash injury and to respond to the SRSI again. In both conditions, they also filled out the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS). The results showed no differences between the two language versions in both conditions. Classification accuracy was very high (100% specificity, 90% sensitivity for the standard cutoff score). Reliability estimates were 0.93 for endorsement of genuine symptoms and 0.97 for pseudosymptom endorsement. In the malingering condition, the correlation between the number of reported pseudosymptoms and the SIMS scores was 0.69. The current results add to the database available for the SRSI and support the appropriateness of the French version.

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“…The present study sought to replicate and extend the results of the earlier surveys by Schlicht and Merten (2014) and Merten and Giger (2018) to a larger sample from the Netherlands. Using current online survey methodology, a large sample from the general population could be investigated with a limited employment of resources.…”

Section: Public Significance Statementmentioning

confidence: 53%

“…This means that the participants judged that roughly half to two-thirds of all (German) individuals would try to grossly exaggerate or invent symptoms when being involved in those situations. Merten and Giger (2018) extended these estimates to a sample of 39 adult Swiss nationals, with very similar results. The prototypical situations were extended to false claims crime-related amnesia and attempts to be exempt from military service (which continued to be compulsory in Switzerland, but not in Germany).…”

Section: Public Significance Statementmentioning

confidence: 70%

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Laypeople's prevalence estimates of malingering: Survey data from the Netherlands.

Merten¹,

Tucha²,

Giger³

et al. 2023

Psychology & Neuroscience

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Objective: Noncredible symptom claims not only occur in a sizable number of forensic cases, but also in clinical contexts. Health providers and forensic experts are confronted with the question of whether individual symptom claims are genuine, grossly exaggerated, or even invented. We investigated laypeoples’ prevalence estimates, their attitude and beliefs about malingering. Method: Extending a survey format from a previous Swiss study, we analyzed responses from 975 adult Dutch nationals who responded to an online structured interview on their assumptions and attitudes about malingering (in Dutch language sense of intentional symptom fabrication with an external goal). Results: Participants estimated that a sizeable minority of cases in different prototypical situations feigned symptoms to achieve external goals. They estimated that malingering most commonly occurs in offenders seeking diminished criminal responsibility. One in every seven participants admitted having malingered themselves, and many were confronted with malingering by family members, work colleagues, friends, or neighbors. Although the majority morally condemned malingering, a sizable minority admitted that malingering might be an option for themselves. Participants generally favored an adaptational and a criminological explanatory model of malingering (35% each). Conclusions: The high prevalence of noncredible symptom claims suspected by laypersons in diverse clinical and legal contexts corresponds to base rate estimates derived from numerous other surveys and group studies. Myths perpetuated by some clinical and forensic workers are seriously challenged by laypersons’ opinion, based on their very personal social perceptions of the reality, and on their admission of having feigned symptoms in the past themselves.

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Wie häufig treten Simulation und Aggravation in der Begutachtung auf? Schätzungen von Laien

Cited by 10 publications

References 18 publications

Do You Know People Who Feign? Proxy Respondents About Feigned Symptoms

Do You Know People Who Feign? Proxy Respondents About Feigned Symptoms

Equivalence of the German and the French Versions of the Self-Report Symptom Inventory

Laypeople's prevalence estimates of malingering: Survey data from the Netherlands.

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