Talk:Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

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This article is within the scope of WikiProject Psychology, which collaborates on Psychology and related subjects on Wikipedia. To participate, help improve this article or visit the project page for details on the project. B This article has been rated as B-Class on the quality scale. Mid This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the importance scale. Article Grading: The following comments were left by the quality and importance raters: (edit comments - comment history - watch comments · refresh this page) I have added a paragraph to begin to differentiate use of a test from the practice of psychological assessment. There is a need for development of this article and a more general article about psychological assessment. The related article about psychological testing is part of the collection of these (psych assessment does not equal psychological testing.

[edit] Needs improvement

I think this really needs work... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 146.151.42.178 (talk • contribs) . 01:02, 20 February 2006

Please improve it in any way you see fit. Jokestress 01:07, 20 February 2006 (UTC)

The article could use information about how the test works. I vaguely remember from a psychology 101 class I took a few years ago that the results are based entirely off empirical evidence or something(I guess as opposed to however that guy came up with his inkblot test)?RadioYeti 19:15, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

Yes, personality tests such as the MMPI go through a rigorous empirical process to develop. A few bored personality psych graduate students could probably provide a good overview.

The reference to Annie Murphy Paul, a former senior editor of Psychology Today, should really be qualified. It's useful to point out the criticisms of personality tests, but a blanket statement that these tests are unreliable and invalid is neither fair nor true. Especially with the MMPI. Again, we need some people to weigh in that have some training in this area. Ms. Paul, despite being editor of Psychology Today, has no training in the field. She has a degree in journalism. And, Psychology Today really isn't a good or reputable source. It's basically Cosmo with psychobabble. We would be better off citing peer reviewed journals that emphasize scientific rigor (e.g., the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology).

[edit] Clergy scale?

Is it true that they have to use a special scale to score the MMPI if the test is taken by a Catholic priest, otherwise the MMPI will say that he's a raving schizophrenic looney?

Alluded to at http://www.catholic.net/rcc/Periodicals/Homiletic/01-97/6/6.html , and I have heard it stated multiple times, more bluntly, that there are separate MMPI scales for the clergy. If the MMPI is a valid tool, it should not need separate scales. On the other hand, a few hours with Google has turned up nothing except the assertion. Can anyone here give further information? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.60.68.254 (talk • contribs).

Fremte writes: The MMPI and MMPI-2 were developed with particular reference groups. There is no stopping anyone from researching the personality profiles of any other group and publishing their scales. That said, there is no specific "clergy scale", nor scales for other groups that are specific to a diagnosis, e.g., lawyers. Though there is data to suggest that psychopaths and lawyers have similar personality profiles (okay that was both a joke and hopefully not too true!) Fremte 17:30, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

"hopefully not too true" I vaguely remember there is a MMPI item like "it doesn't annoy me when a criminal manages it to let the court believe he is not guilty". Apokrif 21:40, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

Actually, item 263 is about "a smart lawyer". Apokrif 22:45, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Scale 5

"it is used to measure how strongly an individual identifies with the traditional (pre-1960's) masculine or feminine role" As (for a man) a high Scale 5 score means that he is "like a woman" (e.g. because he likes flowers), I think we should rather say that this scale measures the opposite of how somebody identifies with traditional roles. Apokrif 21:34, 30 January 2007 (UTC)