Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, also known as the MMPI, is a psychological assessment tool used to screen a person for psychosocial and personality disorders. It was developed in the late 1930's by psychologist Starke R. Hathaway and psychiatrist J.C. McKinley at the University of Minnesota. Today, it is the frequently used as a clinical testing instrument and is one of the most researched psychological tests in existence (Cherry, 2013).

Significance

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory is most commonly used by mental health professionals to assess and diagnose mental illness. The MMPI is used in many other fields outside of clinical psychology including court room and business settings. The test can be beneficial in through use in the criminal justice system, in businesses as screening tools, within the government, and in evaluating effectiveness of treatment programs. In 1989, the MMPI became the MMPI-2 as a result of a major project that was started to develop a new set of data that represents the current population's characteristics.

Effect of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

With use of this instrument the clinical psychology is able to better aide people in working through their problematic situations. The MMPI has survived many years and revisions and is still looked upon as an important tool of personal evaluation. The original version had many validity issues including control group size and composure and irrelevant terminologies. In turn the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 was created. This was standardized on a new national sample of adults in the United States and released in 1989 and it included 2,600 individuals from a more representative background than the MMPI. There were also subtests, or shorter versions of the MMPI-2 that were available to take but they were not as comprehensive as the complete test. According to Framingham (2011), "The MMPI is currently administered in one of two forms, the MMPI-2, which has 567 true/false questions, and the newer MMPI-2-RF, published in 2008 and containing only 338 true/false items." This test produces scores on a theoretically grounded, hierarchically structured set of scales. According to Framingham (2011) the scales used to score the MMPI-2 are as follows:

Scale 1 - Hypochondriasis: concern over bodily functioning.

Scale 2 - Depression: designed to identify poor morale, lack of hope, and dissatisfaction with life.

Scale 3 - Hysteria: to identify those who display hysteria in stressful situations.

Scale 4 - Psychopathic Deviate: measures social deviation, lack of acceptance of authority, and amorality.