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The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is an assessment measurement of personality traits that is composed of more than 500 items of a true–false nature. The person taking the test simply indicates yes or no to statements such as, “I have trouble falling asleep.” The test was developed in an interesting manner. The authors, S. R. Hathaway and J. C. McKinley, began with a large pool of items and then reduced these to 504 items that were determined to be independent of one another. They then gave these items to psychiatric inpatients at the University of Minnesota Hospital. These inpatients were further divided by diagnosis, and the responses of each group were compared with non-patients who had come to the hospital as visitors or relatives. The idea was to develop a scoring scheme that would differentiate those with mental disorders from those without. In this sense, the content of the item was less important than its ability to discriminate between those individuals with a specific disorder and those without, as well as between disorders.

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): an assessment measurement of personality traits, used in psychopathology to identify response patterns suggesting a psychological disorder based on empirical comparison to the general population

In 1989, a new version of the MMPI, the MMPI-2, was released, which improved the generalizability of the test. The new test was “normed” on a better representation of the general population in terms of race, age, occupational level, income, and geographic location. The new version contains 567 items and uses a true, false, or can’t say format. One real advantage of the MMPI and MMPI-2 is that they were developed in a more empirical manner by comparing how the pattern of responding matched populations with specific disorders versus healthy individuals rather than the content of the items. It is also possible, by using a normal statistical curve, to determine how extreme an individual’s responses are. Thus, the scales are presented in a dimensional manner, and it’s easy to determine if a person endorses more or less of a category of experiences than the general population.

The clinical scale in the MMPI uses the following categories:

 Hypochondriasis—Individuals who endorse these items show an excessive concern with bodily symptoms.

 Depression—Individuals who endorse these items display characteristics of depression such as trouble sleeping, loss of appetite, feeling sad, suicidal thoughts, and loss of interest in positive events.

 Hysteria—Individuals who endorse these items tend to view and experience the world in an emotional manner. They may overdramatize their situation. They may also experience emotional difficulties through bodily symptoms such as headaches or upset stomach when in a difficult psychological situation.

 Psychopathic deviate—Individuals who endorse these items display antisocial tendencies and experience conflicts with their environment. They may also exploit others without remorse.

 Masculinity–femininity—These items reflect the degree to which an individual endorses the traditional gender role of males or females.

 Paranoia—Individuals who endorse these items display suspiciousness of others. They also view the world in terms of “who is out to get them.”

 Psychasthenia—Individuals who endorse these items display excessive anxiety and obsessive behavior.

 Schizophrenia—Individuals who endorse these items display bizarre disorganized thoughts along with a lack of normal contact with reality including social aloofness. Various sensory problems such as hallucinations may be present.

 Hypomania—Individuals who endorse these items experience high-energy states associated with poor judgment and impulse control.

 Social introversion—These items reflect the extent to which an individual’s answers indicate social introversion and extraversion.

By placing the responses of an individual to questions in each of the categories on a normal distribution, it is possible to see which categories deviate from responses seen in the general population (see Figure 4.1). In addition to the clinical scales, the MMPI also contains validity scales. These scales were designed to determine whether the person is trying to skew the results by either “faking good” or “faking bad.” One type of item included in these scales would be one that most healthy individuals would not agree to such as, “I have never told a lie.” This last item would be found on the lie or L scale. The infrequency or F scale is composed of items that are infrequently endorsed by the general population. Endorsing these items could come about because the person wanted to look as if he or she had psychological problems (“faking bad”). It could also be the case that the individual was confused or could not read or understand the items. The defensiveness, or K, scale seeks to identify individuals who deny having any psychological problems (“faking good”). The number of times the person responds with “can’t say” can be noted to help determine the validity of the MMPI. Further, as might be expected after more than 70 years of use, a variety of additional scales have been developed, which have been used for both clinical and research purposes.

Figure 4.1 MMPI-2 Profile Reflecting Scores on Clinical Scales and Validity Scales

Source: MMPI®-2 (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory®-2) Manual for Administration, Scoring, and Interpretation, Revised Edition. Copyright © 2001 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota. Used by permission of the University of Minnesota Press. All rights reserved. “MMPI” and “Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory” are trademarks owned by the Regents of the University of Minnesota.