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A pilot study on the Chinese Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory‐2 in detecting feigned mental disorders: Simulators classified by using the Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms
Author(s) -
Chang YiTing,
Tam WaiCheong C.,
Shiah YungJong,
Chiang ShihKuang
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
psych journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.417
H-Index - 14
eISSN - 2046-0260
pISSN - 2046-0252
DOI - 10.1002/pchj.169
Subject(s) - minnesota multiphasic personality inventory , psychology , clinical psychology , personality , scale (ratio) , psychiatry , receiver operating characteristic , medicine , social psychology , physics , quantum mechanics
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory‐2 ( MMPI ‐2) is often used in forensic psychological/psychiatric assessment. This was a pilot study on the utility of the Chinese MMPI ‐2 in detecting feigned mental disorders. The sample consisted of 194 university students who were either simulators (informed or uninformed) or controls. All the participants were administered the Chinese MMPI ‐2 and the Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms‐2 ( SIRS ‐2). The results of the SIRS ‐2 were utilized to classify the participants into the feigning or control groups. The effectiveness of eight detection indices was investigated by using item analysis, multivariate analysis of covariance ( MANCOVA ), and receiver operating characteristic ( ROC ) analysis. Results indicated that informed‐simulating participants with prior knowledge of mental disorders did not perform better in avoiding feigning detection than uninformed‐simulating participants. In addition, the eight detection indices of the Chinese MMPI ‐2 were effective in discriminating participants in the feigning and control groups, and the best cut‐off scores of three of the indices were higher than those obtained from the studies using the English MMPI ‐2. Thus, in this sample of university students, the utility of the Chinese MMPI ‐2 in detecting feigned mental disorders was tentatively supported, and the Chinese Infrequency Scale ( ICH ), a scale developed specifically for the Chinese MMPI ‐2, was also supported as a valid scale for validity checking.