MMPI

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Test - MMPI - is an objective personality test designed to extract truthful answers from the subject being tested. The MMPI is an ideal test for background investigations, back ground checks and pre-employment screening for employers who need trustworthy employees. Chances are if you are applying for a job where you handle money or manage the finances of others, you will more than likely have to take the MMPI as part of the pre-employment process. The MMPI is not offered as an online test. It is usually administered by a psychologist. However, it can be administered in the workplace as part of a pre-employment screening test and the results are read by a trained psychologist.

Preparing for the MMPI

There is no way you can prepare for the MMPI; moreover, there is no study material available for test preparation and there is no pass/fail score. Employers use the test to weed out untruthful applicants before the actual hiring process begins. If you have anti-social tendencies and your motive is to conceal these tendencies along with other unacceptable motives, the MMPI will reveal these personality traits. MMPI faking or faking the MMPI is not recommended, for your answers will reveal your true motives and will be discovered by the clinician interpreting test results.

What is the MMPI?

The MMPI is an objective personality test designed for the detection of mental illness, mental distress, and abnormal or maladaptive behavior. The MMPI contains 550 statements, 16 of which are repeated. The reason for repetition is to extract truthful answers and to identify discrepancies. Moreover, the replicated statements were originally included to facilitate the first attempt at scanner scoring. Though they are no longer needed for this purpose, however, they persist in the MMPI.

MMPI Applications

The MMPI has many applications including screening and assessment, pre-employment screening, and the selection and prediction applications in both research and clinical settings. The MMPI is typically used in the adult population; however, clinicians may use it for adolescent applications. Scoring of the MMPI consists of scores for the various scales. The time of test administration is typically 40 - 90 minutes.

Scoring the MMPI

The MMPI is scored in subunits, eight of which are conventionally termed clinical scales and provide the clinical profile.

• MMPI - Scale 1 - Hypochondriasis
• MMPI - Scale 2 - Depression
• MMPI - Scale 3 - Hysteria
• MMPI - Scale 4 - Psychopathic Deviate
• MMPI - Scale 6 - Paranoia
• MMPI - Scale 7 - Psychasthenia
• MMPI - Scale 8 - Schizophrenia
• MMPI - Scale 9 - Hypomania

Two other scales were added to the MMPI from within the original item pool. Scale 5 Masculinity - femininity was developed along with the eight clinical scales. Shortly after Scale 0, Social Introversion was added. Three additional measures were designed to estimate the validity of the clinical profile. The L (Lie) Scale has 25 statements each dealing with a common, relatively insignificant weakness to which most people are willing to confess. The F (Infrequency) Scale is made up of 64 statements that were answered in the keyed direction by less than 10% of the MMPI's original standardization group. The K Scale was designed to trap the respondent who attempts to conceal actual psychopathology.

Authors: Starke Hathaway and J. Charnley McKinley.

Publisher: University of Minnesota Press.

Other MMPI References:

MMPI 2

MMPI-A