Clinical Psychology, Vol. 8 No. 2, 2015.
Original scientific paper
The efficacy of MMPI-2 validity scales in detecting schizophrenia malingering
Angiada Prskalo
; Professional Industrial School, Županja, Croatia
Slavka Galić
; General County Hosiptal, Požega, Croatia
Abstract
The aim of this study was to examine the efficacy of the validity scales (F, Fb, Fp, F-K, L, S, VRIN and TRIN) of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) in the detection of malingered schizophrenia and to examine the possibility of distinguishing between individuals with schizophrenic disorders and participants instructed to malinger schizophrenic disorders based on the profiles of clinical and content scales. Participants in the study were 51 persons with schizophrenia and 45 students of psychology who were informed about the symptoms of schizophrenia and
MMPI-2 validity scales and who were asked to attempt to malinger schizophrenia. A discriminant analysis indicated that the validity scale Fp is the most effective in detecting malingered profiles, followed by scales F-K, F and Fb. Scales S, L and K showed a lower and negative correlation with the discriminant function, which was expected
given their purpose (fake good). The accuracy of classification based on validity scales results was very high (94.1% of persons with schizophrenia and 93.3% of malingerers were classified correctly). The scales VRIN and TRIN did not prove to be significant
in distinguishing between malingerers and schizophrenic patients. The possibility of distinguishing between profiles of clinical scales and content scales was examined by a discriminant analysis and the content scales BIZ and SOD, while the clinical scale Pa proved to be the most effective in distinguishing between malingerers and actual
schizophrenic patients. The accuracy of classification based on clinical and content scale results was also very high (98% of persons with schizophrenia and all students were classified correctly).
Keywords
MMPI-2; malingering; schizophrenia
Hrčak ID:
169745
URI
Publication date:
21.12.2015.
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