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The Detection of Feigned Psychiatric Disorders Using the MMPI-2-RF Overreporting Validity Scales: An Analog Investigation

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Abstract

Individuals who are motivated to feign psychological problems to achieve a desired outcome (e.g., insanity defense) may overreport symptoms of psychopathology, with type of pathology being dependent on the setting. In the current investigation, we examined the utility of the overreporting validity scales (infrequent responses [F-r], infrequent psychopathology responses [FP-r], infrequent somatic responses [Fs], and symptom validity [FBS-r]) on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (Ben-Porath and Tellegen 2008) to detect research participants instructed to simulate one of three mental disorders: major depressive disorder (MDD), schizophrenia (SCH), or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The restructured clinical (RC) and overreporting validity scale scores of bona fide psychiatric patients with a primary diagnosis of either MDD, SCH, or PTSD were compared to two groups of simulators—naïve (i.e., undergraduate students with no training in mental disorders) and sophisticated (i.e., individuals with advanced training in psychopathology or personal experience with the disorder asked to overreport symptoms). Examination of the RC Scale profiles revealed that the sophisticated simulators produced symptom profiles more similar to the profiles of the psychiatric patients than did the naïve simulators. For the overreporting validity scales, the sophisticated simulators were less likely to be detected as feigning compared to the naïve simulators; overall, the validity scales were able to distinguish patients from simulators and accurately classify most of the simulators regardless of their level of “symptom” sophistication. Examination and comparison of the validity scales revealed that across disorders and level of research participant symptom sophistication, the FP-r scale best differentiated simulators from patients.

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Notes

  1. This data was previously used in studies which investigated the utility of the validity scales on the MMPI-2 in detecting overreporting of specific disorders and examined the effects of mental health training on the utility of these scales (Bagby et al. 1997a, 2000; Bury and Bagby 2002; Efendov et al. 2008). The current study extended these investigations to the MMPI-2-RF validity scales, as well as introduced a focus on the effect of individual experience with a disorder (PTSD) on the utility of these scales.

  2. Full instructions can be found in the original articles or provided by the authors.

  3. A subset of undergraduate students (n = 50) who overreported depression received course credit only, but were told that the four most convincing simulators would earn $50.

  4. Subsequent to these original data collections, an additional 8 advanced clinical psychology graduate students overreporting symptoms of MDD on the MMPI-2-RF have been collected and added to this study.

  5. We also conducted regression analyses using a backward stepwise entry method, in which all validity scales were entered in the first step, with non-significant predictors being removed until only significant predictors remained in the equation. These results did not indicate any differences in incremental validity compared to the hierarchical regression analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

    Brandee E. Marion & Martin Sellbom

  2. University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    R. Michael Bagby

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  1. Brandee E. Marion
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  2. Martin Sellbom
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  3. R. Michael Bagby
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Correspondence to Martin Sellbom.

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Marion, B.E., Sellbom, M. & Bagby, R.M. The Detection of Feigned Psychiatric Disorders Using the MMPI-2-RF Overreporting Validity Scales: An Analog Investigation. Psychol. Inj. and Law 4, 1–12 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12207-011-9097-0

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