Dimensions of self-serving misrepresentation in forensic assessment.

I conducted an exploratory principal components analysis of 15 scales that evaluate a variety of possible self-serving biases using assessment data from 101 general forensic clients. Three distinct factors emerged, representing exaggeration of psychiatric symptoms versus exaggeration of personal adjustment, exaggeration of virtue, and exaggeration of physical health difficulties. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the findings. The surprising fact that none of the scales contained a significant number of items representing the affirmation or exaggeration of positive mental health adjustment precluded the possibility of finding a specific factor in that area. The factor structure was similar to previous results based on personal injury evaluations alone, suggesting that this 3-factor categorization of self-serving misrepresentation has some degree of generality, at least in forensic settings.

Development and validation of the multidimensional health profile, part I: Psychosocial functioning.

This article describes the development and preliminary validation of the Multidimensional Health Profile, Part I: Psychosocial Functioning (MHP-P), a self-report screening instrument for use in mental health and primary care settings. The MHP-P assesses mental health, life stress, coping skills, and social resources. In Study 1, retest reliability, validity, social desirability response bias, and factor structure were examined in a national sample of men and women (N = 673). In Study 2, the effect of time frame on the retest reliability of the mental health scales was examined in a sample of male and female college students (N = 147). A national sample of men and women (N = 2,411) provided data for additional confirmatory factor analyses and norm development in Study 3.

Scientific status of the concept of continuing emotional propensity for sexually aberrant acts.

Continuing emotional propensity for sexually aberrant acts and similar concepts have a central role in the prosecution of sex offenders. This article examines the theoretical and scientific viability of such concepts, focusing on child molestation. It is shown that neither theoretical nor scientific underpinnings exist, although there is broad clinical agreement on the existence in some offenders of "something more" than just a pattern of continuing behavior. Both the DSM-IV and addiction models of sex offending capture this viewpoint, and it is suggested that clinical/forensic assessment for the presence of a continuing emotional propensity rely on these sources until a scientific foundation can be laid.

Goal-relevant dimensions of hypochondriacal tendencies and their relation to symptom manifestation and psychological distress.

A national sample of 60 male and 61 female adults completed a telephone interview that included measures of hypochondriacal tendencies, psychological distress, and symptom manifestation. They also provided cognitive evaluations for their most important health goal on scales measuring self-efficacy, value, planning, self-reward, self-criticism, self-monitoring, social comparison, and positive and negative goal-based arousal. Health goal cognition significantly predicted hypochondriacal tendencies measured 15 to 30 days after the goal assessment, even after controlling for chronic illness diagnosis. Correlations between goal cognition and hypochondriacal tendencies differed from those observed for psychological distress, and no significant correlations emerged with symptom manifestation. Results support a motivational account of hypochondriacal tendencies and extend previous goals research.

Use of biographical and case history data in the assessment of malingering during examination for disability.

This study examine the relationship of biographical and case history data thought to be associated with malingering to known indices of malingering based on MMPI and sentence-completion test data. Subjects were 65 patients who had undergone formal psychiatric evaluations in connection with ongoing litigation over injury-related disability. Biographical/case history data were reduced to six factors, which were correlated with six MMPI and five sentence completion test variables. Of the 66 correlations, 24 were significant, supporting the relevance of biographical and case history data in assessing malingering under these circumstances.

The use of subtle items in detecting deception.

When subjects attempt to fake psychopathology on the MMPI, scores on subtle subscales tend to be lower than those of nonfaking subjects. Our study hypothesized that this paradox comes about because the subtle subscales have no predictive validity, but their face validity for psychopathology is the opposite of the keyed direction for psychopathology. Subjects who attempt to fake psychopathology do so on the basis of item content and thus achieve lower rather than higher scores. Three groups of 80 undergraduates took the MMPI under regular, faking-good, or faking-bad instructions. As expected, faking-bad subjects scored significantly lower than regular subjects on the 100 most subtle items, and this was due to their responses to those. 73 of the items whose face validity was misleading. The results are consistent with other work showing valid uses of subtle items in detecting deception.

The maintenance of weight loss after behavioral treatment. A review.

This article reviews the recent empirical literature on the behavioral treatment of obesity in an attempt to delineate those variables that are most closely related to the posttreatment maintenance of weight loss. Such variables were found to fall into three general categories: adherence to treatment and use of behavioral skills, posttreatment vigilance regarding both weight fluctuation and the skills learned in therapy, and intraindividual physical and emotional factors. An attempt is made to develop a rational understanding of these findings, which appear to be consistent with Kanfer's self-regulation model of self-control. Implications for treatment and future research are discussed.

Retraining social and adaptive living skills in severely head injured adults.

To assess the effectiveness of an intensive, multidisciplinary rehabilitation program upon social and adaptive living skills, and to study the relationship of cognitive functioning to those skills, 10 severely head-injured adults who were treated in the program were matched with 10 waiting-list control subjects. The mean improvement shown by the treated subjects in social and adaptive living skills were all in the expected direction and all greater than the mean changes of control subjects, though not significantly so. Cognitive changes showed no consistent patterns. A striking bimodal distribution in the results for social and adaptive living skills suggests that future researchers should consider employing single-subject methodology coupled with a knowledge of the patterns and events that occur during each individual's recovery sequence.

Skill training with alcoholics: a clinical extension.

The present study attempted to replicate and extend a behavioral skill training package developed by Chaney, O'Leary, & Marlatt (1978) to a group of alcoholics of higher socio-economic status than the population originally studied. Subjects receiving the skill training package, which consisted of behavioral rehearsal of coping responses generated for potential relapse-precipitating events, were compared to a control group which received no additional treatment and to a discussion control group which discussed the potential relapse-precipitating events without rehearsing specific responses. All subjects received the assigned treatment as an adjunct to a standard inpatient treatment program. Unlike the results of the Chaney et al. study, which found the skill training package to be superior to both control groups, the present study found that both the skill training and discussion groups were superior to the no-treatment control group, and did not differ from each other.

Validation of a screening battery for psychogeriatric assessment.

The aims of this study were to identify the most important diagnostic questions that warrant assessment in psychogeriatric patients and to select and validate objective screening procedures for those areas. Four areas were identified by surveying the records of 87 psychogeriatric patients: organicity, depression, prognosis, and global psychopathology. Relevant assessment instruments, selected on the basis of a comprehensive literature survey, were administered to 61 psychogeriatric inpatients, and criterion ratings were obtained in each of the four diagnostic areas. The Mental Status Questionnaire correlated -.87 with the organicity criterion and also shoed the highest correlations with the other three criterion variables. A canonical correlation analysis showed that the organicity and depression criteria could be reliably separated by the predictors, and multiple regression analysis showed that each could be reliably predicted independently. It is noted that the population studied was largely chronic in nature, so that the findings are not necessarily applicable to other kinds of settings.