An examination of the association between psychopathy and dissimulation using the MMPI-2-RF validity scales.

This investigation sought to determine whether individuals high on psychopathic traits are better able than those low on such traits to avoid detection when feigning psychopathology in the context of a forensic psychological evaluation. Study 1 tested whether individuals high on psychopathy were better able than those low on psychopathy to avoid detection by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory 2-Restructured Form's (MMPI-2-RF; Ben-Porath, Y. S., & Tellegen, A., 2008, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form: Manual for administration, scoring and interpretation, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.) overreporting (F-r, Fp-r) and underreporting (L-r and K-r) validity scales, when undergraduate students were asked to feign good, feign bad, or respond honestly. Study 2 aimed to replicate and extend the overreporting (F-r and Fp-r) analyses in a forensic pretrial sample, in which individuals were classified as malingering or not malingering using the Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms (SIRS; Rogers, R., Bagby, R. M., & Dickens, S. E., 1992, Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms. Tampa, FL, Psychological Assessment Resources.). Combined results indicated that psychopathy did not affect the utility of the MMPI-2-RF validity scales in detecting overreporting. The underreporting analyses indicated that psychopathy did not affect the utility of L-r; however, callous-aggressive (or "meanness") psychopathy traits moderated the utility of K-r in detecting those feigning psychological adjustment, such that K-r was better able to detect individuals high on, rather than low on, psychopathy when underreporting. These results are promising in terms of evidence that individuals high on psychopathic traits are not any better than individuals low on these traits in feigning during psychological evaluations.

Utility of the MMPI-2-RF (Restructured Form) validity scales in detecting malingering in a criminal forensic setting: a known-groups design.

The current study examined the utility of the recently released Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF; Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008) validity scales to detect feigned psychopathology in a criminal forensic setting. We used a known-groups design with the Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms (SIRS; Rogers, Bagby, & Dickens, 1992) as the external criterion to determine groups of probable malingering versus nonmalingering. A final sample of 125 criminal defendants, who were administered both the SIRS and the MMPI-2-RF during their evaluations, was examined. The results indicated that the two MMPI-2-RF validity scales specifically designed to detect overreported psychopathology, F-r and F(P)-r, best differentiated between the malingering and nonmalingering groups. These scales added incremental predictive utility to one another in this differentiation. Classification accuracy statistics substantiated the recommended cut scores in the MMPI-2-RF manual (Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008) in this forensic setting. Implications for these results in terms of forensic assessment and detection of malingering are discussed.

The utility of the MMPI-2 malingering discriminant function index in the detection of malingering: a study of criminal defendants.

This study examined the utility of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2's (MMPI-2) malingering discriminant function index (M-DFI), recently developed by Bacchiochi and Bagby, in the detection of malingering in a forensic sample. Criminal defendants were divided into "malingering" and "not malingering" groups using the structured interview of reported symptoms (SIRS) criteria proposed by Rogers. Logistic regression analysis (LRA) revealed that the MMPI-2 infrequency (F) scale had the best predictive utility of the traditional infrequency scales. Although the M-DFI did significantly differentiate the malingering from the not malingering groups, it did not add significantly to the predictive utility of the MMPI-2 F scale. Receiver operating characteristics analyses demonstrated acceptable sensitivity and specificity for the MMPI-2 F scale, but poor sensitivity for the M-DFI scale. The results are discussed in terms of the utility of the M-DFI in detecting malingering and problems of extending the findings of simulation studies to the forensic context.