
What does MMPI stand for in psychology in medical category?
May 17, 2016 · The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is a psychological test that assesses personality traits and psychopathology. It is primarily intended to test people who are suspected of...
What is a MMPI psych test?
Jan 26, 2022 · The MMPI is a psychological test used to measure an adult's personality and psychopathology. This is the study of psychological and behavioral dysfunction caused by mental illness. The test...
Does MMPI diagnose personality disorders?
Apr 20, 2020 · The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is one of the most commonly used psychological tests in the world. The test was developed by clinical psychologist Starke Hathaway and...
What is MMPI used for?
Apr 05, 2022 · The acronym “MMPI” stands for Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, a mental health evaluation and diagnostic tool originally developed at the University of Minnesota. The original version of the test was developed in the mid-1930s but was criticized over time for having racist, sexist, or otherwise offensive and inaccurate questions.

What is the MMPI and what does it measure?
The MMPI is a well-researched and respected test designed to help mental health professionals diagnose mental health disorders and conditions. It's a self-reporting inventory that evaluates where you fall on 10 scales related to different mental health disorders.Apr 20, 2020
What can the MMPI tell you?
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is designed to assess an individual's state of mental health. The test items evaluate a number of different issues and can identify struggles in substance abuse, depression, anxiety, and personality disorders with a great degree of accuracy.
What is a MMPI in psychology?
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is the most widely used and researched clinical assessment tool used by mental health professionals to help diagnose mental health disorders.Sep 2, 2021
What is the purpose of an MMPI?
The MMPI provides broad information about aspects of personality and the existence of components of psychopathology. The MMPI is completed by indicating true/false to a series of declarative statements that identify personal beliefs or symptomology.May 1, 2021
Does MMPI diagnose personality disorders?
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is a comprehensive personality test that can measure personal- ity disorders. It has 3 validity and 10 clinical subscales.Aug 13, 2018
Can MMPI diagnose bipolar?
Background: The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) often supports clinical decision-making in complex diagnostic problems like differentiating neurosis from psychosis and psychosis from bipolar disorder.
What theory is MMPI based on?
criterion-keyingUnlike most psychological tests that are usually grounded at least somewhat in a theory, the MMPI was created through an approach called criterion-keying.
How does MMPI measure personality?
The MMPI-2 is designed with 10 clinical scales which assess 10 major categories of abnormal human behavior, and four validity scales, which assess the person's general test-taking attitude and whether they answered the items on the test in a truthful and accurate manner.
Is MMPI an objective test?
The most frequently used objective test for personality is the MMPI. It was published by Hathaway and McKinley in 1943 and revised in 1951. It is designed for ages 16 and over and contains 566 items to be answered yes or no.
Can a narcissist pass the MMPI test?
Correlational analyses revealed a divergent pattern of relationships among the 16 narcissism measures and MMPI-2 scales, with 1 set of narcissism scales correlating positively with MMPI-2 mania (Ma) and a second set correlating positively with MMPI-2 depression (D), psychasthenia (Pt), feelings of inferiority (Sc), ...
What is a problem with administering the MMPI?
-social alienation, poor familial relationships. -difficulties in concentration and impulse control, lack of deep interests. -disturbing questions of self-worth and self-identity, and sexual difficulties. -Misinterpretations of reality, delusions, and hallucinations.
Can the MMPI be used for children?
Purpose. The MMPI is used to screen for personality and psychosocial disorders in adults (i.e., over age 18) and adolescents age 14 to 18. It is also frequently administered as part of a neuropsychological test battery to evaluate cognitive functioning.
Can I take the MMPI-2 online?
The MMPI-2 test must be administered and interpreted by a psychologist. The MMPI-2 is commonly administered by a computer in a clinical setting, ho...
What can the MMPI diagnose?
THE MMPI can diagnose personality and behavioral problems. The clinical scale, of which the MMPI-2 has ten, indicates the presence of different psy...
What is the MMPI-2 test used for?
The MMPI-2 is used to test an adult's personality and psychopathology. There is a version of the test, known as the MMPI-A, that can be used on ado...
How does the MMPI-2 work?
The MMPI-2 works by having patients complete 567 true or false questions. The test can only be administered by a psychiatrist or other qualified me...
What is the MMPI-2 RF used for?
The MMPI-2RF was released in 2008. The MMPI-2RF, or the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory 2 Restructured Form, is the restructured form o...
What is MMPI test?
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) The Minnesota Multiphasic Personal ity Inventory (MMPI) is a psychological test that assesses personality traits and psychopathology. It is primarily intended to test people who are suspected of having mental health or other clinical issues. Although it was not originally designed ...
What is the normal range of MMPI-2?
Scores are converted to what are called normalized “T scores” on a scale ranging from 30 to 120. The “normal” range of T scores is from 50 to 65.
How many true/false questions are there in MMPI?
Although it was not originally designed to be administered to non-clinical populations, it has found. The MMPI is currently commonly administered in one of two forms — the MMPI-2, which has 567 true/false questions, and the newer MMPI-2-RF, published in 2008 and containing only 338 true/false items.
What is social introversion?
Social Introversion (Si) – The Social Introversion scale measures the social introversion and extroversion of a person. A person who is a social introvert is uncomfortable in social interactions and typically withdraws from such interactions whenever possible .
How many codetypes are there for mental health?
Most people with personality or mental health issues will usually have only one codetype, or a single codetype with a spike on a third scale. Like all psychological interpretation, scores are analyzed in context of the individual being tested — not in a vacuum.
What does a 2/3 codetype mean?
For instance, a 2-3 codetype (meaning that both Scale 2 and Scale 3 are significantly elevated) suggests significant depression, lowered activity levels and helplesness; furthermore the person may have become accustomed to their chronic problems and often have physical complaints.
How many items are on the F scale?
The scale contains 15 items. F – The F scale (the “F” does not stand for anything, although it is mistakenly sometimes referred to as the Infrequency or Frequency scale) is intended to detect unusual or atypical ways of answering the test items, like if a person were to randomly fill out the test.
What is the MMPI-2 Test?
To answer the question, "What is the MMPI-2?", one must first answer, "What is MMPI?". The MMPI, which stands for Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, is a personality and psychopathology test developed in 1943 by psychologist Starke R. Hathaway and neuropsychiatrist J.C. McKinley.
MMPI-2 Questions
The MMPI-2 questions are in a true/false format. The 567 true/false MMPI questions assess a person's symptoms as well as how they view themselves in the context of mental and behavioral issues. The test is designed in such a way as to determine if patients are lying or trying to fake a condition.
MMPI-2 Clinical Scales
The MMPI clinical scales indicate various psychological conditions. The different versions of the test use different scales. The clinical scales on the MMPI-2 and MMPI-A are as follows:
MMPI-2 Validity Scales
There are different MMPI validity scales on the different versions of the MMPI, all of which measure how forthcoming someone is being when taking the test. Some examples of the validity scales used on the MMPI-2 are:
What is MMPI 2?
What is the MMPI-2? The MMPI-2 is a self-report inventory with 567 true-false questions about yourself. Your answers help mental health professionals determine whether you have symptoms of a mental illness or personality disorder. Some questions are designed to reveal how you feel about taking the test.
Who administers MMPI?
The MMPI should only be administered by a trained test administrator, but the test results are sometimes used in other settings. MMPI evaluations are sometimes used in child custody disputes, substance abuse programs, educational settings, and even employment screenings.
Why was the IQ test created?
It was created to be a tool for mental health professionals to help diagnose mental health disorders. Since its publication in 1943, the test has been updated several times in an attempt to eliminate racial and gender bias and to make it more accurate.
Why do we use validity scales?
Validity scales help test administrators understand how genuine a test taker’s answers are. In situations where test results could impact a person’s life, such as employment or child custody, people might be motivated to over-report, under-report, or be dishonest. These scales help reveal inaccurate answers.
What is the superlative self-presentation scale?
The Superlative Self-Presentation scale takes a look at how you answer 50 questions about serenity, contentment, morality, human goodness, and virtues like patience. This is to see if you could be intentionally distorting answers to look better.
Why do people with chronic pain score higher on the first three scales?
Studies have shown that people with chronic pain may score higher on the first three scales because of prolonged, heightened health concerns.
What is the 48-item scale?
This 48-item scale measures: anxiety. depression. compulsive behaviors. symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) The term “psychasthenia” is no longer used as a diagnosis, but mental health professionals still use this scale as a way of evaluating unhealthy compulsions and the disruptive feelings they cause.
History of the MMPI
The MMPI is probably the most widely used multidimensional tool to help diagnose mental health disorders. This test was first developed in 1939 by clinical psychologist Starke Hathaway and neuropsychiatrist J.C. McKinley at the University of Minnesota, and it was first published in 1943.
How the Test Has Changed
Although this atheoretical approach allowed the MMPI to meaningfully capture traits that were directly related to psychopathology, the initial version was widely criticized.
Administration
The MMPI-2 includes a restandardization of the test, which includes 567 items and takes approximately 60 to 90 minutes to complete. Like the MMPI, the updated version has 10 clinical scales with each scale having approximately 32 to 78 items each.
10 Clinical Scales
The MMPI is designed to evaluate the thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors that make up an individual’s personality.
Validity Scales
Validity refers to how accurately a method is actually measuring what it intends to measure. A common analogy for validity involves a dart board.
Empirical Research
Research on the MMPI-2 extends beyond its validity. Several research studies have examined this tool in various settings and with different populations. One study relied on the MMPI-2 for identifying key disorders among battered women in transition.
Critical Evaluation
Although it is clear that the MMPI-2 is a widely used and highly valid test, it does not come without its criticisms. One major criticism is racial disparity (McCreary & Padilla, 1977).
Why is MMPI important?
Although the MMPI was originally developed to act as a diagnostic tool, it's important to note that this test alone can't form a complete picture of the individual. Another review and evaluation will be used, as well, to identify variable response inconsistency issues, and more finely tune the evaluation process.
What is MMPI-2 RF?
Two (MMPI-2 and MMPI-2-RF), are primarily used for adults ( 18 years and older), and one (MMPI-A) is intended only for teenagers. The MMPI-2 is a 567 question, true/false test.
How does a personality test help you?
Psychological personality tests help you gain further insight into your own mind and help identify potential problems that could affect your overall wellbeing. They help to look at your personality traits and psychopathology to verify if you are suffering from challenges relat ing to your mental health . Although the MMPI was originally developed over 80 years ago, it continues to offer a great deal of insight into an individual’s mental health, and can be wonderful start on your mental health journey; with plenty of information continually being published by the University of Minnesota Press, and continual revisions of the MMPI, you can rest assured that the MMPI offers a decent picture of your mental state, and whether that includes superb mental health, mental illness in need of treatment, or mental health concerns in need of being addressed. Regardless of exactly what the MMPI may reveal, though, your healthy life starts today by reaching out for help and taking the necessary steps to set yourself up for mental health success. Take the first step today.
How many questions are in the MMPI 2 RF?
The MMPI-2-RF is a shorter test, first published in 2008. It has 338 true/false questions. Because it's 200 questions shorter, it takes less time to fill out. Some psychiatrists have started using this process rather than the older one because it is considered a more advanced version.
How to maintain mental health?
From getting enough sleep, to eating the right diet, to journaling, there are plenty of exercises out there that will allow you to maintain your health so you can better battle your illness. This is another way personality typing systems such as Myers-Briggs can help: learning your unique way of thinking, communicating, and feeling can help you more thoroughly understand what you might need from yourself, your surroundings, and your relationships.
What is the scale 2?
Scale 2 (depression) measures an individual’s current mental health. Also called the depression scale, this section of the test consists of 57 items and measures the level of clinical depression within the tested individual.
How many items are on the hysteria scale?
This scale consists of 60 items. With this scale, there are five aspects monitored: shyness, cynicism, neuroticism, poor physical health, and headaches. Because the scale was developed to test mental health as a whole, it is important to identify an individual’s predilection toward high scores in the hysteria section, as this could indicate the presence of a host of issues, including anxiety and paranoia, which will be evaluated later in the test.
What is MMPI A?
MMPI-A. A version of the test designed for adolescents ages 14 to 18, the MMPI-A, was released in 1992. The youth version was developed to improve measurement of personality, behavior difficulties, and psychopathology among adolescents. It addressed limitations of using the original MMPI among adolescent populations.
What is MMPI used for?
Psychologists and other mental health professionals use various versions of the MMPI to help develop treatment plans, assist with differential diagnosis, help answer legal questions ( forensic psychology ), screen job candidates during the personnel selection process, or as part of a therapeutic assessment procedure.
When was the MMPI developed?
MMPI. The original MMPI was developed on a scale-by-scale basis in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Hathaway and McKinley used an empirical [criterion] keying approach, with clinical scales derived by selecting items that were endorsed by patients known to have been diagnosed with certain pathologies.
What is a restructured clinical scale?
The Restructured Clinical scales were designed to be psychometrically improved versions of the original clinical scales, which were known to contain a high level of interscale correlation, overlapping items, and were confounded by the presence of an overarching factor that has since been extracted and placed in a separate scale ( demoralization ). The RC scales measure the core constructs of the original clinical scales. Critics of the RC scales assert they have deviated too far from the original clinical scales, the implication being that previous research done on the clinical scales will not be relevant to the interpretation of the RC scales. However, researchers on the RC scales assert that the RC scales predict pathology in their designated areas better than their concordant original clinical scales while using significantly fewer items and maintaining equal to higher internal consistency, reliability and validity; further, unlike the original clinical scales, the RC scales are not saturated with the primary factor (demoralization, now captured in RCdem) which frequently produced diffuse elevations and made interpretation of results difficult; finally, the RC scales have lower interscale correlations and, in contrast to the original clinical scales, contain no interscale item overlap. The effects of removal of the common variance spread across the older clinical scales due to a general factor common to psychopathology, through use of sophisticated psychometric methods, was described as a paradigm shift in personality assessment. Critics of the new scales argue that the removal of this common variance makes the RC scales less ecologically valid (less like real life) because real patients tend to present complex patterns of symptoms. Proponents of the MMPI-2-RF argue that this potential problem is addressed by being able to view elevations on other RC scales that are less saturated with the general factor and, therefore, are also more transparent and much easier to interpret.
What is a codetype?
Codetypes are a combination of the one, two or three (and according to a few authors even four), highest-scoring clinical scales (ex. 4, 8, 2, = 482). Codetypes are interpreted as a single, wider ranged elevation, rather than interpreting each scale individually.
What are the criticisms of the MMPI-A?
Critiques of the MMPI-A include a non-representative clinical norms sample, overlap in what the clinical scales measure, irrelevance of the mf scale, as well as long length and high reading level of the instrument. The MMPI-A is one of the most commonly used instruments among adolescent populations.
How is MMPI-2 translated?
The Korean MMPI-2 was initially translated by Kyunghee Han through a process of multiple rounds of translation (English to Korean) and back-translation (Korean to English), and it was tested in a sample of 726 Korean college students. In general, the test-retest reliabilities in the Korean sample were comparable to those in the American sample. For both culture samples, the median test-retest reliabilities were found to be higher for females than for males: 0.75 for Korean males and 0.78 for American males, whereas it was 0.85 for Korean females and 0.81 for American females. After retranslating and revising the items with minor translation accuracy problems, the final version of the Korean MMPI-2 was published in 2005. The published Korean MMPI-2 was standardized using a Korean adult normative sample, whose demographics were similar to the 2000 Korean Census data. Compared to the U. S. norm, scale means of Korean norm were significantly elevated; however, the reliabilities and validity of the Korean MMPI-2 were still found to be comparable with the English MMPI-2. The Korean MMPI-2 was further validated by using a Korean psychiatric sample from inpatient and outpatient facilities of Samsung National Hospital in Seoul. The internal consistency of the MMPI-2 scales for the psychiatric sample was comparable to the results obtained from the normative samples. Robust validity of the Korean MMPI-2 scales was evidenced by correlations with the SCL-90-R scales, behavioral correlates, and therapist ratings. The Korean MMPI-2 RF was published in 2011 and it was standardized using the Korean MMPI-2 normative sample with minor modifications.

History of The MMPI
How The Test Has Changed
- In the years after the test was first published, clinicians and researchers began to question the accuracy of the MMPI. Critics pointed out that the original sample group was inadequate. Others argued that the results indicated possible test bias, while others felt the test itself contained sexist and racist questions. In response to these issues, the MMPI underwent a revision in the la…
How The MMPI Is Used
- The MMPI is most commonly used by mental health professionals to assess and diagnose mental illness, but it has also been utilized in other fields outside of clinical psychology. The MMPI-2 is often used in legal cases, including criminal defense and custody disputes. The test has also been used as a screening instrument for certain professions, especially high-risk jobs, although using …
Administration
- The MMPI-2 contains 567 test items and takes approximately 60 to 90 minutes to complete.8 The MMPI-2-RF contains 338 questions and takes around 35 to 50 minutes to finish. The MMPI-3 contains 335 self-report items and takes 25 to 35 minutes to administer by computer and 35 to 40 minutes to administer by paper and pencil.7 Additionally, the MMPI is copyrighted by the Univers…
10 Clinical Scales
- The MMPI-2 and MMPI-A have 10 clinical scales that are used to indicate different psychological conditions, though the MMPI-2-RF and the MMPI-A-RF use different scales.9 Despite the names given to each scale, they are not a pure measure since many conditions have overlapping symptoms. Because of this, most psychologists simply refer to each scale by number. Here's a …
Validity Scales
- All of the MMPI tests use validity scales of varying sorts to help assess the accuracy of each individual's answers. Since these tests can be used for circumstances like employment screenings and custody hearings, test takers may not be completely honest in their answers. Validity scales can show how accurate the test is, as well as to what degree answers may have …
A Word from Verywell
- If you've been asked to take the MMPI, there isn't anything you need to do to prepare. Instead, be ready to answer the questions as honestly as possible. If you have questions, you should be given the opportunity to ask beforehand by the test administrator. You may feel apprehensive about the test and the possibility of being diagnosed with a mental health condition. It is important to rem…
History of The MMPI
- The MMPI is probably the most widely used multidimensional tool to help diagnose mental health disorders. This test was first developed in 1939 by clinical psychologist Starke Hathaway and neuropsychiatrist J.C. McKinley at the University of Minnesota, and it was first published in 1943. Because this tool is unique in that it is created to measure ...
How The Test Has Changed
- Although this atheoretical approach allowed the MMPI to meaningfully capture traits that were directly related to psychopathology, the initial version was widely criticized. Specifically, many scholars pointed to the fact that the original control group had a very small sample size and was primarily composed of young, white, and married people from the rural Midwest. Additionally, th…
Administration
- The MMPI-2 includes a restandardization of the test, which includes 567 items and takes approximately 60 to 90 minutes to complete. Like the MMPI, the updated version has 10 clinical scales with each scale having approximately 32 to 78 items each. The vast majority of people obtain a few scores in each scale, however, those administering the test are looking for a higher …
10 Clinical Scales
- The MMPI is designed to evaluate the thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors that make up an individual’s personality. The test is administered by a trained clinician, typically a psychologist or psychiatrist, who relies on a series of clinical scales to interpret the results (Framingham, 2016). 1. Hypochondriasis (Hs): The Hypochondriasis scale encompasses anything related to complain…
Validity Scales
- Validity refers to how accurately a method is actually measuring what it intends to measure. A common analogy for validity involves a dart board. If all of the arrows are close to the bullseye, that is an example of strong validity because all of the arrows are close to what they are supposed to be close to. Even if some are slightly too high and some are slightly too low, if all of the arrow…
Empirical Research
- Research on the MMPI-2 extends beyond its validity. Several research studies have examined this tool in various settings and with different populations. One study relied on the MMPI-2 for identifying key disorders among battered women in transition. Of the 31 women who were evaluated, 90% scored high on the psychopathy, paranoia, and schizophrenia scales (Khan et al.…
Critical Evaluation
- Although it is clear that the MMPI-2 is a widely used and highly valid test, it does not come without its criticisms. One major criticism is racial disparity (McCreary & Padilla, 1977). Scholars have recognized a difference between whites and non-whites in scoring, whereby non-white individuals receive an average of 5 points higher, putting them closer to a diagnosis than their white counter…