Minn Multphase Personality Inventory = MMPI

[Gary Allan]

Have any of you ever taken the MMPI? Any of you in virtually any government job requiring a security clearance should have. If any of you have actually had access to the interpretation ...care to share??

Any psych majors out there doing their internship for counselling and doing testing and interpretation??

I have mine. I had a job for about 5 years in human services ..and a coworker (and friend) was one such tester. He administered me the test ..and confirmed his findings with his prof.

Anyone care to compare???

 

[flynavydiesel]

I had to take that test for as part of the Northwest hiring process. I was given info to ensure you had an opinion but not to be too opinionated. I guess I did the right thing because Northwest Hired me.

 

[oldman]

Any of you in virtually any government job requiring a security clearance should have.

Don't know of anyone I worked with took one. Is this something you assume the govt gives to employees?

 

[Gary Allan]

They made my brother in-law take it to be a security guard at the GE space center (before Martin Marieta) ..and was told that Secret Service, FBI (at least some) are required to take this test. They spent over $15k researching his background ..and this was for a 'job'. This was confirmed by (complicated here) my father inlaw's wife(he was a widower) son in-law who was on the FBI hostage neg. team (at the time).

Perhaps some of you have taken it ..and not known what it was.

Basically it's a series of fairly simple questions.

I like to read newspapers.
I like to read editorials
I sometimes feel xxxyxzz
I think people will get away with whatever they can.
I like
I don't like
etc.

[ November 19, 2004, 10:32 PM: Message edited by: Gary Allan ]

 

[oldman]

Perhaps some of you have taken it ..and not known what it was.

The test questions are developed for a 6 - 8th grade reading level. Do you assume also that people who work for the govt can't understand what test they are given for employment?

 

[Gary Allan]

Those are the simple ones Old Man. It determines many things about you. For example if you can effectively lie or "fake". It also establishes you statistical probability for antisocial behavior.

If you're truly an Old Man (no offense) you may have bypassed its evolution in testing or never had a job that required that "type" of scrutiny.

 

[JohnBrowning]

Yes. I would not put too much stockin it though! The origanal subject respones for mascline responces were 1950 and 1960 Marine's. The femine responces were gathered from trans-sexuals/transvestite males. So it is not with out it flaws!

I took the MMPI and another one once. Talk about mudane and repetitive!!!

 

[Gary Allan]

Pretty much...it bores you to death so that you get tired of either giving the "corrected" response or forget what you did on question 142 ..when you're at 325.

Anyway ..I was the only "subject' that scored zero lies ..and zero fakes for that intern..but there was one odd thing ..let's see if anyone else chimes in here.

 

[oldman]

For example if you can effectively lie or "fake". Again, this test is not one that was given to me or anyone I worked with. We had other types of testing and background check for our jobs. This type of test is very usefull for high-risk public safety postions and criminal justice and correctional settings. It is also used as leverage in custody cases in which the results can be used by one party to prevent child custody based on the opinion of the results.

 

[obbop]

Took the MMPI twice. One was an abbreviated form for a trucking job with Chrysler Corporation. The job was advertised in the Frisco Bay Area and there were hundreds of applicants. I took the test and they had me jump in a semi for a road test.

Mark Twain said if it's the truth it ain't bragging..... out of those hundreds I was numero uno. I had 3/4-million miles of long-haul experience and aced the road test. And, they said the MMPI indicated I was the perfect one for the job. They were so impressed that, even after failing the pee test for marijuana (gasp!!!! the devil's weed!!!!) they wanted to hire me but warned I would be tested again in 3 months.

I know I did well on the MMPI due to my very extensive amount of non-fiction reading and keen intellect. I could ascertain how to answer and was able to spot the "trick" questions. I also could figger' out where to lie and where to tell the whole truth. I believe that those with a keen intellect could determine the best ways to answer.

A decade later, applying for a government position, I and a couple hundred others took a battery of tests, one being the "long" MMPI that took 4-1/2 hours to complete with the final selectees undergoing a comprehensive interview with a PhD clinical psychologist employed just to interview MMPI takers.

The interview was great fun!!!! After 5 minutes or so the chap knew he was dealing with a superior intellect and the interview turned into a shoot-the-breeze session for the remaining 20 minutes allotted for the interview.

I was hired. Later, during training, I was informed that I had been the number one scorer of all the applicants.

Sure, I "lied" on the MMPI but also knew where the truth was the best answer. I can not tell you how to excel on the test by following steps A, B, C and answering 1, 2, 3.... etc etc etc. It takes concentration combined with "gut" instinct to know the best way to answer. As previously stated, I believe that most folks with a keen intellect can do well. I would guesstimate that those at the far right of the intellectual bell curve; those in the upper 10% of the populace in the various quotients: intelligence, emotional maturity, etc. will do well if they want to.

Wish I could be of more assistance. However, if someone wants to prepare for such a test doing some research on the Web would likely reveal some sites that would offer hints and tips on how to do well on that test.

 

[427Z06]

obbop, sounds like you have a high IQ, do you know what yours is?

 

[W8liftr]

Wish I would've seen this thread earlier. I hope those of you who have taken this test, at least in the last 15 years were given the MMPI-2. The MMPI was renormed in 1989, giving rise to the 2nd edition. It would be unethical and unprofessional to administer the MMPI for anything other than research or to compare to the results of the MMPI-2. The MMPI shouldn't be used for any kind of decision-making.

The test was also designed to be used with clinical populations and not anyone else. It's a gross misuse of the test to use it as a screen for employment, application to college, etc. It sickens me when I hear that this continues to occur. Hopefully I instill enough ethical thinking and behavior in my students with regard to assessment that they don't contribute to this problem.

The best way to approach taking this test is to simply be honest. Trust me, you're not going to fool it. The only way that could happen is if you memorized the scales onto which each item loads and answered accordingly. And, unless you have a photographic memory and access to psychometric property data, that's not going to happen because there is an unbelievable amount of data with a 567-item test. There are some questions that are face valid--meaning you can easily determine what it's measuring. Those were included for appearances. The test was developed using empirical keying which effectively controls the pull to respond in a socially desirable manner. All that means is that items were analyzed to determine which ones effectively distinguished between two groups. If an item, say "I like chocolate ice cream," differentiated between a group identified as depressed and a group identified as non-depressed, it was kept and loaded onto scale 2, depression. The bottom line is that you can't tell which items load onto which scales simply by item content. You might think that an item asking about anxiety symptoms would load onto the anxiety scale, but that is not the case with the 10 clinical scales and 5 validity scales.

The nice thing about this test, and one I think even professionals forget, is that if your personality functioning is normal (and normal personality functioning exists just as does normal heart functioning), your results will reflect that. It does not pathologize normals.

 

[W8liftr]

I’m not seeing the problem with your results, Gary. Scoring high on a particular scale doesn’t mean you are that scale. Scoring low on the lie scale doesn’t mean that one isn’t lying. There are a number of scales that must be interpreted to determine if under or overreporting or faking good or bad exists.

I, too, scored high on scale 4. Psychologists typically also score high on scale 6, paranoia. But the meaning associated with that score speaks more to useful/necessary interpersonal awareness/sensitivity in the context of normal personality functioning. Someone who’s paranoid is very sensitive to others but doesn’t have the ability to test his/her inferences and modify them appropriately. Without a context, those scores are meaningless. Rest assured, if you were truly a sociopath (socialized or not), those characteristics would’ve been evident and presented problems early in your development and would continue to do so, without intervention. Making an inference about people based solely on test data without the context of other data is ridiculous practice.

Intelligence and educational level also impact personality assessment. Those with high and low IQ scores don’t perform similar to those within 1 sd of mean IQ scores. Specific MMPI-2 scales are elevated or suppressed based solely on education or IQ. This means that you will score higher or lower on specific scales simply because you possess high or low levels of intelligence or education, not because you do or do not possess characteristics measured by that particular scale. Also, low scores on other MMPI-2 scales necessarily impact the expression/existence of traits/symptoms on scales with high scores. The process is much more complex than looking at a t-score and saying “you have no conscience.” The entire profile must be used—not just a high or low score. An examiner would have to take all factors into account and modify the interpretation accordingly.


So you take issue with authority and social mores, where’s the problem in that?

 

[obbop]

"obbop, sounds like you have a high IQ, do you know what yours is? "

Military, in the early 1970s, stated I was in the top 10% of the populace.

Later tests varied between 115 and 135.

Personally, I believe I factually score at the lower end of the "upper end" of the scale.

I adhere to the belief that there are many types of "intelligence." There are areas of intelligence of which I am average, perhaps even below average. However, when it comes to awareness of one's self and environment, I believe I rate quite high. Call it street smarts, gut feeling, intuitiveness or plain old savvy I seem to have the ability to grasp nuances and expand upon them, obtaining a complex whole with limited information. Being able to do this has saved my butt, especially in my younger days when I wandered the "darker side of life," such as Asian waterfronts and confronting picket lines, attending parties where most present were strangers to me, etc.

It is difficult to quantify the "intelligence" I believe I possess in above-the-norm quantity. I suppose "street smarts" is as good a way to describe it as any. However, one doesn't have to be "on the streets" to use it. My type of intelligence seems to work quite well when selling my self to others (such as the hiring process) and determining what others are seeking from me (test taking, confronting a con man or criminal, etc.)

I just wish my intelligence was higher in areas that result in profitable employment such as being a math whiz, a superb software coder, etc.

 

[Gary Allan]

quote:

---

Rest assured, if you were truly a sociopath (socialized or not), those characteristics would’ve been evident and presented problems early in your development and would continue to do so, without intervention.

---

Ah ..but by our little peep hole view in our current perception mode ...how do we know that it hasn't???

I do agree however that one swallow does not the summer make. I do believe that the questions within the MMPI that are used to plot the PD are those relating to the perception of society ..or rules per se. Just as therapists tend to score high on the paranoia scale, those who perceive people as being subject to Maxwells 4th theory of thermal dynamics: That all things left to themselves, decay, would probably score high on the PD scale as well. That is, when the question is asked "I believe people will get away with whatever they can" (and those like it) ..I would say "true" 10 out of 10 times ...since I see it daily in apparent behaviors and do not limit the perceived behaviors as not antisocial simply because they're allowed. That is, I'll view a legal avoidance of something ..that inflicts harm on the society as a whole ..as being just as antisocial as breaking a law and I make no distinction from the suburban soccer mom who manages to cut in line at the deli counter and the welfare cheater. They both don't follow the rules and are mere seperated by their internal levels of conscience. That is, they both feel all right and justified in doing what they do. The false implication is that I also don't subscribe to rules ..or that I'm anti-authority ...nor that I have an underdeveloped super ego ...just that I believe others ..to a fair degree, do.

Keep in mind I'm a plebe here in the expressions that I'm using. Don't take them for the truth ..just what they are attempting to communicate.

 

[W8liftr]

I understand what you're saying, Gary, and I think you might like this article, The Myth of Mental Illness, written by Thomas Szasz. A google search should turn it up. In it, he elaborates his perspective on societal influence where psychopathology is concerned. While I think his position is extreme and the antithesis to his profession, it's an interesting, stimiulating read nonetheless.

 

[Gary Allan]

Ah ..this was what I was waiting for

Although I scored zero lies ..and zero fakes (which is not that common) ....

...I scored some unholy number of standard deviations (it was either 6 or 9 perhaps

) on the psychophatic deviate segement of the test. The professor (someone like yourself) asked my friend "Is this guy in jail"?? He quietly said that I had it under control. My pal advised kinda keeping the results under my hat since most of our coworkers were also future Phd's in the field and would kinda look at me like I had just told them I had genetic ties to Charles Manson. He told me, somewhat anyway, that you've got a dangerous combination of characteristics. You are honest and have no conscience ..be very careful (it was more complicated than that).

As far as IQ for me? The same intern tested me. I fell into the 95% (I believe) of the not too remarkable score of 124 (outpacing a few of the education majors that he also tested during this part of his certification).

 

[Jackpot01]

I THINK PEOPLE ARE OUT TO GET ME!!!

I have taken the Long and Short one. I need to take it every 3 years for my career in the Nuclear Power field.

Eric

 

[Gary Allan]

quote:

---

I THINK PEOPLE ARE OUT TO GET ME!!!

---

So? Does that bother you?

Those were the funniest. I mean if you could actually answer one of those in the affirmative ..well

Those that I found the most "odd" were the somatic complaints.

I get diarhea once a month (or something like that). I don't track my frequency of diarhea ...nor do I desire to ...(thought cloud forms and expression shifts to one not unlike the interviewer in Blade Runner when he believes and indeed has spotted a Replicant) ..perhaps this is why it is asked ..

 

[Jackpot01]

Its funny you replied to me Gary. I took the short one in Pottstown at Limerick

I like flowers and I would like to be a florist.

Eric