MMPI-2 Assessing Personality and Psychopathology Fourth Edition

by John R. Graham

The MMPI-2 is the most widely used personality test in the United States and around the world. It is employed in mental health settings, medical centers, and correctional programs, and is frequently admitted as evidence in legal proceedings. In addition, use of the MMPI-2 in the process of screening applicants for jobs that involve public trust and safety is spreading rapidly.

The fourth edition of MMPI-2: Assessing Personality and Psychopathology describes effective uses of the MMPI-2 and explains how to accurately interpret test results. Current and comprehensive, it presents detailed instructions for administering, scoring, and coding the MMPI-2. It also discusses the most recent interpretations of the test's validity, clinical content, and supplementary scales; illustrating points with case studies and examples. In addition, the book covers two new sets of scales: the Restructured Clinical (RC) scales, which help focus the interpretation of the original clinical scales; and the Personality Psychopathology 5 (PSY-5) scales, which assess major dimensions of normal and abnormal personality.

MMPI-2: Assessing Personality and Psychopathology, Fourth Edition, is ideal for graduate courses in psychological assessment and an indispensable guide for researchers and clinicians working in personality assessment.

Features

-Incorporates new information from recent empirical research studies

-Covers the latest developments in supplementary scales

-Discusses using the MMPI-2 with such diverse population groups as older adults, ethnic minorities, medical patients, and prisoners

-Includes the latest information on computerized administration, scoring, and interpretation of test results

-Provides expanded technical material

Genres: Psychology, Psychiatry

576 pages, Hardcover

First published April 26, 1990

About the author

There is more than one author by this name on Goodreads.

John R. Graham is Professor Emeritus at the Department of Psychology at Kent State University. His research involves personality and forensic assessment using the MMPI-2 and MMPI-A. Specific interests include identification of invalid responding and validity with ethnic minority groups.

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

An excellent resource. A terrible read.

[The Badger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This text does a reasonable job of explaining the limitations and differentiations in results that can be expected when administering the MMPI-2. Cultural considerations are discussed, as well as considerations based on age, health, etc. This version has different RC scales from the first version, but since that was before my time I'm not really qualified to weigh in on the argument as to whether these are a benefit. Validity scales and interpretive graphs are very clear. However, unless you're in practice and have administered hundreds of MMPI-2 or MMPI-As, you'll want to keep this text at hand.

Note: Get a full client history as well as medical charts before using the MMPI as part of the neuropsychological diagnostic process. Diagnosing a client high in somatic complaints when you haven't explored their medical history and aren't aware of certain conditions (the MMPI somatic questions tend to focus on GI issues that it considers "unexplainable," but could very well be due to diseases such as Crohn's, gastroparesis, or Sjogren's) could skew results towards somatic issues, hypochondria, paranoia, or could even call validity into question.

Finally, although it is said that the MMPI does not have to be completed in one sitting, my experience is that, based on how their day is going, examinees' general world-views may vary widely with respect to content score areas. (This can be seen by scoring each section after the client completes it). It would be beneficial to be able to print out the graph with an additional option showing results from each date the test was taken. A short questionnaire as to pre-test attitudes on each date (or a structured neuropsych interview) could eliminate inconsistencies brought on by multiple testing dates.

[Kayson Fakhar · Rating 3 out of 5]

you have to keep reading it every few weeks or months and practice till you learn it well. will not work much at the first time and you'll use only the basics.

[Meredith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful resource for interpretation and report-writing.