Senior G, Douglas L
Department of Psychology, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia.
NeuroRehabilitation. 2001;16(4):203-13.
The MMPI-2 enjoys widespread popularity in the psychological assessment of personal injury claimants, in part due to its long history, massive research literature, strong empirical basis, and the availability of commercial interpretative and scoring services. However, the relative paucity of studies examining the forensic role of the MMPI-2, raises concerns about the applicability of traditional interpretative guidelines in the medicolegal arena. This paper analyses MMPI-2 protocols of 2080 cases derived from a forensic psychiatric practice in Brisbane, Australia. The data presented here challenges these traditional MMPI-2 interpretations and calls into question assumptions and commonly employed techniques when applied in this setting. In particular, the validity of codetype-based interpretations, the role the MMPI-2 plays in differential diagnosis, and assumptions regarding diagnostically-specific patterns on the test are challenged. MMPI-2 interpretative cookbooks, computer report-writers, adherence to the intent of the test-developers, and appeals to authority are inadequate substitutes for empirical accuracy, and an active hypothesis-testing interpretative approach, based upon setting-specific base-rate data, is recommended.
明尼苏达多相人格测验第二版（MMPI - 2）在人身伤害索赔者的心理评估中广受欢迎，部分原因在于其悠久的历史、大量的研究文献、坚实的实证基础以及商业性解释和计分服务的可得性。然而，研究MMPI - 2法医作用的研究相对较少，这引发了人们对传统解释指南在法医学领域适用性的担忧。本文分析了来自澳大利亚布里斯班法医精神病学实践的2080例案件的MMPI - 2测试结果。此处呈现的数据对这些传统的MMPI - 2解释提出了挑战，并对在这种情况下应用的假设和常用技术提出了质疑。特别是，基于编码类型的解释的有效性、MMPI - 2在鉴别诊断中的作用以及关于该测试诊断特异性模式的假设都受到了挑战。MMPI - 2解释手册、计算机报告编写器、对测试开发者意图的遵循以及诉诸权威，都不足以替代实证准确性，建议采用基于特定环境基础比率数据的积极假设检验解释方法。
