THE NORTH-CAROLINA DISSOCIATION INDEX - A MEASURE OF DISSOCIATION USING ITEMS FROM THE MMPI-2

The development of a new measure of dissociation using items from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2; Butcher, Dahlst rom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) is described. In Experiment 1, 525 college students were administered a measure of hypnotic suscepti bility and completed several specialized measures of dissociation or d issociation-like experiences. The new measure, the North Carolina Diss ociation Index (NCDI), demonstrated adequate internal consistency and good convergent validity. In Experiment 2, the NCDI demonstrated adequ ate internal consistency and test-retest reliability with a different sample of college students. Moreover, NCDI scores showed a relatively strong correlation with an interview-based measure of dissociative sym ptoms. In addition, a small sample of students with dissociative disor ders had significantly higher NCDI scores than students with anxiety d isorders and normal control subjects. In Experiment 3, 19 gang combat veterans were administered a semistructured diagnostic interview and t he MMPI-2. Subjects who were diagnosed with Prosttraumatic Stress Diso rder (PTSD) scored significantly higher on the NCDI than subjects who did not have PTSD. The NCDI is intended primarily as a tool in setting s where the MMPI-2 is routinely administered.