MMPI-2 fake-bad scales: An attempted cross-validation of proposed cutting scores for outpatients

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) results were compare d in 118 psychiatric outpatients given standard instructions, instructions to exaggerate their problems, instructions to feign a disorder they did not have, or instructions to feign global psychological disturbance. The group s were comparable on demographic, occupational and diagnostic characteristi cs as well as intake MMPI-2 results. Experimental MMPI-2 results showed tha t clinical scales were generally elevated in the feigning groups, with only modest differences across dissimulating instruction sets. The feigning gro ups had reliably higher scores than controls on all overreporting indexes e xamined, although no significant differences between feigning groups were p resent for overreporting indexes. Classification rates using previously pro posed cutting scores for outpatients on individual feigning indexes showed near perfect specificity, but low to at best moderate sensitivity. Multiple regression analyses indicated that Gough's (1954) Dissimulation Scale (Ds2 ) was most strongly related to feigning status, and no other feigning scale contributed a significant increment in predictive power once Ds2 was enter ed.