A Replication of the MMPI-A PSY-5 Scales and Development of Facet Subscales

Abstract

McNulty, Harkness, Ben-Porath and Williams recently developed Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY-5) scales for the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-A (MMPI-A). This study examined these new scales in a sample of 545 adolescents receiving inpatient psychiatric treatment. Item-level principal components analyses were employed to determine the internal structure of each PSY-5 scale and to aid in the creation of facet subscales for each PSY-5 scale. Results suggest that the MMPI-A PSY-5 scales display adequate internal consistency and our findings generally replicate the original work of McNulty et al. but also extend this work by showing that several of the PSY-5 scales may also be subdivided into meaningful lower level dimensions. These facet subscales for each of the MMPI-A PSY-5 scales are offered for further study.

Principal Components Analyses of the MMPI-2 PSY-5 Scales

“…All three of the facet names are concordant with the more narrow bandwidth constructs described by Harkness and McNulty (1994) as the theoretical content of the PSY-5 AGGR construct. Two of the facets, Physical/Instrumental Aggression and Grandiosity, closely parallel the two facets for the MMPI-A version of this scale, Hostility and Grandiosity/Indignation, identified by Bolinskey et al (2004), although a third facet did not emerge for the MMPI-A. Rather, all three MMPI-A items that correspond to the MMPI-2 Grandiosity items loaded on the MMPI-A Grandiosity/Indignation component.…”

“…Similarly, Bolinskey et al (2004) identified two nearly identical facets, Low Drive/ Expectations and Low Sociability, for the MMPI-A version of this scale, but a third facet for the MMPI-A version did not emerge. Two of the three facets identified by the present study displayed very good reliabilities.…”

Personality psychopathology, drug use and psychological symptoms in adolescents with substance use disorders and community controls

“…This self-report contains 478 items assessing personality characteristics and psychopathological symptoms in adolescents. The PSY-5 scales were extracted through an algorithm based on item configuration obtained from the model adapted by Bolinskey et al (2004). This model contains five broad clinical scales that are reorganized into facets that help to identify those content areas responsible for clinical elevations on the corresponding PSY-5 scale.…”

“…This model contains five broad clinical scales that are reorganized into facets that help to identify those content areas responsible for clinical elevations on the corresponding PSY-5 scale. The model shows good psychometric properties, with a moderate to high index of reliability (Cronbach’s alpha from 0.79 to 0.83 for the domains, and from 0.57 to 0.78 for the facets) (Bolinskey et al, 2004; Archer, 2005). For the present study, the Cronbach’s alphas were from 0.74 to 0.84 for the domains and from 0.52 to 0.80 for the facets.…”

“…Among those that have been conducted with adolescents, the study by McNulty et al (1997) is noteworthy for describing the adaptation of scales to the adolescent population based on the MMPI-A. Bolinskey et al (2004) subsequently developed the specific facets for the PSY-5 scales. More recent studies include those by Veltri et al (2009) and Veltri et al (2014) with forensic adolescent samples, which found that the Disconstraint scale is a marker of behavioral disinhibition and impulsivity and is associated with nonviolent delinquency, whereas Aggressiveness is characterized by the use of instrumental aggression and interpersonal dominance.…”