Cross-validation of a psychological test battery to detect faked insanity.

Abstract

Attempts were made in these 2 studies of simulated insanity to enhance ecological validity: Experimental fakers were given potent monetary incentives to conceal their deception; psychiatric inpatients and convicted felons were used in criterion groups; and subjects took a battery of psychological tests that varied in task demands. In Experiment 1,8 predictor variables drawn from the MMPI, Bender Gestalt, and a newly developed Malingering Scale were used to derive a single discriminant function that best differentiated 20 prison inmates faking insanity from 40 nonfaking criterion and control group subjects. The optimal function consisted of 3 variables, yielded a canonical correlation of .823, and correctly classified 93.3% of subjects. Experiment 2 served to cross-validate the derived equation on 22 substance abusers instructed to fake insanity and 20 inpatients from a schizophrenia treatment unit who received standard instructions. On cross-validation, 97.6% of subjects were correctly classified. Reasons for the unexpected lack of predictive "shrinkage" are discussed.

"Strukturierter Fragebogen Simulierter Symptome"

“…Untersuchungen zur Brauchbarkeit der F-Skala,Simulation zu erkennen,haben unterschiedliche Ergebnisse erbracht [6]. Dementsprechend haben Wissenschaftler verschiedene CutoffWerte für die F-Skala bei einzelnen Untersuchungspopulationen diskutiert [2,3,21].…”

Mother Teresa Doesn't Help Here: Lack of Moral Priming Effects on Malingered Symptom Reports and What We Can Learn from it

“…Finally, participants completed a Dutch translation of the vocabulary and abstraction subtests of the Malingering Scale (MS) developed by Schretlen et al (1992). The 26 items of the vocabulary subtest present target words and for each target, the participant has to choose from two alternative words the one that has a similar meaning as the target word.…”

“…Sample items from the Dutch version of the vocabulary and abstraction subtests of the Malingering Scale (Schretlen et al, 1992 …”

“…As we have argued elsewhere, a limitation of many underperformance tests is that they exclusively address memory performance, although it is not at all evident that most malingerers have a preference for feigning memory impairment (Dandachi-FitzGerald & Merckelbach, 2012). A subsidiary aim of the current study was therefore to explore the merits of the vocabulary and abstraction subtests developed by Schretlen, Wilkins, van Gorp, and Bobholz (1992). These simple tests are based on the forced-choice principle and intend to tap into attempts to malinger a general cognitive deficit.…”

The effects of description clarity and disorder type on MMPI-2 fake-bad validity indices

“…Specifically, the F and Fb scales provided the best overall discrimination between authentic and simulated profiles, although both the Fake-Bad scale and the F-K index proved better suited for more refined discriminations. While some researchers (Rogers, 1988;Schretlen, Van Gorp, Wilkins, & Bobholz, 1992) have suggested that "subjects in malingering studies should be offered incentives for successful fabrication" (Wetter et al, 1993, p. 317), it remains to be tested whether simulations are as successful if the punishment for detection is relatively severe. Future research might consider an assessment of both the contribution of (a) incentives to succeed and (b) punishment from failure to succeed at disorder simulation.…”