Empirical Correlates of Common MMPI-2 Two-Point Codes in Male Psychiatric Inpatients

Abstract

Empirical correlates of common Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) 2-point codes were identified for a sample of 1,213 inpatient men. A comprehensive standardized review of the hospital record was undertaken, and clinically relevant demographic, diagnostic, and behavioral information was extracted from intake summaries obtained prior to administration of the MMPI-2. Nonmutually exclusive psychiatric diagnoses found in the sample included substance abuse or dependence, schizophrenia, depression, bipolar affective disorder post-traumatic stress disorder, and other anxiety disorders as well as personality disorders. Subsamples consisting of the five most frequently obtained well-defined 2-point code types were selected, and empirical correlates of each code type were then identified and described. Remarkable consistency was found between the empirical correlates of the code types obtained in this study and the correlates of the same code types described by other investigators 40 years ago.

Development and Initial Validation of Differential Diagnostic Indices for the MMPI-2-RF

“…3 One sample consisted of psychiatric inpatients from a large county hospital ( n = 1,524), one of psychiatric inpatients from a VA medical center ( n = 1,401), and one of outpatients from a community mental health center (1,020). The two inpatient samples are detailed in Arbisi et al (2002, 2003). The outpatient sample is described in significant detail in Graham et al (1999).…”

Examining the Impact of Unscorable Item Responses on the Validity and Interpretability of MMPI-2/MMPI-2-RF Restructured Clinical (RC) Scale Scores

“…The inpatient samples include men receiving psychiatric inpatient care from a VA medical center (VAMC) and men and women receiving psychiatric inpatient care at a large urban county medical center in the same Midwestern area as the VAMC. These samples have been described in detail elsewhere (Arbisi, Ben-Porath, & McNulty, 2003). For our first research question, the samples, composed of 989 community inpatients (597 men, 392 women) and 883 male veterans receiving inpatient care, were combined for a total of 1,872 participants.…”

“…Based on a review of the admitting psychiatrist's report, it provides information on a broad range of affect, mood, cognition, and organic variables. This form was completed by trained research assistants, and interrater reliabilities reached .90 with experienced raters (Arbisi et al, 2003). The scales used in the present analyses were developed from the RRF by means of principal components analysis and have been used in other studies.…”

Symptom Correlates of MMPI-2 Scales and Code Types in a Private-Practice Setting

“…We used individuals who produced a nondefensive (i.e., L and K T < 65) "within normal limits (WNL)" (i.e., no clinical scale score greater than T = 64) profile, which would suggest that these individuals were not experiencing serious psychological distress. Although we cannot rule out psychopathology based on a WNL profile, it is likely that some clients who approached the outpatient practitioner would be without serious psychopathology, such as minor adjustment problems due to an external stressor, or present themselves for a psychological evaluation to rule out psychological problems (Graham et al, 1999) as opposed to a psychiatric inpatient unit in which the patient must demonstrate severe psychopathology to be admitted (Archer et al, 1995;Arbisi et al, 2003). The advantage of this approach was that we could identify all relevant characteristics of the target code type regardless of whether they shared these characteristics with individuals who had other code types.…”