Response Styles on the Mmpi: Comparison of Clinical and Normal Samples1

Abstract

In an effort to appraise the degree to which response consistencies on the MMPI are attributable in widely differing populations to the general s;tylistic dimensions of acquies.cence and des,irability on the one hand, and to particular content consistencies, on the other, two studies. on two diverse samples were performed. By applying factor analysis to correlations among MMPI clinical and validity scales scored separately for "true" and "false" items, along with five specially constructed reference scales. to measure tendencies to endorse items at varying levels of desirability, relatively precise estimates of the proportion of variance attributable to response style and to content were obtained. The two sampl §lS employed--hospitalized neuropsychiatric patients and college students--yielded results consistent with those obtained from a previous study of prison inmates, in that the dominant role of ac~uiescence and desirability response' styles was emphasized. In all three samples two very large factors appe~red, identifiable as acquiescence and desirability. On the average, approximately three-quarters of the common variance and over half of the total variance was attributable ,to the two sty::J,.istic' ddmen-.sions, invo+ving in the hospital sample a somewhat 'larger and in the college sample a somewhat smaller proportion of the variance, as com-'pared with the previous prison sample. All MMPI slilb-scales employed in these three analyses elicite,d subs~ntial response style effects.Furthermore, in each of the three analyses, the factor loadings of the scales on the acquiescence and desirability dimensions arrayed the scale vectors in a circular pattern, suggesting that acquiescence is differentially elicited by items at varying levels of desirability.In addition, several quite small factors were obtained in each of the analyses, some attributed 'to item overlap and some to consistent content responses. Four factors in the hospital sample and three in