The interpretation of the MMPI profiles of college students: A comparison by college major subject

Abstract

PROBLEMhas pointed out certain peculiarities of the MMPIC3) profiles of college students: (a) that on all scales the mean for college men students is above the norm (T-score, 50); (b) that on all but three of the clinical scales the mean for college women students is above the norm; and that (c) the distribution of scores in the sample reported makes it necessary to alter the "critical" score when one is interpreting the profile of a college student. The present article is concerned with the relationship of M M P I profiles to the type of major subject of male and female college students.The M M P l is sometimes administered in counseling centers for the purpose of aiding the counselee in making a vocational choice, i.e., selecting a suitable occupation to follow. Harmon and Wiener(2) have written concerning the use of the MMPI in vocational advisement, V e r n i a~d '~) has written concerning the relationship of some occupational differences in the MMPI, and LoughC4) has applied the test to women students in liberal arts, nursing, and teacher training curricula. To best appraise the validity of the procedure of using the M M P l in vocational counseling (for the purpose of assisting in the selection of a vocation) one might compare M M P l scores and profiles of those successful in various occupations (more feasibly, occupational areas) with the scores and profiles of those unsuccessful in these occupations or occupational areas. Another possibility would be to compare the characteristic profiles of those actually preparing in certain areas. To compare such characteristic profiles is the aim of the present investigation; while actual vocations are not investigated, more general groupings, namely groupings by college major subjects, are readily obtained. The groupings do not include those successful in an occupat,ion, nor are they determined necessarily by occupational choice; however, there is a choice involved-the selection of a major subject in college. I n this study, basis for grouping has been the choice of a college major.I n a previous article the author METHOD The MMPI was administered to all new students for two consecutive Fall semesters; N for male students was 707 and for female students, 763. I n certain cases some majors were combined, because of the relatively small N and because they seemed logically to belong together. Mean scores and standard deviations on the clinical subscales of the M M P l were computed for the following majors for men students : Art,

Fields of Study and the People in Them.

“…The groups reporting the most fears, worries, conflicts, and the like are almost always in the literary or fine arts fields, however, and the applied majors, such as engineering, business, agriculture, education, regularly show the fewest of these psychological problems. In between, the natural-science students tend to show less disturbance than social-science students (Lough, 1947;Borg, 1952;Norman and Redlo, 1952;Clark, 1953;Hancock and Carter, 1954;Teevan, 1954;Sternberg, 1955).…”

A cross-cultural comparison of the MMPI.

“…The U. S. results are based on the integrative studies by Goodstein (4) and Black (quoted in 4) which summarize the results of a number of MMPI investigations of male and female undergraduates respectively. These two integrative studies have also been supplemented by a later study by Clark (2). Thus the U. S. college results are based on samples tested in various regions of the U.S.A., mainly in state colleges, and representing varied academic fields.…”

“…The author's thanks are given to Ronnie Jennings and Iain Wyatt for hand-scoring the tests. 2 Clark does not indicate whether he used the K correction. All of the other studies, including our own, used this correction.…”

“…The figures were estimated to the nearest O.S from the graph appearing in (4, p. 440). Further details of the integrative study could not be obtained, t These figures represent the mean (weighted) SD from the four studies that were available(2,3,5,6).…”

Structured personality tests.

“…Although several persons (50,72,88) have proposed the use of the MMPI to aid persons in making vocational choices, the results of a study by Jerry H. dark (29) suggest that the test should rarely be used for "counseling into" a college major and that it may also have a very restricted use in vocational counseling.…”