Validating clinicians' hunches: Construction of a new MMPI critical item set.

Abstract

Systematic examination of the two established Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) critical item lists had indicated that many of these face-valid statements do not accurately represent client history and behavior. To identify potential critical items that are both clinically useful and empirically valid, 14 criteria reflecting patient motivation to seek assistance and describing foci that guide the inquiry of mental health professionals were identified through the analysis of the medical records of 100 adult psychiatric patients. MMPI items nominated by at least 6 of 14 psychologists were analyzed to predict criterion presence in a sample of 400 adult psychiatric patients. Of 177 items nominated or previously placed on the Grayson or Caldwell lists, 130 items received empirical support. The final Ill-item list was organized under the following headings:

MMPI-2 critical item norms in chemically dependent inpatients

“…Over the years, a number of investigators have developed lists of these so-called "critical" or "stop" items (Greene, 1991); two of the most commonly used sets are those developed by Koss & Butcher (1973) and Lachar & Wrobel (1979).…”

Identification of Critical Items on the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument – 2 (MAYSI-2) in Incarcerated Youth

“…The identification of critical items has aided the clinical interpretation of self-report scale findings in the assessment of adult (i.e., Koss & Butcher, 1973;Lachar & Wrobel, 1979) and child and adolescent psychopathology (i.e., Briere, 1996;Reynolds, 1998). A critical items approach has not been investigated for the MAYSI-2 prior to this investigation.…”

Self‐report objective measures of personality for children: A review of psychometric properties for RQC

“…Adequate long-term stability of some scales suggests potential use of the MMPI-A as a measure of treatment response, but additional research is required. The manual does not present critical items in detail, but several critical item lists have been developed for the MMPI and its different versions (e.g., Lachar & Wrobel, 1979). However, Archer and Jacobson (1994) found that adolescents from a clinical sample did not endorse the critical items with any greater frequency than a control group of normal adolescents.…”