Studies have established biases in which misunderstanding or failure to identify with the content of questions culturally has led to underreporting or overreporting mental illness. This has been attributed to the original sample being a small group, mainly consisting of young rural Caucasian subjects from the Midwestern United States. Overarching criticisms to the original test center on its disparity in addressing psychopathy in social and ethnic minorities. Likewise, the instrument has been adapted to reflect such changes. The existence of the MMPI has been concurrent with vast reforms in societal convention and increased understanding of behavioral health. The first four ‘content scales’ judge the validity of the test attempt and include: The responses are then hand-scored and plotted on an X-Y graph a separate version is used for male and female respondents. The MMPI was developed in the 1930s and published through the University of Minnesota in 1942 by Stuart Hathaway and Charley McKinley using visitors of patients at the University of Minnesota hospital as a base sample in both theorizing constructs of psychiatric illness and fielding the instrument. Testing is administered through 567 true or false items using a booklet with an accompanying answer sheet. For psychiatric management, this aids in creating generalizable data relevant to a plethora of possible conditions. The most common treatment application of the test by providers is establishing or reevaluating care for an ambiguous clinical picture.

This data can be used to draw conclusions about the test taker’s psychopathy or to interpret psychological characteristics compared to the norm. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is the most common psychometric test devised to assess personality traits and psychopathology.

How to interpret mmpi 2 scores