The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (also often shortened to MMPI) focuses on the person’s psychopathology and can be utilized to assess the traits of a personality. The key objective of MMPI is to help psychology professionals identify those individuals who are exposed to either mental or clinical health issues. Even though it was not intended to be used to assess non-clinical populations, it is recurrently applied to evaluate mental health in the workplace as well.
There are two main variations of this test that are currently applied by the administrators – MMPI-2 and MMPI-2-RF while the only difference between them is the number of questions included in the test (567 and 338 respectively) (Ganellen, 2015). The new test was found to be taking less time (30-40 minutes) than its older version, but MMPI-2 is way more renowned among psychology specialists. There is also another revision of the test that was designed solely for teenagers and is called MMPI-A.
The most interesting thing is that the test cannot be found online because it has to be administered only by a psychologist that is aware of how to use this protected psychological instrument. It is also critical to mention that even though it is conducted with the help of a computer, the majority of psychological testing procedures are coming before a clinical interview. It is safe to say that no direct specialized involvement is necessary nowadays, but a real-life survey preceding the test is obligatory (Friedman, Levak, Nichols, & Webb, 2014). The results of the testing are always interpreted based on the person’s background and other factors that may be connected to the existing psychological concerns. Overall, the test consists of ten quantifiable scales that are interconnected with ten categories of behavior that can be conveyed by humans.
These types of behavior are authenticated using four validity scales that can be used to identify if the person is honest and completely sincere while answering the questions from the MMPI-2 survey. The general attitude toward the test is also important when drawing the line and making conclusions regarding the mental health of a certain person (Ganellen, 2015). It is a rather common situation when the persons taking the test may either exaggerate or deny the behaviors to which they are exposed throughout the test. The ultimate results of the test are always aligned with the peculiarities of the person’s character and background. Commonly, MMPI-2 is used in combination with other psychological tests to either validate or refute the existing hypothesis.
References
Friedman, A. F., Levak, R. W., Nichols, D. S., & Webb, J. T. (2014). Psychological assessment with the MMPI-2. Hoboken, NJ: Taylor & Francis. Web.
Ganellen, R. J. (2015). Integrating the Rorschach and the MMPI-2 in personality assessment. Philadelphia, PA: Taylor & Francis. Web.