An examination of the association between psychopathy and dissimulation using the MMPI-2-RF validity scales.

ABSTRACT

This investigation sought to determine whether individuals high on psychopathic traits are better able than those low on such traits to avoid detection when feigning psychopathology in the context of a forensic psychological evaluation. Study 1 tested whether individuals high on psychopathy were better able than those low on psychopathy to avoid detection by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory 2-Restructured Form's (MMPI-2-RF; Ben-Porath, Y. S., & Tellegen, A., 2008, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form Manual for administration, scoring and interpretation, Minneapolis, MN University of Minnesota Press.) overreporting (F-r, Fp-r) and underreporting (L-r and K-r) validity scales, when undergraduate students were asked to feign good, feign bad, or respond honestly. Study 2 aimed to replicate and extend the overreporting (F-r and Fp-r) analyses in a forensic pretrial sample, in which individuals were classified as malingering or not malingering using the Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms (SIRS; Rogers, R., Bagby, R. M., & Dickens, S. E., 1992, Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms. Tampa, FL, Psychological Assessment Resources.). Combined results indicated that psychopathy did not affect the utility of the MMPI-2-RF validity scales in detecting overreporting. The underreporting analyses indicated that psychopathy did not affect the utility of L-r; however, callous-aggressive (or "meanness") psychopathy traits moderated the utility of K-r in detecting those feigning psychological adjustment, such that K-r was better able to detect individuals high on, rather than low on, psychopathy when underreporting. These results are promising in terms of evidence that individuals high on psychopathic traits are not any better than individuals low on these traits in feigning during psychological evaluations.