The relation between symptom validity testing and MMPI-2 scores as a function of forensic evaluation context.

The association between scores on MMPI-2 scales and cognitive symptom validity test (SVT) failure was investigated in 127 criminal defendants evaluated for competency to stand trial, criminal responsibility, and drug dependence, and 141 personal injury and disability claimants. Results indicated that SVT failure was associated with exaggerated symptom presentation involving somatic complaints in civil litigants and more global exaggeration of psychopathology and somatic complaints in criminal defendants. Scores on the MMPI-2 Fake Bad Scale (FBS) were associated with SVT failure in both civil and criminal litigants, whereas scores on the MMPI-2 F(P) scale were associated with SVT failure in criminal defendants, but not in civil plaintiffs. These results support the utility of the FBS as an indicator of non-credible presentation of somatic and cognitive complaints in both civil and criminal forensic psychological assessments, and indicate that the lack of association between the MMPI-2 infrequency scales and SVT failure is limited to civil forensic settings.

A comparison of MMPI--2 measures of psychopathic deviance in a forensic setting.

We examined the convergent and discriminant validity of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory--2 (MMPI--2) measures of psychopathy, including the Clinical Scale 4, Restructured Clinical Scale 4 (RC4), Content Scale Antisocial Practices (ASP), and Personality Psychopathology Five Scale Disconstraint (DISC). Comparisons of the empirical correlates of these scales were conducted with 2 samples of participants evaluated at a criminal court clinic. The 2 samples included 59 men and 19 women and 913 men and 327 women, respectively. Two types of criteria (clinician ratings and archival record review) were utilized in the analyses. Relative to Clinical Scale 4, RC4 had significantly greater convergent validity in predicting psychopathy as measured by the Psychopathy Checklist--Screening Version (S. D. Hart, D. N. Cox, & R. D. Hare, 1995) and behavioral criteria associated with this construct. RC4 also showed substantially improved discriminant validity when compared with its Clinical Scale counterpart. Among all the MMPI-2 scales studied, RC4 was the best measure of the social deviance traits of psychopathy.

Use of the TOMM in a criminal court forensic assessment setting.

Use of the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) in a criminal court forensic assessment setting was examined. Results indicated that those initially suspected of cognitive malingering and, thus, administered the TOMM, differed from others in this setting in ways that are consistent with descriptions of suspected cognitive malingerers in the existing literature. These defendants' TOMM scores were also consistent with those reported in samples characterized by relatively high base rates of cognitive malingering. Defendants whose TOMM scores met the recommended criteria for detecting malingering (n = 29) were more likely to report a previous head injury, to be viewed as only marginally cooperative or uncooperative during the course of the evaluation, and to be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder than those who did not generate suspicious TOMM scores.

Correlates of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY-5) scales in a forensic assessment setting.

Empirical correlates of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY-5) scales in a forensic assessment setting were identified. Archival extratest data, including demographics, psychosocial history, criminal behavior history, and current mental status and psychodiagnosis, were extracted from the case files of 593 men and women referred to a forensic assessment clinic for criminal court-ordered evaluations. Zero-order and multiple correlations were calculated between the MMPI-2 PSY-5 scales and relevant criterion variables. Findings indicated that the PSY-5 scales' empirical correlates in a forensic setting are similar to and consistent with those found in general mental health settings. Linear combinations of MMPI-2 PSY-5 Scale scores accounted for moderate proportions of variance in the collateral indicators.

Development and construct validation of MMPI-2-RF indices of global psychopathy, fearless-dominance, and impulsive-antisociality.

This paper reports on three psychopathy indices derived from scores on the MMPI-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF; Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008). In Study 1, we describe the development of such indices referenced to the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI; Lilienfeld & Andrews, 1996) and its two distinguishable facets, Fearless-Dominance and Impulsive-Antisociality. We estimated psychopathy scores by regressing PPI scores onto conceptually selected MMPI-2-RF scales in a combined sample of 825 college students and correctional inmates. In Study 2, we explored the construct validity of these psychopathy measures in college student and correctional samples. The measures demonstrated conceptually expected patterns of associations with other established psychopathy inventories, and with psychopathy-related traits including narcissism, sensation seeking, antisociality, and impulsivity as well as broad personality and temperament factors. In Study 3, we used data from a large sample of outpatient mental health clients to establish the validity of the MMPI-2-RF psychopathy measures in relation to legal and mental health variables and therapist ratings of antisociality, narcissism, aggression, and internalizing problems. Theoretical implications of findings from these three studies for the psychopathy construct (including for DSM-5) are discussed.

Further validation of the MMPI-2 and MMPI-2-RF Response Bias Scale: findings from disability and criminal forensic settings.

The present study extends the validation of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) Response Bias Scale (RBS; R. O. Gervais, Y. S. Ben-Porath, D. B. Wygant, & P. Green, 2007) in separate forensic samples composed of disability claimants and criminal defendants. Using cognitive symptom validity tests as response bias indicators, the RBS exhibited large effect sizes (Cohen's ds = 1.24 and 1.48) in detecting cognitive response bias in the disability and criminal forensic samples, respectively. The scale also added incremental prediction to the traditional MMPI-2 and the MMPI-2-RF overreporting validity scales in the disability sample and exhibited excellent specificity with acceptable sensitivity at cutoffs ranging from 90T to 120T. The results of this study indicate that the RBS can add uniquely to the existing MMPI-2 and MMPI-2-RF validity scales in detecting symptom exaggeration associated with cognitive response bias.

The role of competency to stand trial in mental health courts.

Concerns have been raised in the literature about the competency to stand trial and competency to make treatment decisions of defendants referred to mental health courts. However, there is little information reported about the evaluation and prevalence of incompetence, characteristics of incompetent mental health court defendants, and disposition of mentally ill defendants too disturbed to be diverted from the criminal justice system through mental health courts. This study reports on the 85 potential mental health court defendants referred for trial competency evaluations during the first three years of operation of the Akron Ohio Mental Health Court. Of the 80 defendants who could be located for evaluation, 77.5% were found incompetent, and 53% of the incompetent defendants were not restored to competence even after an average of 49 days of treatment in a state psychiatric hospital. The implications of these findings in terms of the diversion potential of mental health courts for the severely mentally ill are discussed.