Date of Award

Summer 2019

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Program/Concentration

Virginia Consortium Program in Clinical Psychology

Committee Director

Richard W. Handel

Committee Member

Scott M. Debb

Committee Member

Jennifer M. Flaherty

Committee Member

Serina A. Neumann

Abstract

When respondents to self-report measures fail to answer in accordance with item content it distorts the accuracy of obtained test scores, degrading the ability of clinicians to use results to make accurate diagnoses and recommendations. The Variable Response Inconsistency (VRIN) scale was created for the MMPI-2 and was later revised as the VRIN-r scale for the MMPI-2-RF and MMPI-A-RF in order to detect and invalidate protocols over saturated with random responding. Analyses conducted by Pitta (2016) revealed that the VRIN-r scale for the MMPI-A-RF was not ideally sensitive to the detection of random responding in protocols. This study explored adding items drawn from another validity scale used to detect over reporting on the MMPI-A-RF (the F-r scale) to the VRIN-r scale to ascertain if the resultant hybrid scale was more sensitive to random responding. Using the MMPI-A-RF normative sample and an over reporting sample from the MMPI-A, analyses were conducted to identify the ideal number of F-r items to add to the VRIN-r scale that maximized sensitivity to random responding while maintaining specificity from detecting over reporting. F-r items were also added to another validity scale, the Combined Response Inconsistency (CRIN) scale, to ascertain if this hybrid scale was reliably sensitive to random responding. Analyses revealed that adding six F-r items to both the VRIN-r and CRIN scale greatly improved their sensitivity to random responding while maintaining adequate specificity from the detection of over reporting. Implications for these findings, limitations to the research design, and areas of future research are discussed.

Comments

The VIRGINIA CONSORTIUM PROGRAM IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY is a joint program of Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk State University, and Old Dominion University.

Rights

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/azvz-2597

ISBN

9798641470375

ORCID

0000-0003-4954-9670

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