Examined the detection of faking good and faking bad on the Personality Inventory for Children-Revised with an outpatient mental health clinic population. Results show that faking influences all 12 clinical scales and the four broad-band scales. Detection of faking good is recommended by the use of the Lie scale and the Adjustment scale.…

Contends that the Speech Sounds Perception Test form (Adult and Midrange versions) is structured such that correct responses can be determined rationally. If a patient identifies and responds according to that structure, the validity of the test is compromised. Posttest interview is suggested as a simple solution. (Author/JAC)

It was concluded that scores on the Manifest Anxiety Scale reflect reactive" anxiety, the autonomic components of which are differentially elicited by ego-involving stress situations. (Author)

The Basic Personality Inventory (BPI) was completed by 180 undergraduates who received faking instructions, 182 normal adults, and 404 psychiatric inpatients. The BPI was scored for measures of stylistic responding and for its 12 scales. Reports results of instructions to fake, incidence of stylistic responding, and detection of faking using three…

Shoppers completed the Beck Hopelessness Scale, the Edwards Social Desirability Inventory, and a survey of past suicidal behavior. Results indicated hopelessness and social desirability were reliably related to reports of past suicidal behavior, to frequency of current suicidal ideation, and to subjects' predictions of future suicide potential.…

The hypothesis was tested that subjects fake personality tests by enacting a specific social role, rather than by responding in terms of personality constructs, and that such role faking cannot be detected by validity scales. Results support the hypothesis. (Author)

Examined group differences in self-reporting anxiety for one hundred chronic pain patients, an equal number of college students, and two smaller comparison samples. Pain patients, relative to nonpatients, acknowledged dramatically fewer total signs of anxiety. Also, pain patients endorsed significantly more somatic than cognitive indicators of…

The Modifiers and Perceived Stress Scale measures stressful life events by number and amount of perceived stresses and provides scores for variables such as anticipation of events, responsibility for events, and amount of social support from family and friends in coping with each event that modify the way stress is perceived. (Author)

Compared self-reports from 215 adults to the external criterion of spouse ratings of personality traits to separate substance from style in social desirability (SD) scales. Results showed that correcting self-reports for SD failed to improve correspondence with an external, objective criterion and in several cases lowered agreement. (LLL)

This study tested Deiker's hypothesis that "naysaying" accounts for the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Overcontrolled-Hostility (O-H) scale's ability to discriminate among criminal groups differing in their propensity for violence. It was concluded that the validity of the O-H scale is not dependent on naysaying. (Author)

Explored utility of disguise in structured self-report assessment of psychopathology, using university students. Data indicated that under normal test-taking circumstances, use of disguised test items was not advantageous. This relationship was moderated by several dimensional parameters. Results supported rational strategy of test construction,…

Seven Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) items distinguish alcoholics in treatment from normals and psychiatric patients. These items have substantial face validity. MMPI scales developed as screening devices for alcoholism did not discriminate the alcoholics in treatment and the psychiatric patients as strongly as did these seven…

To test differential effects of treating cognitive and emotionality response components of test anxiety, test-anxious college students (N=48) were assigned to one of four groups: an attentional treatment; a relaxation treatment; a combined attentional-relaxation treatment; and a waiting-list control group. Significant performance changes were not…

The results support the use of the FCGI as a research tool; the assurance that responses will not affect incarceration generally results in truthful responding. Under conditions where such assurance could not be given, scores should be interpreted cautiously since subjects may then have reason to falsify responses. (Author)