MMPI and MMPI-2: A comparison of African-American and Caucasian performances and unigender and separate-gender norms
Abstract
The current study investigated the impact of normative changes on the MMPI-2 for specified demographic groups. No published studies could be found comparing African American performances (AA) on the MMPI and MMPI-2, nor were there any published studies comparing AA and Caucasian (C) performances on both versions of the inventory. Finally, since only one published study was available comparing MMPI-2 unigender and separate-gender norms for males and females, the impact of different norms was also investigated within each sex. Data for the study were collected from the Cleveland Psychiatric Institute in the late 1960s and have subsequently been used in a series of previous studies (e.g., Lachar, Dahlstrom, & Moreland, 1986). MMPI protocols were available as well as Brief Psychiatric Scale (BPRS; Overall & Gorham, 1962), and Nurses' Observation Scale for Inpatient Evaluation (NOSIE-30; Honigfeld, Giilis, & Klett, 1966) protocols. MMPI-2 profiles were derived by omitting MMPI items which are not included on the MMPI-2, and then converted to T-scores according to separate-gender and unigender MMPI-2 norms for each subject. Profiles were classified according to their highpoint and Lachar type and comparisons were based on these classifications. The MMPI and extracted MMPI-2 served as the independent variables and the BPRS and NOSIE-3O factor scores were the dependent variables. The accuracy test (Pritchard & Rosenblatt, 1980a) was used to analyze whether significant differences existed on the criterion measures. Few differences were found on the factor scores between Cs and AAs for the MMPI or the MMPI-2 analyses, except for the more psychopathic classifications. No differences were obtained between AAs with the same MMPI and extracted MMPI-2 profile types, but a few differences were found for Cs. In addition, very few differences existed when males were compared using unigender and separate-gender MMPI-2 norms and almost no differences were obtained between females. The power for the analyses was generally low, therefore results are not conclusive. However, with a few exceptions, correlates for specific profile types derived from one race or set or norms are typically applicable to the other race or set of norms for those same profile types.
Subject Area
Psychological tests|Psychotherapy|Personality
Recommended Citation
White, Valerie Isolde, "MMPI and MMPI-2: A comparison of African-American and Caucasian performances and unigender and separate-gender norms" (1995). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI9530047.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI9530047
