Faculty Publications

Does The Disorder Matter? Investigating A Moderating Effect On Coached Noncredible Overreporting Using The Mmpi-2 And Pai

Document Type

Article

Keywords

coaching, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2, MMPI-2, moderator, noncredible overreporting, PAI, personality, Personality Assessment Inventory, response bias, validity scales

Journal/Book/Conference Title

Assessment

Volume

20

Issue

2

First Page

199

Last Page

209

Abstract

The use of psychological tests to help identify the noncredible overreporting of psychiatric disorders is a long-standing practice that has received considerable attention from researchers. The purpose of this study was to experimentally determine whether feigning specific psychiatric disorders moderated the influence of coaching on the detection of noncredible overreporting using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) and the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI). Using a 2 × 3 experimental analogue design, 265 undergraduates were asked to feign schizophrenia, posttraumatic stress disorder, or generalized anxiety disorder and were either coached about validity scales and disorders or not. The results of this study indicated that the specific psychiatric disorder being feigned did moderate the impact coaching had on the detection of overreported psychopathology using several scales on the MMPI-2 and PAI. Future research examining noncredible overreporting should take into account the impact caused by the interaction of psychiatric disorder with coaching on the detection of symptom overreporting and also identify other important moderating/mediating variables in order to develop more effective means of identifying response bias. © The Author(s) 2012.

Department

Department of Psychology

Original Publication Date

4-1-2013

DOI of published version

10.1177/1073191112464619

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