Faking specific disorders and temporal response consistency on the MMPI-2.

Abstract

The ability of persons faking posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or closed-head injury (CHI) to respond consistently across serial testings on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2 ; J. Butcher, W. Dahlstrom, J. Graham, A. Tellegen, & B. Kaemmer, 1989) was investigated. Results showed that individuals faking PTSD obtained 2-week test-retest reliability scores comparable to individuals completing the MMPI-2 with standard instructions ; individuals faking CHI obtained reliability coefficients significantly lower than individuals faking PTSD. A 3 X 2 (Response Style X Time) analysis of variance indicated that individuals faking a disorder obtained significantly elevated scores on validity scales sensitive to overreporting ; no main effect for time was found. Results suggest that test-takers faking specific disorders can describe symptoms consistently on repeated testing and that type of disorder may affect temporal response consistency.