Abstract
A cornerstone of forensic assessments involves the assessment of response styles, including feigning and malingering. As a forensic relevant instrument (FRI), the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) contains embedded overreporting scales that cover the three major domains: feigned mental disorders (i.e., F-r and Fp-r), feigned cognitive impairment (RBS and FBS-r), and feigned medical complaints (Fs). This meta-analytic review of 30 studies examined the effectiveness of various detection strategies and cut scores for the MMPI-2-RF. As an important clinical concern, several feigning scales (F-r, FBS-r, and RBS) exhibited marked elevations (Ms > 80 T) for genuine responders diagnosed with major depressive or somatoform disorders. However, the Fp-r—a true rare-symptoms detection strategy—proved highly effective for discriminating feigned from genuine psychopathology (ds > .90). For feigned cognitive impairment, the FBS-r produced very large effect sizes with feigned TBI (M d = 1.41); however, its cut scores were more indicative of general feigning than feigned cognitive impairment. Finally, Fs yielded a large effect size (d = 1.23) for feigned medical complaints, but its cut scores were more likely to identify examinees feigning mental disorders (M sensitivity = .74) than medical complaints (M sensitivity = .43). These findings are discussed within the context of clinical forensic evaluations.
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Notes
We recognize the divergence of opinion, whether the MMPI-2-RF should be viewed as a revision or a separate but related measure (see, e.g., Butcher et al. 2015).
Please note that F was originally developed as a measure of carelessness for which this comparison to the normative sample would be entirely relevant.
Following the effect size conventions were set forth by Rogers (2008): moderate ≥0.75, large ≥1.25, very large ≥1.50.
Using somatoform disorder as an example (i.e., M + 1 SD = 115.20 T), F-r ≥ 120 would likely result in only a small number of false-positives.
Besides classification errors, these close scores are also vulnerable to measurement errors (see Rogers et al. 2012).
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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. It is assumed that all procedures performed in the included studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Allyson J. Sharf, Richard Rogers, Margot M. Williams and Sarah A. Henry declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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This study did not require this university's Institutional Review Board approval because it was limited to re-analysis of previously published data. It is assumed that all studies included in the meta-analysis received approval by their respective Institutional Review Boards.
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Sharf, A.J., Rogers, R., Williams, M.M. et al. The Effectiveness of the MMPI-2-RF in Detecting Feigned Mental Disorders and Cognitive Deficits: a Meta-Analysis. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 39, 441–455 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-017-9590-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-017-9590-1