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Associations between MMPI-2-RF (Restructured Form) and Inwald Personality Inventory (IPI) Scale Scores in a Law Enforcement Preemployment Screening Sample

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Abstract

The MMPI-2 is widely used in assessments of police officer candidates. The MMPI-2-RF, composed of 338 of the 567 MMPI-2 items, is designed to measure the core clinical constructs assessed by the MMPI-2, but in a more psychometrically sound and efficient manner (Ben-Porath and Tellegen 2008/2011). Law enforcement comparison group data are embedded in the scoring software for the inventory, and reported in the User’s Guide for the MMPI-2-RF Police Candidate Interpretive Report (PCIR; Corey and Ben-Porath 2014). In the present concurrent validity study, conceptually based hypotheses regarding associations between MMPI-2-RF scales and scores on the Inwald Personality Inventory (IPI, Inwald et al. 1982; Hilson Research 2006), a test specifically designed to screen law enforcement officers, were tested with a sample of 277 male, full-time police officer candidates from four separate police departments of varying sizes examined after a conditional offer of employment was tendered. The majority of participants were Caucasian (69%), followed by African-American (27%), or Other/Mixed ethnicity (4%). Our hypotheses were largely borne out, lending support to the construct validity of the MMPI-2-RF and the ability of scores on the inventory to assess variables relevant to police candidate evaluations.

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Notes

  1. The sample was limited to males owing to the small proportion of female police officer candidates.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Florissant Psychological Services, Inc., 701 St. Francois, St. Louis, MO, 63031, USA

    Paul Detrick

  2. Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA

    Yossef S. Ben-Porath

  3. Australian National University, Canberra, Australia

    Martin Sellbom

Authors
  1. Paul Detrick
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  2. Yossef S. Ben-Porath
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  3. Martin Sellbom
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Correspondence to Paul Detrick.

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Detrick, P., Ben-Porath, Y.S. & Sellbom, M. Associations between MMPI-2-RF (Restructured Form) and Inwald Personality Inventory (IPI) Scale Scores in a Law Enforcement Preemployment Screening Sample. J Police Crim Psych 31, 81–95 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-015-9172-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11896-015-9172-7

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