Abstract
Response style in objective psychological testing is an important issue in the reliability and validity of tests as well as in the interpretation of test results. The MCMI provides two response-style indices, the validity scale and the weight factor. The present work presents an additional statistic to assess random response in subjects. The Consistency Coefficient is the correlation between the subjects' endorsement of even and odd items across the 20 MCMI scales. The distributions of 500 patient and 500 randomly generated profiles were compared. Good separation between these distributions was found. The subject data were extremely negatively skewed, whereas the randomly generated data were normally distributed. Data are presented that display positive and negative predictive values, as well as sensitivity and specificity across ranges of prevalence and cut score. These data facilitate the identification of subjects who respond to the MCMI in a random manner so that their scores can be interpreted accordingly.
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Retzlaff, P.D., Sheehan, E.P. A response Consistency statistic for the millon clinical multiaxial inventory (MCMI). J Psychopathol Behav Assess 11, 143–151 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00960476
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00960476