Abstract
Accurate and early identification of feigning of symptoms is important. The use of symptom validity tests (SVTs) with culturally diverse populations for whom validation data do not exist must be carefully considered. In this chapter we explore the most commonly used and/or researched SVTs and we discuss research on these measures with African Americans. Specifically, we review the test of memory malingering; the MMPI-II; Reliable Digit Span; the Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms; the Miller-Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Test (M-FAST); and the Rey 15 Items. With a few caveats these measures can be used with African American clients. Evidence-based recommendations on the use of SVTs with African American clients are provided.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th ed., text rev.). Washington, DC: APA.
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: APA.
Arbisi, P. A., Ben-Porath, Y. I., & McNulty, J. (2002). A comparison of MMPI-2 validity in African American and Caucasian psychiatric inpatients. Psychological Assessment, 14(1), 3–15.
Archer, R. P., Buffington-Vollum, J. K., Stredny, R. V., & Handel, R. W. (2006). A survey of psychological test use patterns among forensic psychologists. Journal of Personality Assessment, 87(1), 84–94, 11.
Axelrod, B. N., Fichtenberg, N. L., Millis, S. R., & Wertheimer, J. C. (2006). Detecting incomplete effort with digit span from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-third edition. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 3(3), 513–523.
Benuto, L. T., & Leany, B. D. (2013). Assessing effort and malingering with the hispanic client. In Guide to Psychological Assessment with Hispanics (pp. 99–112). Springer US.
Boone, K. B. (2009). The need for continuous and comprehensive sampling of effort/response bias during neuropsychological evaluation. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 23, 729–741.
Boone, K. B., Salazar, X., Lu, P., Warner-Chacon, K., & Razani, J. (2002). The Rey 15-item recognition trial: A technique to enhance sensitivity of the Rey 15-item memorization test. Journal of clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 24(5), 561–573.
Boone, K. B., Victor, T. L., Wen, J., Razani, J., & Ponton, M. (2007). The association between neuropsychological scores and ethnicity, language, and acculturation variables in a large patient population. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 3(3), 355–365.
Brickman, A. M., Cabo, R., & Manly, J. J. (2006). Ethical issues in cross-cultural neuropsychology. Applied Neuropsychology, 13(2), 91–100.
Dean, A. C., Boone, K. B., Kim, M. S., Curiel, A. R., Martin, D. J., Victor, T. L., Zeller, M. A., & Lang, Y. K. (2008). Examination of the impact of ethnicity on the Minnesota Multiple Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) Fake Bad Scale. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 22, 1054–1060.
Green, P. (2003). Green’s Word Memory Test for Windows: User’s manual. Edmonton: Green’s Publishing.
Green, P. (2004). Green’s Medical Symptom Validity Test (MSVT): User’s manual. Edmonton: Green’s Publishing.
Green, P., & Astner, K. (1995). Manual for the Oral World Memory Test. Edmonton: Neurobehavioral Associates.
Greiffenstein, M. F., Baker, W. J., & Gola, T. (1994). Validation of malingered amnesia measures with a large clinical sample. Psychological Assessment, 3(3), 218–224.
Heinly, M. T., Greve, K. W., Bianchini, K. J., Love, J. L., & Brennan, A. (2005). WAIS Digit Span-based indicators of malingered neurocognitive dysfunction: Classification accuracy in traumatic brain injury. Assessment, 12, 429–444.
Iverson, G. L., & Tulsky, D. S. (2003). Detecting malingering on the WAIS-III: Unusual Digit Span performance patterns in the normal population and in clinical groups. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 18(1), 1–9.
James, D. J., & Glaze, L. E. (2006). Mental health problems in prison and jail inmates. Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report, September.
Kocsis, R. N. (2011). The structured interview of reported symptoms 2nd edition (SIRS-2): The new benchmark towards the assessment of malingering. Journal Of Forensic Psychology Practice, 11(1), 73–81.
McNulty, J., Forbey, J., Graham, J., Ben-Porath, Y., Black, M., & Anderson, S. (2003). MMPI-2 validity scale characteristics in a correctional sample. Assessment, 10, 288–298.
Miller, H. A. (2001). MFAST: Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Test professional manual. Odessa: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.
Miller, H. A. (2004). Examining the use of the M-FAST with criminal defendants incompetent to stand trial. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 48(3), 268–280.
Miller, H. A. (2005). The Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Test (M-FAST): Test generalizability and utility across race, literacy, and clinical opinion. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 32(6), 591–611.
Monnot, M. J., Quirk, S. W., Hoerger, M., & Brewer, L. (2009). Racial bias in personality assessment: Using the MMPI-2 to predict psychiatric diagnoses of African American and Caucasian chemical dependency inpatients. Psychological Assessment, 21(2), 137–151.
Reese, C., Suhr, J. A., & Riddle, T. (2012). Exploration of malingering indices in the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale-fourth edition Digit Span subtest. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology Advanced Access.
Rogers, R. (2001). Handbook of diagnostic and structured interviewing. New York: Guilford.
Rogers, R. (Eds.). (2008). Clinical assessment of malingering and deception. New York: Guilford.
Rogers, R., Bagby, R. M., & Dickens, S. E. (1992). Structured interview of reported symptoms (SIRS) and professional manual. Odessa: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Rogers, R., Sewell, K. W., & Gillard, N. (2010a) Structured interview of reported symptoms-2 (SIRS-2) and professional manual. Odessa: Psychological Assessment Resources.
Rogers, R., Sewell, K. W., & Gillard, N. D. (2010b). SIRS professional manual (2nd ed.). Lutz: Psychological Assessment Resources.Inc
Rubenzer, S. (2010). Review of the structured inventory of reported symptoms-2 (SIRS-2). Open Access Journal of Forensic Psychology, 2, 273–286.
Salazar, X. F., Lu, P. H., Wen, J., & Boone, K. (2007). The use of effort tests in ethnic minorities and in non-English-speaking and English as a second language populations. In K. Boone & K. Boone (Eds.), Assessment of feigned cognitive impairment: A neuropsychological perspective (pp. 405–427). New York: Guilford.
Sellbom, M., Toomey, J. A., Wygant, D. B., Kucharski, L. T., & Duncan, S. (2010). Utility of the MMPI-2-RF (Restructured Form) validity scales in detecting malingering in a criminal forensic setting: A known-groups design. Psychological Assessment, 22(1), 22–31.
Suhr, J. A., & Barrash, J. (2007). Performance on standard attention, memory, and psychomotor speed tasks as indicators of malingering. In G. L. Larrabee (Ed.), Assessment of malingered neurospychological deficits (pp. 131–170). New York: Oxford University Press.
Tombaugh, T. N. (1996). The test of memory malingering (TOMM). Toronto: Multi-Health Systems.
Victor, T. L., Boone, K. B., Serpa, J. G., Beuhler, J., & Ziegler, E. A. (2009). Interpreting the meaning of multiple symptoms validity tests failure. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 23, 297–313.
Vitacco, M. J., Jackson, R. L., Rogers, R., Neumann, C. S., Miller, H. A., & Gabel, J. (2008). Detection strategies for malingering with the miller forensic assessment of symptoms test a confirmatory factor analysis of its underlying dimensions. Assessment, 15(1), 97–103.
Wechsler, D. (2009). Wechsler Memory Scale-fourth edition. San Antonio: Pearson.
Weinborn, M., Orr, T., Woods, S. P., Conover, E., & Feix, F. (2003). A validation of the test of memory malingering in a forensic psychiatric setting. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 3(7), 979–990.
Wisdom, J. P., Cavaleri, M. A., Onwuegbuzie, A. J., & Green, C. A. (2012). Methodological reporting in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods health services research articles. Health Services Research, 3(2), 721–745.
Zhang, A. Y., & Snowden, L. R. (1999). Ethnic characteristics of mental disorders in five U.S. communities. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 5, 134–146.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Benuto, L., Leany, B., Lee, A. (2015). Assessing Effort and Malingering with the African American Client. In: Benuto, L., Leany, B. (eds) Guide to Psychological Assessment with African Americans. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1004-5_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-1004-5_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-1003-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-1004-5
eBook Packages: Behavioral ScienceBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)