title: The detection of fake-bad and fake-good responding on the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory III.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the 3 Modifying Indices of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory III (MCMI-III) in the detection of fake-bad and fake-good responding. The sample consisted of 160 psychiatric outpatients. Paired t tests were performed to examine the effects of instructional set (faking vs. standard instructions). As hypothesized, instructional set produced significant differences on Scale X, Scale Y, and Scale Z in both fake-bad and fake-good analyses. Single-scale cutoff scores were as effective as multiple-scale cutoffs. The overall rates of successful classification indicated moderate effectiveness and utility of the MCMI-III Modifying Indices in the detection of dissimulated responding. When base rates were varied to more closely approximate a general clinical population, overall classification accuracy increased, but identification of faking (positive predictive power) gradually eroded with declining base-rate estimates. At lower base rates of faking, MCMI-III standard cutoff points yielded a high number of false positives.
authors.affiliation: Department of Education and Human Services, Lehigh University, USA. sdaubert@wellspan.org
authors.forename: S D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Daubert
authors.forename: A E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Metzler
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003631:Day Care, Medical; D008192:Deception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results