title: Psychometric evaluation of the restructured clinical scales of the MMPI-2.
abstract: Conceptual overlap and heterogeneity have long been noted as weaknesses of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory's clinical scales. Restructured clinical (RC) scales recently were developed to address these concerns (A. Tellegen et al., 2003). The authors evaluated the psychometric properties of the RC scales in psychology clinic clients (N=285) and military veterans (N=567). The RC scales were as internally consistent as the clinical scales and correlated strongly with their original counterparts (except for RC3/Hysteria). They also were less intercorrelated, produced conceptually clearer relations with measures of personality and psychopathology, and yielded somewhat greater incremental utility than the clinical scales. Thus, the RC scales demonstrated several psychometric strengths while utilizing 60% fewer items, but the 2 sets of scales cannot be used interchangeably. Interpretive considerations are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY 14260, USA. ljsimms@buffalo.edu
authors.forename: Leonard J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Simms
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Casillas
authors.forename: Lee Anna
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Watson
authors.forename: Bradley N
authors.initials: BN
authors.lastname: Doebbeling
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008950:MMPI / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results