title: The role of elevation, scatter, and shape in MMPI profiles.
abstract: The contribution of profile elevation, scatter, and shape to differences between Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) profiles was studied in psychiatric, normal, and mixed samples. Average between profile differences were smallest within the normal sample and largest within the mixed sample. Overall, the role of shape was most important, with elevation making a smaller but significant contribution to profile differences. Scatter was of minimal importance. Systems proposed by Skinner (1976) and Lorr (1982) were found to account for a large part of the variance due to shape, and these systems also were successful in classifying individual MMPI profiles. Advantages and applications of such systems in the analysis and description of profile data were discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Missouri-St. Louis, MO 63121-4499, USA.
authors.forename: G K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Burger