Crossvalidation of the MMPI-2 RC scales in a Dutch psychiatric sample.

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2; Butcher, Dahlstrom,
Graham, Tel-legen, & Kaemmer, 1989) is the most widely used psychological
measure in the clinical assessment of psychological symptoms and maladaptive
personality traits (Butcher, 2005; Butcher & Rouse, 1996; Camara, Nathan, &
Puente, 2000; Friedman, Lewak, Nichols & Webb, 2001; Graham, 2000). Al-though
the MMPI-2 and its predecessor, the MMPI (Hathaway & McKinley, 1943) are also
the most researched psychological tests, their most important scales, the
Clinical Scales, show some interpreta-tive difficulties. Among these
difficulties are the high intercorrelations of the Clinical Scales due to
itempoverlap and common variance that is related to psychopathology or
emotional distress in general but not to a specific diagnosis.
Recently, Tellegen, Ben-Porath, McNulty, Arbisi, Graham, & Kaemmer (2003)
provided Restructured Clinical (RC) Scales to address some of the
interpretative challenges of the MMPI-2 Clinical Scales. In developing the
RC-scales, Tellegen et al. (2003) wanted to *preserve the important descriptive
properties of the existing MMPI-2 Clinical Scales while enhancing their
distinctiveness* (p. 2).
The advantages of the RC scales in relation to the traditional Clinical Scales
are now subject of inves-tigation and debate. However, until now, no studies
with the RC scales have been published about any of the international
adaptations of the MMPI-2.
In the current investigation we evaluate the validity of the Dutch RC-scales
with the Structured Inter-view for DSM-IV diagnosis (SCID) in an outpatient
psychiatric sample (n = 100). We hypothesize that the RC-scales show better
validity coefficients than the traditional Clinical Scales.

Validity of the Dutch MMPI-2 RC-scales.

The clinical sample consists of 100 patients from an outpatient facility of a
Dutch psychiatric hospital. All participants will be assessed by means of the
MMPI-2 and the SCID as part of a pretreatment diagnostic process. Validity
coëfficiënts will be calculated for the MMPI-2 RC-scales in relation to the
SCID. We use uncorrected raw MMPI-2 scores and SCID I and II scores in the
analyses.

There are no risks associated with participation in this study (e.g. assessment
with the MMPI-2 and the SCID). Assessment by means of the SCID is not a
standard procedure at our institute, so participation in this study may cost
some extra time (up to about two ours extra time). The benefit of this
procedure for participants in the investigation is a carefully investigated
DSM-IV classification as a starting point for treatment planning. In several
other institutions, assessment with the SCID is part of the standard pre
treatment assessment procedure.