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Fifty Highlights in MMPI History

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FAQ: Fifty Highlights in MMPI History

For a discussion of the history of the MMPI in a lecture presented by J. N. Butcher at the Archives of the History of Psychology in February 2007, see the following RealMedia video: Lecture: History of the MMPI

You can also download this FAQ as a PDF.

Highlights from MMPI History: A Timeline Perspective 1

James N. Butcher
Professor Emeritus
University of Minnesota

Handout for 9 th Annual Conference on
Contemporary Applications of Psychological Testing
Boston, Ma
April 2nd, 2005

 

1940	First journal publication on the Multiphasic Schedule (Hathaway & McKinley, 1940)
1943	Time Magazine announcement of the broad use of the MMPI.
	Applications of the MMPI in medical assessment (Schiele, et al., 1943)
1944	Established the value of the MMPI in personnel selection (Abramson, 1944)
1945	Meehl's empiricist manifesto (Meehl, 1945).
	First use of the MMPI with adolescents (Capwell, 1945).
1946	Development of the Si scale (Drake, 1946)
	Classic studies on semi-starvation effects among conscientious objectors (Keys, et al, 1946).
1947	Simulated patterns on the MMPI (Gough, 1947).
1948	First translations of the MMPI (Abe in Japan and Reda in Italy; two countries that a few years earlier had been at war with the United States
1951	Analyzing and predicting delinquency (Hathaway & Monachesi, 1951)
1952	First factor analysis of the test establishing the factor structure of the MMPI scales (Welsh, 1952)
1954	Meehl's article on clinical versus statistical prediction establishing the actuarial prediction approach in psychology (Meehl, 1954).
1955	Work by Reitan contributed to the inclusion of the MMPI in neurological assessment (Reitan, 1955).
	Empirical validation of code types (Halbower, 1955).
	Development of the Harris Lingoes Subscales (Harris & Lingoes, 1955)
1956	Factors in test translation (Sundberg, 1956).
1960	First comprehensive interpretation text for the MMPI (Dahlstrom & Welsh, 1960)
1962	Development of the first computer interpretation system at the Mayo Clinic by John Pearson and Wendell Swenson, (Pearson, Swenson, et al., 1965; Rome, Swenson, et al., 1962)
1963	Marks & Seeman's actuarial prediction providing an interpretive cookbook for MMPI codes with outpatients (MMPI cookbook) (Marks & Seemen, 1963).
1965	Gilberstadt & Duker (MMPI cookbook) for inpatients. (Gilberstadt & Duker, 1965)
	Block's study dispelling the power of response sets (Block, 1965)
	Establishment of the Symposium on Recent Developments in the Use of the MMPI that has brought new research and clinical interpretation strategies to psychologists for 40 years.
1966	Wiggins's content scale interpretation approach (Wiggins, 1966)
	Gottesman & Shields' MMPI study on the genetics of schizophrenia and personality (Gottesman & Shields, 1966).
	Strength of actuarial methods in psychological assessment (Sines, 1966)
1967	Development of the first Narrative MMPI interpretive program with Roche Laboratories (Fowler, 1967)
1968	Craig MacAndrew developed the MAC Scale-- a highly successful addiction proneness scale
1969	First public discussion of the need for an MMPI revision by a panel of MMPI experts at the 5 th MMPI Symposium on Recent Developments in the Use of the MMPI in Minneapolis , MN .
1970	First International Symposium on Recent Developments in the MMPI ( Mexico ) highlighting international use of the MMPI.
1972	Changing perspectives in objective personality assessment (detailed discussion on the need for and factors in the revision of the MMPI (Butcher, 1972)
1976	Developed a rigorous methodology for MMPI translation (Butcher & Pancheri, 1976)
1977	Established a system for the classification of profiles in criminal offenders (Megargee, 1977)
	Publication of John Graham's MMPI long-running and widely used interpretive textbook “ The MMPI:  A Practical Guide."
1978	Innovative clinical programming that integrated the MMPI into chronic pain treatment programs (Fordyce, 1978)
1981	The MMPI revision and data collection began after many years of discussion: The MMPI-2 Revision Committee was comprised of James Butcher, John Graham, W. Grant Dahlstom. Auke Tellegen joined the Committee a few years later in the data analysis stage.
1985	Predicting behavior with the MMPI in job applicants (Beutler, 1985).
1988	Malingering assessment in psychological tests (Schretlen, 1988).
1989	MMPI-2 was published –20 years after the need for a revision was established at the 5 th Annual Symposium on Recent Developments in the Use of the MMPI (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, et al., 1989).
	Criteria for assessing inconsistent patterns of item endorsement (Nichols, Greene, & Schmolck, 1989).
1990	Development of the MMPI-2 content scales (Butcher, Graham, et al 1990)
1991	Research verified the validity of MMPI-2 indices (Berry, Baer, & Harris, 1991; Graham, Watts, & Timbrook, 1991).
1992	MMPI-A was published (Butcher, Williams, et al., 1992)
	Therapeutic Assessment (test feedback in therapy) demonstrated to be an effective treatment strategy (Finn & Tonsager, 1992).
	Delineation of the new T scores for MMPI-2 (Tellegen & Ben-Porath, 1992)
	Development of new measures for substance abuse assessment (Weed, et al. 1992)
1995	Development of the Fp Scale (Arbisi & Ben-Porath, 1995)
	Development of the Superlative Self Presentation (S) scale (Butcher & Han, 1995).
	Importance of validity indicators in MMPI-2 evaluation (Bagby, 1995).
	Established the continuity of MMPI code type correlates in the MMPI-2 (Archer, Griffin, & Aiduk, 1995).

 

 

MMPI contributions after 1995 were not included in the selection process.

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References

Abramson, H. A. (1945). The Minnesota personality test in relation to selection of specialized military personnel. Psychosomatic Medicine, 7, 178-184.

Arbisi, P. & Ben-Porath, Y. S. (1995). An MMPI-2 infrequency scale for use with psychopathological populations: The Infrequency-Psychopathology Scale, F (p). Psychological Assessment, 7, 424-431.

Archer, R. P., Griffin, R. & Aiduk, R. (1995). Clinical correlates for ten common code types. Journal of Personality Assessment, 65, 391-408.

Bagby, R. M. (1995). Relative effectiveness of the standard validity scales in detecting fake-bad and fake-good responding: Replication and extension. Psychological Assessment, 7, 84-92.

Berry, D. T., Baer, R. A., & Harris, M. J. (1991). Detection of malingering on the MMPI: A meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 11, 585-591.

Beutler, L. E. (1985). Parameters in the prediction of police officer performance. Professional Psychology - Research & Practice, 16 , 324-335.

Block, J. (1965). The challenge of response sets . New York: Appleton-Century Crofts.

Butcher, J. N. (Ed.). (1972). Objective personality assessment: Changing perspectives . New York: Academic Press.

Butcher, J. N., Dahlstrom, W. G., Graham, J. R., Tellegen, A. M., & Kaemmer, B. (1989). Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2): Manual for administration and scoring . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Butcher, J. N., Graham, J. R., Williams, C.L., & Ben-Porath, Y. S. (1990). Development and use of the MMPI-2 Content Scales. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Butcher, J. N., Williams, C. L., Graham, J. R., Archer, R., Tellegen, A., Ben-Porath, Y. S., & Kaemmer, B. (1992). MMPI-A manual for administration, scoring, and interpretation. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Butcher, J. N., & Pancheri, P. (1976). Handbook of cross-national MMPI research . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Butcher, J. N. & Han, K. (1995). Development of an MMPI-2 scale to assess the presentation of self in a superlative manner: The S Scale. In J. N. Butcher and C. D. Spielberger (Eds.) Advances in personality assessment, Volume 10. Hillsdale, N. J.: LEA Press.(Pp 25-50).

Capwell, D. (1945). Personality patterns of adolescent girls: II. Delinquents and non-delinquents. Journal of Applied Psychology, 29 , 289-297.

Drake, L. E. (1946). A social I.E. scale for the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Journal of Applied Psychology, 30, 51-54.

Finn, S., & Tonsager, M. (1992). Therapeutic effects of providing MMPI-2 test feedback to college students awaiting therapy. Psychological Assessment , 4 , 278–287.

Fordyce, W. E. (1978). Relationship of patient semantic pain descriptions to physician diagnostic judgments, activity level measures and MMPI. Pain, 5 , 293-303.

Fowler, R. D., Jr. (1967). Computer interpretation of personality tests: The automated psychologist. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 8( 6), 455-467.

Gilberstadt, H. D. J. (1965). A handbook for clinical and actuarial MMPI interpretation. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders.

Gottesman, I. I. & Shields, J. (1966). Schizophrenia in twins: 16 years' consecutive admissions to a psychiatric clinic . British Journal of Psychiatry, 112, 809-818.

Gough, H. G. (1947). Simulated patterns on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology, 42 , 215-225.

Graham, J. R. 1977. The MMPI:  A Practical Guide .New York: Oxford Un iversity Press.

Graham, J. R., Watts, D., & Timbrook, R. (1991). Detecting fake-good and fake-bad MMPI-2 profiles. Journal of Personality Assessment, 57, 264-277.

Halbower, C. C. (1955). A comparison of actuarial versus clinical prediction to classes discriminated by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Dissertation Abstracts International, 15, 1115.

Harris, R. E., & Lingoes, J. C. (1955). Subscales for the MMPI: An aid to profile interpretation [Mimeographed materials]. Los Angeles: University of California, Department of Psychiatry. (Reprinted in 1968).

Hathaway, S. R., & McKinley, J. C. (1940). A multiphasic personality schedule (Minnesota): I. Construction of the schedule. Journal of Psychology , 10 , 249–254.

Hathaway, S. R. Monachesi. E. D. (1951). The prediction of juvenile delinquency using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. American Journal of Psychiatry, 108 , 469-473.

Keys, A. M. et al. 1946). Later stages of rehabilitation following experimental starvation in man. In Laboratory of physiological hygiene report ( Minneapolis: University of Minnesota.

MacAndrew, C. (1965). The differentiation of male alcoholic outpatients from nonalcoholic psychiatric outpatients by means of the MMPI. Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol , 26 , 238–246.

Marks, P. A. Seeman, W. (1963). The actuarial description of personality: an atlas for use with the MMPI. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins.

Meehl, P. E. (1954). Clinical versus statistical prediction: A theoretical analysis and a review of the evidence. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Meehl, P. E. (1945). The dynamics of "structured" personality tests. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 1 , 296-303, of-303.

Megargee, E. I. (Ed.) (1977). A new classification system for criminal offenders [Special issue]. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 4 (2).

Nichols, D. S., Greene, R. L., & Schmolck, P. (1989). Criteria for assessing inconsistent patterns of item endorsement on the MMPI: Rationale, development, and empirical trials. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 45 , 239-250.

Pearson, J. S., Swenson, W. M., Rome, H. P., Mataya, P., & Brannick, T. L. (1965). Development of a computer system for scoring and interpreting the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory in a medical setting. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences , 126 , 682–692.

Reitan, R. M. (1955). Affective disturbances in brain-damaged patients; measurements with the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Archives of Neurology & Psychiatry, 73, 530-532.

Rome, H. P., Swenson, W. M., Mataya, P., McCarthy, C. E., Pearson, J. S., Keating, F. R., & Hathaway, S. R. (1962). Symposium on automation techniques in personality assessment. Proceedings of the Staff Meetings of the Mayo Clinic, 37, 61-82.

Schretlen, D. J. (1988). The use of psychological tests to identify malingered symptoms of mental disorder. Clinical Psychology Review, 8 , 451-476.

Schiele, B. C. et al (1943). The Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory. Lancet , 63, 292-297.

Sines, J. O. (1966). Actuarial methods as appropriate strategy for the validation of diagnostic tests Psychological Review, 71, 517-523.

Sundberg, N. D. (1956). The use of the MMPI for cross-cultural personality study: A preliminary report on the German translation. Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology, 58 , 281-283.

Tellegen, A., & Ben-Porath, Y. S. (1992). The new uniform T-scores for the MMPI-2: Rationale, derivation, and appraisal. Psychological Assessment, 4, 145-155.

Weed, N. C., Butcher, J. N., Ben-Porath, Y. S., & McKenna, T. (1992). New measures for assessing alcohol and drug abuse with the MMPI-2: The APS and AAS. Journal of Personality Assessment, 58, 389-404.

Wiggins, J. S. (1966). Substantive dimensions of self-report in the MMPI item pool. Psychological Monographs , 80(22, Whole No. 630).

 

1. The fifty timeline highlights were selected as events that had special influential significance and positive contribution to MMPI development. This is not a comprehensive listing of MMPI contributions and other important studies could have been included had space allowed.