Personality Patterns of Personal Injury Litigants: The Role of Computer-Based MMPI-2 Evaluations (From Forensic Applications of the MMPI-2, P 179-201, 1995, Yossef S Ben-Porath, et al, eds. -- See NCJ-160683)

• NCJ Number: 160691
• Author(s): J N Butcher
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 23 pages
• Sale Source: Sage Publications, Inc
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Applied Psychology, Volume 2: Individual, Social, and Community Issues

Annotation

The importance of personality factors in the genesis or continuation of chronic pain and other somatic symptoms has been observed for many years, especially when litigation is involved, and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory 2 (MMPI-2) has been used in forensic evaluations where the individual being assessed is claiming personal injury.

Abstract

Civil court cases increasingly involve questions regarding psychological adjustment. Because of their expertise in psychopathology and personality evaluation, psychologists are more frequently being asked to provide expert opinion in court cases on the credibility of an individual's psychological claims, whether past adjustment problems of a litigant may affect the current claim, whether an individual is experiencing documentable and disabling stress-related symptoms, and whether symptoms an individual reports may be attributed to chronic maladjustment. No single pattern of personality test profiles has been found to exist among personal injury claimants. Rather, claimant personality patterns differ greatly, depending on such factors as injury type, claim legitimacy, time of testing, who administers psychological tests and where, and amount of pretest briefing provided by the test administrator or the attorney. The adversarial nature of forensic assessment and the importance of standardized forensic assessment procedures are examined. The use of personality test profiles with personal injury claimants is discussed in terms of physical injury and vague chronic pain, psychological symptoms in the context of physical injury, and psychological damages in post-traumatic stress disorders. Consideration is also paid to the importance of MMPI-2 validity scales in personal injury cases and to the role of computer-based interpretation in personal injury litigation. Directions for future research are identified that emphasize the impact of motivational sets on test performance, test-based indexes to reflect or detect different invalidating conditions, and behavioral correlates of MMPI-2 scales and indexes. 58 references and 7 figures