Important MMPI-2 Scales

Measures of Completeness and Consistency

 ? Scale - Cannot Say

o A tally of omitted items. 
o High scores may be due to obsessiveness, defensiveness, difficulty in reading, confusion,
hostility, or paranoia.
 It is important to look for a pattern that may exist in the items that are left
blank.
 More than ten left unanswered may be of clinical significance. Twenty or more
left unanswered should be considered significant. 

 TRIN - True Response Inconsistency scale

o 23 pairs of items - that are semantically inconsistent.
 High scores, 13 or more, have responded to the MMPI in a "yea-saying" test set,
responding mostly "True".  
 This can be also be High due to severe psychopathology.
 Low scores of 5 or less responded with a "nay-saying" test set, responding
mainly "False."

Self-Unfavorable Scales

 F Scale – Infrequency
o Very high (>T99)
 Possible random, exaggerated, or mis-scored profile.
o Very high scores (T> 90)
 Commonly found with psychotic patients.
o High scores (>T70)
 Best measure of overall psychopathology, resentment, acting out, moodiness.
 Mostly elevations in the F scale are due to psychopathology; high item overlap
with scale 8.
o Low scores (T<45)
 Possible fake good profile.
 Important MMPI-2 Scales

Self-Favorable Scales

 L - Lie Scale
o High: (> Raw 5).
 Tendency to create a favorable impression as a response bias, conventional,
rigid, moralistic, repression, denial, and insightless.
 A high L can mean anything from a very well mannered normal wanting to give a
good impression, to a compensated paranoid.
 A high L will submerge scales of obvious psychopathology, and inflate scales of
healthy functioning such as the Ego Strength scale. 
o Low: (< Raw 3).
 Admitting to minor faults and shortcomings, independent, self-reliant.

 K Scale - Defensiveness
o Subtle and valuable correction for defensiveness.
o Assumes psychopathology.  
o If someone with a history of psychological problems scores high, then they are being
defensive.
o However, a high K is also associated with high education and socio-economic status.
 That is, people who are highly educated and getting along well with other
individuals, should score moderately high
o Derived from individuals who were hospitalized, clearly having serious psychological
problems and yet producing normal profiles.
o They were being defensive by claiming that they had no psychological problems.
o High (>Raw 22).
 If there are signs of psychopathology in the history, then high K indicates
defensiveness, insightlessness, intolerance, dogmatism, and being controlling.
 Very high scores are usually a sign of defensiveness .
 High scores are common with individuals who are well adjusted and well
educated, and tend to be in control of their lives.
o Low (<T46).
 Guarded prognosis for any insight therapy since their ego strength is low;
masochistic confessors, poor self-concept, distrustful, and angry.
 A very low K could often be the only indication of psychopathology on an MMPI
profile.  
 Important MMPI-2 Scales
Mnemonic:

His Depression Hyndered Poor dan.

Males/females Provided Anxiety (Pt).
Schizophrenia and hypomania Made him Socially introverted.

Clinical Scales

 1 (Hs) Hypochondriasis
o As with any personality scale, it does not rule out organic disease. But nor does disease
rule out the psychological need to exaggerate and complain- which scale 1 measures
very well.
o High: Preoccupation about one's health, a tendency to exaggerate physical symptoms,
demanding, whiny, immature, little psychological mindedness, poor prognosis for any
kind of treatment.
o Low: Healthy, insightful, optimistic.
o Correlates mainly with Hysteria (3) .79.

 2 (D) Depression
o Very High: Often associated with Major Depression.
o High: Clinical depression, pessimism, guilt feelings.
o Low: Absence of depression, cheerful, competitive. This is still the best scale of clinical
depression.

 3 (Hy) Hysteria
o High: Tendency to convert conflicts concerning dependency, sexuality or aggression, and
express them as physical symptoms.
 Psychologically immature, self-centered, narcissistic, and insightless.
 Superficially friendly and naive but manipulative
o Low: Overly constrictive, conventional and distrusting.
 An excellent scale that measures somatization, conversion reactions, denial,
naiveté and manipulativeness.

 4(Pd) Psychopathic Deviate

o High: Poor impulse control, disidentification with societal standards, authority conflicts,
marital and family conflicts, inconsiderate, narcissistic, poor judgment, extroverted, self-
confident, hostile, parasitic and externalizes blame.
o Low: Overly conventional and conforming, passive, trusting and non-competitive.
 Important MMPI-2 Scales

 5 (Mf) Masculinity-Femininity
o Not correlated to any scales of psychopathology.
o This is the weakest basic MMPI-2 scale.
o Highly educated sensitive males usually score high.
o High:
 (For Males) Passive, aesthetic and artistic interests, intelligent, sensitive to
others, tolerant and has good controls.
 If very high - possible sex role identity conflicts.
 (For Females) Rejects the stereotypic female role, has masculine interests in
work and hobbies, and may be aggressive and dominating.  
o Low:
 (For Males) Limited intellectual ability, narrow range of interests, practical,
aggressive, and has traditional male interests.
 (For Females) Passive, submissive, constricted and sensitive.

 6 (Pa) Paranoia
o It does not assess the other types of non-bizarre delusions, i.e. Erotomanic (delusional
fanatical love), Grandiose, Jealous and Somatic.  
o The only false positives are when, in reality, they have someone out to get them.
o This is the only scale I know where high scores or low scores could mean the same thing-
paranoia.
o High: Suspicious, hostile, overly sensitive, ideas of reference, delusions of persecution or
grandiosity, vengeful, and  utilizes projection.
o Low:  Insensitive, defensive, and shy. 

 7 (Pt) Psychasthenia
o Measures anxiety which is a common element to several scales.
 That's why there is so much overlap with Schizophrenia (8), Depression (2) and
Hysteria (3).
 When scale 7 is at least 10 T scores over scale 8, there is more
compensation and a better prognosis, than the other way around.
 Since scale 7 is so homogenous and obvious, it has no subscales, and
needs all the raw scores of K to correct for defensiveness. 
o High: Obsessive-compulsive anxiety, tendency towards phobias, irrational fears, high-
strung, difficulty concentrating, lack of self-confidence, rigidly moralistic, perfectionistic
and dependent.
o Low:  Well adjusted, free from anxiety, self-confident, and a wide range of interests.
 Important MMPI-2 Scales

 8 (Sc) Schizophrenia
o One of the best scales anywhere of serious psychopathology.
o When scale 8 is one of the highest elevated scales on the profile, consider a borderline
or psychotic personality structure.
o Sc is made up of all obvious items, and as with Pt, requires all the raw scores of K to
correct for defensiveness.
o Correlates .81 with Pt, .73
o High: breakdown of reality testing, feelings of unreality, insecurities, schizoidal trends,
alienation, shy, anxiety, over-investment in fantasy, sexual preoccupation, non-
conforming, immature and disorganized thinking.
o Low:  Friendly, reasonable, conventional, practical, and unimaginative.

 9 (Ma) Hypomania
o It can be the only elevated scale in a defensively submerged profile.
o It will detect narcissistic, paranoid (grandiose type), psychopathic, histrionic personality
traits, and a hypomanic affective state.
o Scale 9 is known to activate the other scales, leading to an acting out of the disturbed
ideation.
o High: Hyperactive, impulsive, difficulty in delaying gratification, narcissistic, irritable and
extroverted.
o Low:  Low energy and activity level, fatigue, depression and withdrawn.

 0 Si Social Introversion
o A very reliable personality trait that many researchers believe is at least partly a matter
of genes.
o The more Si is greater than Sc the better; the more likely the person is avoidant rather
than schizoid.
o High: Timid, shy, hard to get to know, overly-sensitive, over-controlled, submissive,
conventional, cautious, rigid and moody.
o Low:  Socially extroverted, talkative, energetic, interest in status and recognition,
competitive, narcissistic, superficial, and manipulative.
 Low scores can sometimes be the only sign of narcissism on the profile.