Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, a five hundred and sixty seven questions long test that all those familiar with the psych ward and high risk jobs dread. The MMPI is a test often given in psych wards to attempt to ascertain a person’s personality constitution and psychopathology.

The MMPI was invented in 1939 and since then it has been considered the “gold standard” in personality testing since its creation. While I don’t argue its validity compared to other personality tests, however I do argue its validity as a whole. I believe that the grading and answering of the test is completely subjective.
The MMPI uses many different groupings one could potentially be, ranging from severely depressed (as in my case) or to completely psychotic (which I might add is a relative term.) It also attempts to use the MacDonald Triad, which links animal cruelty, obsession with fire setting, and persistent bedwetting past the age of five to violent behaviors, particularly homicidal behavior. However, other studies have not found statistically significant links between the triad and violent offenders. Further studies have suggested that these behaviors are often the product of parental neglect, cruelty or trauma, and that such events in a person's childhood can result in "homicidal proneness". However, the 'triad' concept as a particular combination of behaviors may not have any particular validity actually it has been called an urban legend. So they use an urban legend to, in part decide if you’re emotionally stable. Because that’s fair right?

Another thing, does personality actually exist? Are traits, types and characteristics of personality inflexible and exclusive? Are these features solely cultural, completely inherited or the result of the impact of environment? Personality inventories, self-administered psychometric measures of attitudes, beliefs and tendencies, attempt to provide a finite insight into the nature of personality and the characteristics of abnormal psychological disorder. Personality inventories make several basic assumptions in order to generalize theoretical categorizations across the variance of individual human personality. One assumption is the equation of deviance with mental illness, for example on the MMPI-2  personality inventory, holding ‘deviant’ attitudes or beliefs will raise scores on several scales correlated with a variety of disorders, although these beliefs do not on their own imply psychological illness of any kind. For example if you are an atheist, that in itself will raise the scores. Personality inventories assume a degree of continuity of personality. When used as a measure of disorder, they take for granted that homogeneity of scores, across the board of clinical disorders, which can produce patterns predictive of pathology.

I'd like to know what my dearest readers think of the MMPI, if you taken it, whatever you'd like to tell me. Comment to let me know