The Effect of Symptom Information on Faking on the MMPI-2

Abstract

We investigated the effect of specific symptom information on faking a personality disorder on the MMPI-2. Four groups of adult subjects were studied: 23 normal adults given specific information about borderline personality disorder (BPD) and instructed to simulate it, 23 normal adults instructed to simulate a psychological disturbance without specific symptom information, 36 patients with a diagnosis of BPD, and 36 normal adults who completed the test with standard instructions. Comparison of test profiles showed that informed fakers obtained scores on validity scales sensitive to over reporting that were no different from scores of uninformed fakers, but which were significantly higher than scores of actual patients. On clinical scales 4, 6, 8, and 9 informed fakers obtained scores significantly higher than patients' scores. These results suggest that specific symptom information was of little help in simulating a disturbance convincingly on the MMPI-2.

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