Allied health articleReducing Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory defensiveness: effect of specialized instructions on retest validity in a sample of preoperative bariatric patients
Section snippets
Patients
This was an archival study of the author’s patient records. The patients in this study were referred for a preoperative psychological evaluation to the independent practice of the author by their surgeon. The patients were referred from multiple surgery clinics. Some surgeons required a psychological evaluation, and others only required such an evaluation if it was requested by the patient’s health insurance company. In all cases, the patients were provided with a choice of psychologists with
Results
Using paired t tests, the data included for analysis were the validity and K-corrected clinical scales of the MMPI-2 and the scores on the BDI-II, the trait portion of the STAI, and the TANG portion of the STAXI. In all but 2 instances (6%) when retested, each patient produced a valid profile on the second testing. This was defined as having an L-scale score of <65 and a K-scale score of <70.
The scaled scores from the first testing were compared with the scores from the second testing. The mean
Discussion
The results of the present investigation suggest that bariatric patients who are initially defensive on a standard psychological test can be less defensive in their second attempt when given feedback and an alternative instructional set. This replicates previous research with airline job applicants [7]. However, in contrast to the findings of the previous research, in which 79% produced valid profiles in the second testing, this proportion increased to 94% in this sample of bariatric patients.
Disclosures
The author has no commercial associations that might be a conflict of interest in relation to this article.
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