Psychopathological dimensions of the MMPI-2 clinical scales

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the factor model underlying the clinical scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2). The MMPI-2 was administered to a non-probability sample of 362 undergraduate students. The masculinity-femininity scale was removed on account of problems with internal consistency. By generalized least squares, a model of three correlated factors with two correlations between residuals showed an adequate fit to data and was invariant between sexes: psychoticism (clinical scales of schizophrenia, psychasthenia, mania, paranoia and psychopathic deviation), depressive tendency (depression, social introversion, mania and psychasthenia), and propensity to somatoform disorders (hypochondria and hysteria). It is concluded that this model explains the interrelationship of the MMPI-2 clinical scales of both sexes, and a factor of simulated physical symptoms underlies the residual variance of scales of hysteria, psychopathic deviation and social introversion, which is more defined in women than in men.