A hands-on guide for using the MMPI-3 when assessing suitability and fitness for duty of public safety personnel
 

Factors unique to police and public safety candidate selection require adjustments to standard guidelines when interpreting MMPI-3 scores. David M. Corey and Yossef S. Ben-Porath’s latest work broadly focuses on use of the MMPI-3 in both prehire suitability evaluations and posthire fitness-for-duty evaluations of individuals in public safety occupations.

 

This practical guide was written for clinicians who conduct evaluations of incumbent public safety personnel as well as candidates for law enforcement, correctional, firefighter/medic, or emergency dispatcher positions. The chapters are devoted to foundational and practical knowledge required for conducting these evaluations, including a concise primer on the MMPI-3, common procedural and legal requirements, and contextual factors affecting evaluations. The book also provides case illustrations that demonstrate use of integrative models in preemployment and fitness-for-duty evaluations and includes expanded coverage of the updated MMPI-3 Police Candidate Interpretive Report as well as the newly released Correctional Candidate Interpretive Report, Dispatcher Candidate Interpretive Report, and Firefighter Candidate Interpretive Report.

Winner 2024 Outstanding Recent Contribution in Social Psychology Award, Social Psychology Section, American Sociological Association

Winner 2024 Melvin Pollner Prize, Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis Section, American Sociological Association

As autism has grown in prevalence, so too have our attempts to make sense of it. From placing unfounded blame on vaccines to seeking a genetic cause, Americans have struggled to understand what autism is and where it comes from. Amidst these efforts, however, a key aspect of autism has been largely overlooked: the diagnostic process itself. That process is the central focus of Autistic Intelligence. The authors ask us to question the norms by which we measure autistic behavior, to probe how that behavior can be considered sensible rather than disordered, and to explore how we can better appreciate the individuality of those who receive the diagnosis.
 
Drawing on hundreds of hours of video recordings and ethnographic observations at a clinic where professionals evaluated children for autism, the authors’ analysis of interactions among clinicians, parents, and children demystifies the categories, tools, and practices involved in the diagnostic process. Autistic Intelligence shows that autism is not a stable category; it is the outcome of complex interactional processes involving professionals, children, families, and facets of the social and clinical environments they inhabit. The authors suggest that diagnosis, in addition to carefully classifying children, also can highlight or include unique and particular contributions those with autism potentially can make to the world around us.
 

All the core research literature in one convenient, up-to-date volume. Since its release in 1989, the MMPI-2 (the revised Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) has generated an extensive body of research. A core of articles fundamental to an understanding of the MMPI-2 has emerged and is now available here in one essential resource. Edited by a recognized authority, the volume contains the published empirical and theoretical articles on scale construction for the original MMPI and the structure and development of MMPI-2 scales as well as two original pieces that fill gaps in the literature. With introductory comments preceding each section, the volume is divided into parts devoted to the development of the traditional validity and clinical scales; the MMPI-2 norms, including the development of uniform T scores; validity and supplementary scales created for the MMPI-2, as well as a set of subscales for clinical scale Si; validation research on the content scales introduced in the MMPI-2, providing information about empirical correlates that is crucial to MMPI-2 interpretation; studies on the reliability of the MMPI-2; studies on cultural and subcultural factors in MMPI-2 interpretation; and computer applications of the MMPI-2. Designed for researchers, graduate students in psychology, and professionals who use the MMPI-2 in their work, this volume will be an indispensable reference and resource.

An essential resource for employing this widely used personality assessment test in correctional settings. Originally developed in the 1970s and now revised for the MMPI-2, the Megargee System provides a method for classifying criminal offenders into groups based on their MMPI-2 profiles. This empirically derived system has been investigated in a wide variety of criminal justice settings including corrections, probation, and parole. It has been tested in minimum, medium, and maximum federal, state, and military correctional institutions, in local jails, in halfway houses, and in forensic mental health units. Its use has been extended to female offenders, older men, and juvenile delinquents. Integrating thirty years of research, this new resource fully evaluates the reliability, validity, sources, and uses of the Megargee system. Classifying Criminal Offenders with the MMPI-2 describes how the system was originally derived and validated and gives instructions on how to classify the original MMPI and MMPI-2 profiles of male and female criminal offenders. It integrates the findings of more than one hundred independent studies with previously unpublished original research investigating the characteristics of each of the system's empirically derived male and female types. On the basis of these data, the authors recommend the optimal settings, change agents, and treatment programs for each type of offender. As the basic reference work on the MMPI-2 Megargee system, this volume will be an essential resource for criminal justice practitioners, psychologists interested in the MMPI-2, and researchers in criminal classification and personality assessment. Edwin I. Megargee is professor of psychology at Florida State University and recognized as the foremost expert on the use of the MMPI instruments in correctional settings. Joyce L. Carbonell is professor of psychology at Florida State University. Martin J. Bohn Jr. is chief psychologist at Florida State Hospital. Greta L. Sliger is a clinical psychologist in Tallahassee, Florida.

SATs, ACTs, GPAs. Everyone knows that these scores can’t tell a college everything that’s important about an applicant. But what else should admissions officers look for, and how can they know it when they see it? In College Admissions for the 21st Century a leading researcher on intelligence and creativity offers a bold and practical approach to college admissions testing.

Standardized tests are measures of memory and analytical skills. But the ever-changing global society beyond a college campus needs more than just those qualities, argues Robert Sternberg. Tomorrow’s leaders and citizens also need creativity, practicality, and wisdom.

How can the potential for those complex qualities be measured? One answer is “Kaleidoscope,” a new initiative in undergraduate admissions, first used at Tufts University. Its open-ended questions for applicants, and the means used to score the answers, gives applicants and admissions officers the chance to go beyond standardized tests.

Does it work? As Sternberg describes in detail, Kaleidoscope measures predicted first-year academic success, over and above SATs and high school GPAs, and predicted first-year extracurricular activities, leadership, and active citizenship as well. And every year that Kaleidoscope measures were used, the entering class’s average SATs and high school GPAs went up too.

What worked at Tufts can work elsewhere. New kinds of assessments, like Kaleidoscope, can liberate many colleges and students from the narrowness of standardized tests and inspire new approaches to teaching for new kinds of talented, motivated citizens of the world.

The best resource for interpreting these widely used personality assessment tests.

The best resource for interpreting these widely used personality assessment tests.

Essentials of MMPI-2 and MMPI-A Interpretation presents innovative interpretive strategies for both the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2, or MMPI-2, and the adaptation for adolescents, the MMPI-A. James N. Butcher and Carolyn L. Williams detail the rationale for the revision and development of the instruments and their scales, and describe how to administer, score, profile, code, and interpret the tests.The revised edition includes the most recent MMPI research, including new information on ethnic background and cultural setting as they relate to assessment. Focusing primarily on studies of profile validity and external correlates, the revision also includes interpretive guidelines for several scales that will be introduced into the MMPI tests in 2000.Translation inquiries: University of Minnesota Press

A comprehensive, evidence-based handbook for using the MMPI-3 in forensic evaluations


Since its release in 2020, the MMPI-3 has become a cornerstone of clinical and forensic assessment. Forensic Mental Health Assessment With the MMPI-3 is an essential, evidence-based resource that explores use of the MMPI-3 in a variety of forensic contexts. In addition to elucidating the test’s development and the interpretation of its scales, this comprehensive guide delves into critical forensic issues including admissibility (e.g., Daubert criteria), telehealth assessment, cross-cultural considerations, and response bias.

 

Dustin B. Wygant and Martin Sellbom draw on contemporary research to discuss the unique challenges of forensic evaluations. Through case analyses, this book illustrates how to interpret and integrate MMPI-3 profiles into clinical and diagnostic impressions, and it addresses common psycholegal questions in criminal (e.g., competency to stand trial, insanity), civil (e.g., disability), and family (e.g., child custody) contexts.

 

Providing practical insights into real-world MMPI-3 applications, Forensic Mental Health Assessment With the MMPI-3 is an indispensable resource for forensic practitioners and legal professionals.

This impressive collection features Richard Herrnstein's most important and original contributions to the social and behavioral sciences--his papers on choice behavior in animals and humans and on his discovery and elucidation of a general principle of choice called the matching law.

In recent years, the most popular theory of choice behavior has been rational choice theory. Developed and elaborated by economists over the past hundred years, it claims that individuals make choices in such a way as to maximize their well-being or utility under whatever constraints they face; that is, people make the best of their situations. Rational choice theory holds undisputed sway in economics, and has become an important explanatory framework in political science, sociology, and psychology. Nevertheless, its empirical support is thin.

The matching law is perhaps the most important competing explanatory account of choice behavior. It views choice not as a single event or an internal process of the organism but as a rate of observable events over time. It states that instead of maximizing utility, the organism allocates its behavior over various activities in exact proportion to the value derived from each activity. It differs subtly but significantly from rational choice theory in its predictions of how people exert self-control, for example, how they decide whether to forgo immediate pleasures for larger but delayed rewards. It provides, through the primrose path hypothesis, a powerful explanation of alcohol and narcotic addiction. It can also be used to explain biological phenomena, such as genetic selection and foraging behavior, as well as economic decision making.

The first major collection of outpatient data on the MMPI-2, the most widely used personality assessment test in the world. With the introduction of managed care to mental health treatment, patients increasingly are seen and treated in outpatient settings. Although the MMPI-2 and its predecessor, the MMPI, have long been used for outpatient assessment, the bulk of research on the test has been performed at inpatient psychiatric hospitals. This volume presents the first extensive set of correlates for the MMPI-2 in outpatient settings, demonstrating the relationship of MMPI-2 scores to clinically relevant behavior. Reporting the results of a large-scale research project on the use of the MMPI-2 in community mental health centers, this study provides clinically useful information concerning the interpretation of MMPI-2 scores and code types. Because the research found that the correlates in outpatient mental health settings are essentially the same as those in other settings, this book will be a standard reference for all clinicians who use the MMPI-2, regardless of where they work. "A well-written, well-organized presentation. The literature is extensively reviewed, both in terms of prototypic studies reporting MMPI interpretive correlates, as well as those performed by one or more of the authors using the MMPI-2. This comprehensive literature review and the knowledge base of the authors are quite laudable." Linda Nelson "This timely book presents extremely important data for the clinical and research communities. It is unusually comprehensive and thorough, representing what is probably the best effort to date at providing external correlates of MMPI-2 scales." David Berry John R. Graham, Yossef S. Ben-Porath, and John L. McNulty are in the Department of Psychology at Kent State University. Graham is professor and chair, Ben-Porath is associate professor, and McNulty is a postdoctoral fellow.

According to a major health survey, nearly half of all Americans have been mentally ill at some point in their lives—more than a quarter in the last year. Can this be true? What exactly does it mean, anyway? What’s a disorder, and what’s just a struggle with real life?

This lucid and incisive book cuts through both professional jargon and polemical hot air, to describe the intense political and intellectual struggles over what counts as a “real” disorder, and what goes into the “DSM,” the psychiatric bible. Is schizophrenia a disorder? Absolutely. Is homosexuality? It was—till gay rights activists drove it out of the DSM a generation ago. What about new and controversial diagnoses? Is “social anxiety disorder” a way of saying that it’s sick to be shy, or “female sexual arousal disorder” that it’s sick to be tired?

An advisor to the DSM, but also a fierce critic of exaggerated overuse, McNally defends the careful approach of describing disorders by patterns of symptoms that can be seen, and illustrates how often the system medicalizes everyday emotional life.

Neuroscience, genetics, and evolutionary psychology may illuminate the biological bases of mental illness, but at this point, McNally argues, no science can draw a bright line between disorder and distress. In a pragmatic and humane conclusion, he offers questions for patients and professionals alike to help understand, and cope with, the sorrows and psychopathologies of everyday life.

The best resource for interpreting these widely used personality assessment tests. Essentials of MMPI-2 and MMPI-A Interpretation presents innovative interpretive strategies for both the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2, or MMPI-2, and the adaptation for adolescents, the MMPI-A. James N. Butcher and Carolyn L. Williams detail the rationale for the revision and development of the instruments and their scales, and describe how to administer, score, profile, code, and interpret the tests. The revised edition includes the most recent MMPI research, including new information on ethnic background and cultural setting as they relate to assessment. Focusing primarily on studies of profile validity and external correlates, the revision also includes interpretive guidelines for several scales that will be introduced into the MMPI tests in 2000. James N. Butcher is professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota. The author of numerous articles and books on the MMPI, he was a member of the MMPI Restandardization and Adolescent Project committees. Carolyn L. Williams is associate professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, and coauthor of two previous books on the MMPI.