General and Specific Objections to the MMPI

Abstract

This study evaluated the degree to which 102 undergraduate participants objected to questions on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) which referred to sex, religion, bladder and bowel functions, family relationships, and unusual thinking in comparison to their degree of objection to the length of the MMPI and the repetition of questions. The length of the MMPI and the repetition of questions were rated as significantly more offensive than items referencing the aforementioned content areas. However, there was no evidence that objections to the length of the MMPI and the repetition of questions induced global response styles that could reduce the validity of the MMPI. The potential effects of the length of the MMPI on the decisions of clinicians to obtain short forms of the MMPI were addressed.