Definitions of MMPI/MMPI-2: Basic Scales and Sub-scales - 6-0

6 (Pa) Paranoia - Hathaway &McKinley (1956). (MMPI 40 items, MMPI-2 40 items). High: Suspicious, hostile, overly sensitive, ideas of reference, delusions of persecution or grandiosity, vengeful, and utilizes projection.

Low: Insensitive, defensive, and shy.

Correlates .77 with Pa-O, .73 with Pa2 Poignancy, .67 with Psychasthenia, .65 with Pa1 Persecutory Ideas, .62 with Hy-O, .62 with Wiggins Psychoticism, and .57 with Pa-S. A good scale of persecutory paranoia. It does not assess the other types of non-bizarre delusions, i.e. Erotomanic (delusional fanatical love), Grandiose, Jealous and Somatic. The only false positives are when, in reality, they have someone out to get them. This is the only scale I know where high scores or low scores could mean the same thing, paranoia.

PaO Paranoia-Obvious - Weiner (1948).(MMPI 23 items, MMPI-2 23 items).

High: Persecutory ideas, feeling misunderstood and abused, feeling depressed, projection of blame and suspicious.

Low: Denies persecutory ideation.

Correlates .87 with Pa1 Persecutory Ideas, .85 with Wiggins Psychoticism, .77 with Pa, .76 with Wiggins Depression, and .73 with Pa2 Poignancy. Pa-O and Pa1 are basically the same, both measuring persecutory ideas. Both are more pathological than Pa.

PaS Paranoia-Subtle - Weiner (1948). (MMPI 22 items, MMPI-2 17 items).

High: Naively trusting, may feel victimized, the idealizing side of the splitting (PaO = Bad Object and PaS = Good Object).

Low: Resentful, distrusting and punitive.

Correlates .84 with Pa3 Naivete, -.62 with Wiggins Authority Conflicts, .57 with Pa, .52 with Hy2 Need for Affection, and .47 with Hy-S. Pa-S and Pa3 in normals assess trustfulness, the opposite of paranoia. In individuals with paranoid tendencies, Pa-S and Pa3 assess the idealizing side of splitting. The object relations of paranoids are based on their rigid beliefs. People are either all good or all bad to them. Their object relations are not based on object constancy and empathy, but the projection of good and bad internal objects. Pa-O and Pa1 are on the negative side of the split, and Pa-S and Pa3 are on the positive side of the split. When people with paranoid tendencies trust, it is usually a set up to feel betrayed.

Pa1 Persecutory Ideas - Harris &Lingoes (1955). (MMPI 17 items, MMPI-2 17 items).

High:Externalizes blame,utilizes projection,feels misunderstood and suspicious.

Low: Feels understood, trusting, and denies persecutory ideas.

Correlates .87 with Pa-O, .80 with Wiggins Psychoticism, .69 Prejudice, .69 with Pd4 Social Alienation, and .68 with Wiggins Depression. Pa1 and Pa-O are the most pathological aspects of Pa. These scales assess delusions of persecution, unless someone is really out to get them.

Pa2 Poignancy - Harris &Lingoes (1955).(MMPI 9 items, MMPI-2 9 items).

High: Highstrung, overly sensitive, overly subjective, feels misunderstood, seeks out excitement and acts out.

Low: Feels understood and not likely to act out.

Correlates .73 with Pa-O, .71 with Wiggins Psychoticism, .68 with Dependency, and .68 with Welsh Anxiety. A good scale of "thin-skinness", an aspect of paranoids. Pa2 is a good subtle scale of paranoia.

Pa3 Naivete - Harris &Lingoes (1955). (MMPI 9 items, MMPI-2 9 items).

High: Naive about others, and sees self and others as trustworthy and honest with high moral standards, and denies hostility.

Low: Suspicious of others, admits to feeling of hostility and resentment.

Correlates .84 with Pa-S,-.81 with Wiggins Manifest Hostility,.72 with Hy2 Need for Affection, -.69 with Prejudice, and .65 with Hy-S. See comments on Pa-S. Pa3 is a measure of trustfulness with normals. It is a measure of the idealizing side of splitting in paranoia.

7 (Pt) Psychasthenia - Hathaway &McKinley (1942). (MMPI 48 items, MMPI-2 48 items). High: Obsessive-compulsive anxiety, tendency towards phobias, irrational fears, highstrung, difficulty concentrating, lack of self-confidence, rigidly moralistic, perfectionistic and dependent.

Low: Well adjusted, free from anxiety, self-confident, and a wide range of interests.

Correlates .81 with Schizophrenia,.80 with Depression-Obvious,.77 with D1, and .75 with Hy-O. Scale 7 measures anxiety which is a common element to several scales. That's why there is so much overlapp with Schizophrenia (8), Depression (2) and Hysteria (3). When scale 7 is at least 10 T scores over scale 8, there is more compensation and a better prognosis, than the other way around. Since scale 7 is so homogenous and obvious, it has no subscales, and needs all the raw scores of K to correct for defensiveness.

8 (Sc) Schizophrenia - Hathaway &McKinley (1956). (MMPI 78 items, MMPI-2 78 items).

High: breakdown of reality testing, feelings of unreality, insecurities, schizoidal trends, alienation, shy, generalized anxiety, over-investment in fantasy, sexual preoccupation, non-conforming, immature and disorganized thinking.

Low: Friendly, reasonable, conventional, practical, and unimaginative.

Correlates .81 with Pt, .73 with Hy-O, .72 with Sc1 Social Alienation, .72 with Wiggins Psychoticism, .70 with Sc5 Defective Inhibition, and .69 Depression-Obvious. One of the best scales anywhere of serious psychopathology. When scale 8 is one of the highest elevated scales on the profile, consider a borderline or psychotic personality structure. Sc is made up of all obvious items, and as with Pt, requires all the raw scores of K to correct for defensiveness.

Sc1 (Sc1a) Social Alienation - Harris &Lingoes (1955).(MMPI 21 items, MMPI-2 21 items).

High: Feels misunderstood and alienated, feels others have it in for them or wish them harm, describes family as lacking in love and support, admits never having been in love, and avoids social relationships.

Low: Feels understood and loved, denies hostility towards family and enjoys rewarding social relationships.

Correlates .80 with Wiggins Family Problems, .80 with Wiggins Psychoticism,.78 with Welsh Anxiety, and .77 with Dependency. This scale picks up the sequelae of having been a scapegoat and abused within the family of origin.

Sc2 (Sc1b) Emotional Alienation - Harris &Lingoes (1955). (MMPI 11 items, MMPI-2 11 items).

High: Depression, sado-masochistic tendencies and apathy.

Low: Feels optimistic, andenjoys healthy relationships with others.

Correlates .83 with Sc4 Lack of Ego Mastery- Conative, .82 with Wiggins Depression, .78 with Pd5 Self-Alienation, .78 with D5 Brooding, and .78 with D1 Subjective Depression. Sc2, Sc3, and Sc4 overlapa great deal. They all relate to depression and apathy. Sc2 is more apathy and brooding. Sc3 is more mental dullness and problems with thinking. Sc4 is a combination of Sc2 and Sc3.

Sc3 (Sc2a) Lack of Ego Mastery, Cognitive - Harris &Lingoes (1955). (MMPI 10 items, MMPI-2 10 items).

High: Feelings of unreality, difficulty in concentration, and fear of losing control of thoughts.

Low: Denies difficulty in concentration, feelings of unreality or unusual thought processes. Correaltes .83 with Sc4, .81 with D4 Mental Dullness, and .78 with Wiggins Psychoticism. Sc3 should be called "Thought Disorder".

Sc4 (Sc2b) Lack of Ego Mastery, Conative - Harris &Lingoes (1955). (MMPI 14 items, MMPI-2 14 items).

High: Depression, difficulty coping, inertia, regression into fantasy, pessimistic, and may have suicidal ideation.

Low: Feels life is worthwhile and has energy to cope.

Correlates .86 with D4 Mental Dullness, .83 with Sc2 Emotional Alienation, .83 with Sc3 Lack of Ego Mastery, Cognitive, .82 with D1 Subjective Depression, and .81 with Wiggins Depression. Sc4 combines Sc2 and Sc3,that is problems with depression and thought.

Sc5 (Sc2c) Lack of Ego Mastery, Defective Inhibition - Harris &Lingoes (1955). (MMPI 11 items, MMPI-2 11 items).

High: Feels not in control of emotions or impulses, irritable, hyperactive,and dissociation of affect.

Low: Denies feeling out of control of impulses or emotions.

Correaltes .80 with Hypomania-Obvious, .76 with Dependency, .75 with Welsh Anxiety, and .74 with Wiggins Manifest Hostility. The best subscale of Sc. Important in assessing impulse control.

Sc6 (Sc3) Bizarre Sensory Experiences - Harris &Lingoes (1955). (MMPI 20 items, MMPI-2 20 items).

High: May admit to hallucinations, ideas of external influence, strange tactile sensations, auditory or kinesthetic distortions.

Low: Denies experiencing change in bodily image or sensations or feelings of depersonalization.

Correaltes .78 with Wiggins Organic Symptoms, .65 with Hypomania-Obvious, and .65 with Wiggins Psychoticism. Assess somatic delusions rather than somatization found with neurotics. Should be called, "Somatic Delusions". Caldwell (1988) calls this scale, "Sensorimotor Dissociation".

9 Ma Hypomania - Hathaway &McKinley (1944). (MMPI 46 items, MMPI-2 46 items).

High: Hyperactive, impulsive, difficulty in delaying gratification, narcissistic, irritable and extroverted.

Low: Low energy and activity level, fatigue, depression and withdrawn.

Correlates .83 with Hypomania-Subtle, .73 with Ma2 Psychomotor Acceleration,.71 with Hypomania-Obvious, .66 with Ma4 Ego Inflation, .61 with Wiggins Hypomania, and .53 Ma1 Amorality.

Note that scale 9 (Ma) is the only scale where the Subtle items correlate more with the scale than the Obvious items. Hypomania is a fairly subtle scale. It can be the only elevated scale in a defensively submerged profile. It will detect narcissistic, paranoid (grandiose type), psychopathic, hystrionic personality traits, and a hypomanic affective state. The subscales are very helpful. Ma-O is very pathological, while Ma-S and Ma3 are not necessarily pathological. Scale 9 is known to activate the other scales, leading to an acting out of the disturbed ideation.

Ma-O Hypomania-Obvious- Weiner (1948).(MMPI 23 items, MMPI-2 23 items).

High: Poor impulse control, acting out, grandiose, thrill- seeking and exploitive.

Low: Denies having poor impulse control, or acting out, is not thrill-seeking, humble and practical.

Correlates .80 with Sc5 Defective Inhibition, .79 with Ma2 Psychomotor Acceleration, .71 with Ma, .69 with Wiggins Psychoticism, .69 with Ma4 Ego Inflation, .67 with Wiggins Manifest Hostility, and .66 with Wiggins Hypomania. The correlations reflect the high degree of psychopathology in this scale, far more than Ma. These are the sorts of people who have a lot of energy, but shouldn't.

Ma-S Hypomania-Subtle - Weiner (1948). (MMPI 23 items, MMPI-2 23 items).

High: Social imperturbability, extroverted, insensitive and thrill-seeking.

Low: Shy, insecure and indecisive.

Correlates .83 with Ma, .53 with Ma3 Imperturbability, .51 with Pd3 Social Imperturbability, .47 with Ma2 Psychomotor Acceleration, .46 with Ma4 Ego Inflation, and -.45 with Si. Ma-S, as with Hy1, Pd3, and Ma3, simply means extrovertion in normals, but in the context of psychopathology, it means insensitivity.

Ma1 Amorality - Harris &Lingoes (1955). (MMPI 6 items, MMPI-2 6 items).

High: Justifies manipulativeness by projecting own selfish opportunistic and exploitive tendencies onto others.

Low: Denies that other people are selfish, opportunistic, and manipulative.

Correaltes .53 with Ma, and .49 with Wiggins Authority Conflicts. A unique scale. It's not as pathological as "Amorality" sounds. It would be better to call it, "Manipulativeness", or what Alex Caldwell (1988) likes to call it, "Opportunism".

Ma2 Psychomotor Acceleration - Harris &Lingoes (1955). (MMPI 11 items, MMPI-2 11 items).

High: Accelerated speech, thoughts, motor activity, tense, and seeks out risks or danger to overcome boredom.

Low: Denies tension, avoids risk or danger, complacent and calm.

Correaltes .79 with Wiggins Hypomania, .79 with Hypomania-Obvious, .73 with Ma, .67 with Sc5 Defective Inhibiton, -.59 Social Responsibility, and .56 with Wiggins Manifest Hostility. A rather pathological scale of acting out tendencies.

Ma3 Imperturbability - Harris &Lingoes (1955).(MMPI 8 items, MMPI-2 8 items).

High: Little concern about the opinions and values of others, denies social anxiety and extroverted.

Low: Introverted, easily influenced by the opinions of others, and denies impatience with others.

Correlates -.69 with Wiggins Social Maladjustment, .65 with Pd3 Social Imperturbability, -.64 with Si, .64 with Hy1 Denial of Social Anxiety, and .54 with Ego strength. See comments on Ma-S,

HY1 and Pd3. Ma3 in normals means trustfulness and extroversion. In the context of psychopathology it is associated with defensiveness and insensitivity.

Ma4 Ego Inflation - Harris &Lingoes (1955). (MMPI 9 items, MMPI-2 9 items).

High: Grandiose, over-estimates own worth, resentful and impatient with others.

Low: Realistic notion of self-worth, or self-critical and denies resentment towards others who make demands on them.

Correlates .69 with Ma-O, .66 with Ma, and .56 with Wiggins Hypomania. A good scale for picking up ego-syntonic grandiosity in paranoids or narcissistic personalities.

O Si Social Introversion - Drake (1946). (MMPI 70 items, MMPI-2 69 items).

High: Timid, shy, uncomfortable with members of the opposite sex, hard to get to know, overly-sensitive, over-controlled, submis sive, conventional, cautious, rigid and moody.

Low: Socially extroverted, talkative, energetic, interest in status and recognition, competitive, narcissistic, superficial, and manipulative.

Correaltes .94 with Si1 Inferiority-Personal Discomfort, .89 with Wiggins Social Maladjustment, -.83 with Pd3 Social Impertubability, .81 with Si2 Discomfort with Others, and .75 with Wiggins Poor Morale. A very reliable personality trait that many researchers believe is at least partly a matter of genes. The test retest correlation after 30 years is .74 (Gynther, 1979). The more Si is greater than Sc the better; the more likely the person is avoidant rather than schiziod. Low scores can sometimes be the only sign of narcissism on the profile. The subscales aren't very helpful, since Si is so homogeneous. They keep saying, "shy". Serkownek's subscales are useful in helping to determine the degree of pathology in an elevated Si. Si1, Si4, S15 and Si6 are more pathological than Si2 and Si3. The former assess more schizoid, depressed and paranoid traits, and the latter assess more neurotic traits. The three new MMPI-2 subscales for Si seem even less clearly differentiated than Serkownek's subscales. There isn't data on the new Si subscales in the MMPI-2 Manual (1989). They should be considered as experimental scales.

Si1 Inferiority-Personal Discomfort - Serkownek (1975).(MMPI 27 items).

High: Shy, lacks social skills, overly sensitive to criticism, sad, indecisive, trouble concentrating, does not make friends easily and self-conscious. Low: Socially extroverted, not overly sensitive, happy, and decisive.

Correlates .94 with Social Introversion, and .90 with Wiggins

Social Maladjustment. As a first factor, it picks up most the variance of Si, meaning it is almost the same thing. Si has high internal consistency (about an alpha of .83; MMPI-2 Manual,1989, p.91), so the subscales are not very useful. Si1 is a little more pathological than Si. Si1 assesses a schiziod weakness.

Si2 Discomfort with others - Serkownek (1975). (MMPI 14 items).

High: Uncomfortable around others, dislikes large social gatherings, and lacks self-confidence.

Low: Enjoys being around people, seeks out excitement and self-confident.

Correlates .81 with Si, .79 with Si1, .79 with Wiggins Social Maladjustment, and -.73 with Pd3 Social Imperturbability. Where Si1 is "inferiority" issues, Si2 is more "discomfort," that is, neurotic shyness.

Si3 Staid-personal rigidity - Serkownek (1975). (MMPI 16 items).

High: Dislikes social groups, avoids excitement or competitive situations or leadership role.

Low: Enjoys positions of leadership, seeks out excitement and social situations.

Correlates -.63 with Ma, -.57 with Ma-S, -.55 with Ma2 Psychomotor Acceleration, and .41 with Si. A unique subscale measuring neurotic uptightness. These people marry maniacs to help them feel alive.

Si4 Hypersensitivity - Serkownek (1975). (MMPI 10 items).

High: Overly sensitive to others, easily hurt, broods, trouble concentrating, low tolerance for frustration, and enjoys being the center of attention.

Low: Shy, not overly sensitive to others, denies having problems in concentration, and denies having low tolerance for frustration.

Correlates .74 with D5 Brooding,.70 with Pd5 Self Alienation,.70 Welsh Anxiety, and .67 with Wiggins Depression. Si4 picks up the depression in Social Introversion. Many experts are at a loss in trying to understand the need to be the center of attention, part of this scale. These items have to do with liking dramatics, going to dances and wanting to be a singer. They are scored oppositely to the parent scale Si. They don't seem to fit. My guess is that there were a lot of out of work actors in Serkownek's sample. I call this the "Marlon Brando" scale.

Si5 Distrust - Serkownek (1975). (MMPI 12 items).

High: Perceives others as dishonest, insensitive, selfish, feels overwhelmed by problems, indecisive and lacks confidence.

Low: Sees others as trustworthy, honest and sensitive, responsible and self-confident.

Correlates .79 with Welsh Anxiety, .79 with Wiggins Poor Morale, .78 with Prejudice, .76 with Wiggins Authority Conflicts, .76 with Wiggins Depression, and . 74 with Wiggins Manifest Hostility. A good scale of subtle paranoia. This is the paranoid side of Social Introversion.

Si6 Physical-somatic concerns - Serkownek (1975).(MMPI 10 items).

High: Somatic complaints, concerned about physical appearance, worries and shy.

Low: Denies various somatic complaints, not particularly worried about physical appearance, not prone to worry, and extroverted.

Correlates .70 with Schizophrenia, .67 with Sc1 Social Alienation, .65 with Sc6 Bizarre Sensory Experiences, and .59 with Wiggins Psychoticism. The scale is far more pathological than would be inferred by the name, "Physical-somatic concerns". High scorers are distorting their body image in terms of their low self esteem, and experiencing the physiological symptoms of extreem anxiety.

The Hostetler MMPI-2 subscales for Si were published in the MMPI-2 Manual (1989) without data. The following definitions are tentative and based on the content of the items. Si1 is introversion or shyness. Si2 is not necessarily introversion, but a dislike of groups of people. Si3 is the most pathological of these three scales. Si3 is like Serkonek's Si4 and Si5, picking up paranoia and depression. Only high scores are interpreted.

Si1 Shyness/Self-consciousness - Hostetler, et al. (1989) (MMPI-2 14 items).

High: Uncomfortable in social situations, shy, easily embarrassed, avoids making small talk and uncomfortable in new situations.

Si2 Social Avoidance - Hostetler, et al. (1989). (MMPI-2 8 items).

High: Dislikes contact and activities with others, dislikes parties, gatherings, dances, and socials.

Si3 Self-alienation, Self and Other - Hostetler, et al. (1989).(MMPI-2 17 items).

High: Self and other critical, suspicious of others, puts one ownself down, feels inadequate, lacks self-esteem and self-confidence, poor concentration, depressed, obsessive thoughts, jealous. This is the most pathological of the three Hostetler subscales. It is similar to Serkonek's Si4 and Si5, i.e. depression and paranoia.

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