Definitions of MMPI/MMPI-2: Content Scales

WIGGINS CONTENT SCALES

The Wiggins Content Scales were omitted from the MMPI-2. These are excellant scales with good validity and reliability. I recommend making your own templates for your favorites, or mine: Psychoticism (when 6 and/or 8 are elevated), Manifest Hostility (when 4 and/or 9 are elevated), Authority Conflicts and Family Problems ( when 4 is elevated). Nichols' (1987) monogragh on the Wiggins scales is excellent. It's based on over ten years of research on the scales. Nichols recommends interpreting the Wiggins scales in terms of their relative rather than their absolute elevation, especially when the mean elevation is low. He also recommends looking at the lowest scales. Since content scales are so sensitive to response bias, they can provide valuable information concerning what information a person wishs to convey or not. (Nichols' thinking on Wiggins content scales, should also apply to the MMPI-2 content scales. Caldwell (1988) recommends interpreting the Wiggins scales as "High" at T65, and below T40 as "Low". He also recommends looking at K to determine what should be considered "High" or "Low". With a high K, scores at T60 may be significant.

HEA Poor Health - Wiggins (1966b) (MMPI 28 items).

High: Gastrointestinal difficulties and other somatic complaints.

Low: Not preoccupied with health and physical functioning.

Correlates .76 with Hs and .73 with Hy-O. As with, Hs, Hy, and Organic Symptoms, first rule out organic disease through medical tests. HEA assesses somatization. HEA is more related to scale 1 Hypochrondriasis, and Organic Symptoms is more related to the pseudoneurological symptoms of scale 3 Hysteria.

DEP Depression - Wiggins (1966b) (MMPI 33 items).

High: Guilt, low self-esteem, pessimistic, brooding, withdrawn.

Low: Happy, stimulated with life's activities, optimistic, high self-esteem. .93 with Welsh Anxiety, .90 with D5 Brooding, .90 with Dependency, and .89 with D1 Subjective Depression. Nichols (1987) reports psychotic phenomena with very high scores (e.g. T80). DEP in contrast to scale 2 Depression, is more associated with a characterological angry brooding. Scale 2 is more associated with an affective disorder. DEP is more entrenched and pathological than scale 2.

ORG Organic Symptoms - Wiggins (1966b) (MMPI 36 items).

High: Symptoms that may suggest organic involvement or somatization; poor judgment, lapses of memory and concentration.

Low: Denies problems with sensorium or motorium, denies somatic symptoms, denies difficulties in memory or concentration or poor judgment.

Correlates .86 with HyO, .85 with Hy4 Somatic Complaints, and .78 with Sc6 Bizarre Sensory Experiences. ORG is related to the pseudoneurologic symptoms in scale 3 Hysteria. Nichols (personal communcation, 1989) feels ORG picks up the hyperrationality of paranoids, depending on the various configural features (i.e., when scale 8 and/or PSY are elevated).

FAM Family Problems - Wiggins (1966b) (MMPI 16 items).

High: Family rejecting and unloving, poor relationships with parents, possible marital conflicts, and indications of family pathology.

Low: Describes home environment as loving, supportive, and understanding.

Correlates .86 with Pd1 Familial Discord, .80 with Sc1 Social Alienation, and .68 with PdO. More pathological than Pd1. High scorers have been abused and scapegoated in their family of origin. They tend however, to recreate conflicts in their current relationships, by being the abuser or the victim.

AUT Authority Conflicts - Wiggins (1966b) (MMPI 20 items).

High: Little respect for authority, sees others as dishonest, hypercritical or manipulative; uses view of others to justify own manipulative behavior, and seeks out excitement or risk.

Low: Trusting attitude towards others, respectful of authority and societal standards.

Correlates -.81 with Pa3 Naivete, .80 with Prejudice and .76 with Si5 Distrust. A much better scale than Pd2 Authority Conflicts. AUT is more pathological than Pd2. Pd2 is more resentment of restrictions on one's freedom, whereas AUT is meaner and misanthropic.

FEM Feminine Interests - Wiggins (1966b) (MMPI 30 items).

High: Dislikes stereotypic masculine activities, likes stereotypic feminine activities and occupations,(i.e. florist, nurse), cultural and esthetic interests.

Low: Preference for masculine activities and occupations. Dislike of cultural or esthetic interests.

Correlates.86 with Mf2 Stereotypic Feminine Interests. This scale is not related to psychopathology. However, working with a more disturbed population than I, Nichols found that men with high scores often have an identity distrubance found in some schizophrenic conditions.

REL Religious Fundamentalism - Wiggins (1966b) (MMPI 12 items).

High: Sees beliefs as the only true one; subscribes to literal interpretation of the Bible, intolerant of others whose beliefs are different, and may be delusional.

Low: Tolerant of the religious beliefs and practices of others, and less likely to be delusional if a psychiatric patient.

Correlates -.64 with Mf5 Introspective-Critical. The question is unique, where to look for answers, with fundamentalist beliefs or within one's self. REL may assess religious delusions. REL can be useful in treatment planning. Fundamentalist Christians generally do better with a therapist who shares their beliefs.

HOS Manifest Hostility - Wiggins (1966b) (MMPI 27 items).

High: Retaliatory unmodulated anger, resentment for perceived injustices, poor impulse control, critical and demanding.

Low: Denies hostile impulses, easy-going and passive.

Correlates -.74 with K, .74 with Si5 Distrust, .74 with Sc5 Defective Inhibition, and -.73 with Overcontrolled Hostility. A very useful scale of feelings of resentment and poor impulse control.

MOR Poor Morale - Wiggins (1966b). (MMPI 23 items).

High: Overly sensitive, despairing, feels misunderstood, lack of self confidence, low self esteem and withdrawn.

Low: Extroverted, assertive and gregarious.

Correlates .89 with Welsh Anxiety, .87 with Dependency, and .81 with Wiggins Depression. "Poor Morale" is a common grouping that comes out of any factor or cluster analysis. It's like 27/72. It's basic to neurosis, i.e. anxiety and depression. Nichols (personal communication, 1989) believes that"...psychotherapeutically, MOR is far more easier sort of thing to deal with than DEP. To put the matter in different terms, MOR is to oral dependency as DEP is to oral sadism."

PHO Phobias - Wiggins (1966b) (MMPI 27 items).

High: Anxieties, or specific fears of animals, things or situations.

Low: Not admitting to multiple fears or phobias.

Correlates .68 with Dependency,.67 with D-O, and .66 with Psychasthenia. Phobias are very specific. One phobia warrants the diagnosis. However, one item would be a low score on PHO. Phobias are better assessed through critical items. Nichols, however, ( personal communication,1989), states that as a scale PHO has, "...a useful dimension here, fearfulness/harm-avoidance at one end and fearlessness/recklessness at the other."

PSY Psychoticism - Wiggins (1966b) (MMPI 48 items).

High: Poor reality testing, paranoid delusions, feelings of unreality, withdrawn into fantasy, feeling misunderstood, and may admit to hallucinations.

Low: Not engaged in excessive fantasy or daydreaming, does not show psychotic symptoms such as grandiosity, delusions of persecution, confused thinking or hallucinations.

Correlates .85 with Pa-O, .80 with Pa1 Persecutory Ideas, .80 with Sc1 Social Alienation, and .78 with Sc3 Lack of Ego Mastery- cognitive. This is a very important scale of severe psychopathology. It is a combination of scales 6 and 8. High scorers are at least borderline, if not psychotic. Because it is an obvious scale, it will miss defensive, compensated psychotics and paranoids with non-bizarre delusions.

HYP Hypomania - Wiggins (1966b) (MMPI 25 items).

High: High-strung, hyperactive, restless, immature, manipulative, emotionally labile, low frustration tolerance, and irritable.

Low: Low energy and drive, phlegmatic, reliable, and not irritable.

Correlates .79 with Ma2 Psychomotor Acceleration, .66 with Ma-O, .61 with Ma, and .59 with Sc5 Lack of Ego Mastery- Defective Inhibition. An excellent unique scale. Clearly different from Ma. HYP is more related to poor impulse control and bad temper, while Ma is more related to feeling grandiose and extroverted.

SOC Social Maladjustment - Wiggins (1966b) (MMPI 27 items).

High: Introverted, lack of social skills, poor self-image, apathy, despair and reserved.

Low: Extroverted, assertive and sociable.

Correaltes .90 with Si1 Inferiority-Personal Discomfort, .89 with Si, and -.86 with Pd3 Social Imperturbability.

Content Scales

****** Butcher, Graham, Williams &Ben-Porath (1989, 1990)

These scales were developed through basically a combined rational approach with some empirical refining. All the scales have items which are obvious in content, and measure what the respondent wishes to communicate. Therefore, these scales will be susceptible to response bias to either exaggerate or to deny problems. Carefully interpret the validity scales before interpreting these content scales. These new scales are experimental, and should not be used for clinical decisions. The interpretations are tentative and based on the item content. High scores start at T65, but look at the highest scales past T55, if K is high. The correlations are based on 2,600 men and women (Butcher et al.,1990).

ANX Anxiety - (MMPI-2 23 items).

High: Tension, worry, fears of losing one's mind, lack of confidence, somatic indications of anxiety such as heart pounding, shortness of breath, and disturbed sleep.

Correlates .82 Welsh's Anxiety, .82 with Pt and .82 with Wiggins DEP.

FRS Fears - (MMPI-2 23 items).

High: Specific fears such as high places, snakes, spiders, fires, storms, the dark, dirt, blood, money, mice, leaving home, water, and being confined.

Correlates .92 with Wiggins' Phobia scale.

OBS Obsessiveness - (MMPI-2 16 items).

High: Rumination about decisions and problems, compulsions such as counting and saving unimportant things, unable to control obsessional thoughts, and obsession over forbidden aggressive feelings.

Correlates .82 with Welsh's Anxiety scale, and .78 with Pt.

DEP Depression - (MMPI-2 33 items).

High: Severe or major depression, brooding, crying easily, pessimism, suicidal ideation, guilt, remorse, overly sensitive, apathy, feeling worthless, unresolved object loss, and feeling empty.

Correlates .90 with Wiggins DEP, .84 Welsh's Anxiety, and .82 with Pt.

HEA Health Concerns - (MMPI-2 36 items).

High: Gastrointestinal symptoms, neurological symptoms, sensory problems, dermatological problems, pain, and respiratory problems.

Correlates .90 with Hs, .83 with Wiggins ORG, and .80 with Wiggins HEA.

BIZ Bizarre Mentation - (MMPI-2 24 items).

High: Paranoid ideation- persecutory type, ideas of reference, delusional, derealitization, thought intrusion, and hallucinations.

Correlates .83 with Wiggins Psychoticism scale.

ANG Anger - (MMPI-2 16 items).

High: The fear of, or actually losing self-control over aggressive impulses, irritable, impatient, stubborn, physically and/or verbaly abusive, and explosive.

Correlates .80 with Wiggins Manifest Hostility scale.

CYN Cynicism - (MMPI-2 23 items).

High: Hostile, suspicious, misanthropic; sees people as manipulative, incompetent, dishonest and unfair; feels misunderstood, distrustful, exploitive, unsympathetic, selfish, grandiose, envious, and judgmental.

Correlates .85 with Wiggins Authority Conflicts, and .62 Wiggins Manifest Hostility scales.

ASP Antisocial Practices - (MMPI-2 22 items).

High: Anti-authority, rationalizing and identifying with criminal behavior, admitting to antisocial or unlawful behaviors such as stealing or acting out during school years, dishonesty, selfishness, and exploitiveness. None of the items are associated with violent behavior.

Correlates .88 with Wiggins Authority Conflicts scale.

TPA Type A - (MMPI-2 19 items).

High: Impatience, easily annoyed with other people who interrupt their tasks which are valued over social relationships, hard driving, fast paced, task-oriented, vengeful, humorless, rigid, envious, hostile, competitive, insensitive, can't wait in line, workaholism, demanding, and racing against the clock. All items are keyed "True".

Correlates .79 with Wiggins Manifest Hostility scale, and also .56 with Wiggins Hypomania scale.

LSE Low Self-esteem - (MMPI-2 24 items).

High: These individuals do not like themselves, nor could they imagine other people liking them. They feel unattractive, clumsy, useless, inadequate, unassertive, no self-confidence, uncomfortable with positive feedback, oversensitve, dependent and confused.

Correlates .81 with Wiggins Low Moral, and .73 with Pt.

SOD Social Discomfort - (MMPI-2 24 items).

High: introverted, shy, social avoidance, dislike of crowds or parties or group activities, prefers to be alone, and hard to get to know.

Correlates .92 with Wiggins Social Maladjustment, and .85 with Si.

FAM Family Problems - (MMPI-2 25 items).

High: Family is unsupportive, unloving, with a good deal of aggression, rejection, and hostility. Indications of verbal and physical abuse, marriages are seen as unhappy, feelings of jealousy, resentment and wish to avoid family members.

Correlates .84 with Wiggins Family Problems.

WRK Work Interference - (MMPI-2 33 items).

High: Difficulties concentrating, anxiety, tension, pressure, lack of self-confidence, lack of support system, indecisiveness about career choice, negative attitudes toward others, authority conflicts, lack initiative, impatient, unorganized, lack of confidence, confused occupational goals, tired, dependent, avoids responsibility, slow paced and may be passive-aggressive.

Correlates .87 with Welsh's Anxiety, .84 with Wiggins Low Moral, and .82 with Pt.

TRT Negative Treatment Indicators - (MMPI-2 26 items).

High: Negative attitudes toward health care providers and treatment, pessimistic about individuals being understanding or helpful, not comfortable in self-disclosing, or with change, pessimistic, low frustration tolerance, defensive, distrustful, indecisive, feel future is a matter of luck, avoids responsibilty for own actions, dislike of doctors, feel can't change faults, would rather just take a pill than talk over problems, and believes that mental illness is a sign of weakness.

Correlates .78 with Welsh's Anxiety, .77 with Wiggins Low Moral, and .72 with Pt.****

Definitions of MMPI-2 CONTENT SUBSCALES

THE PERSONALITY PSYCHOPATHOLOGY FIVE (PSY-5) (Harkness, McNulty, & Ben-Porath, 1995); these are five rationally deduced content scales to assess the domain of traits often found in personality disorders.

NEN- Negative emotionality/ Neuroticism (33 items); highly correlated with A and Pt; -worry, stress, hypersensitivity, emotional under control.

PSY- Psychoticism (25 items); highly correlated with F, Sc, Pa, and Morey’s Paranoid Personality Disorder scale; high scores have-poor reality testing, are suspicious, and hostile.

DIS- Discontraint (28 items); moderately correlates with ASP and Morey's Antisocial Personality Disorder scale; high scores tend to have an insufficient delay of gratification, be unreliable, rebellious, hedonistic, and acting out.

AGG- Aggressiveness (18 items);moderately correlates with Ma, ANG, TPA, and with Morey's Narcissistic and Histrionic scales, and less so with the Antisocial Personality scale. High scores tend to be grandiose, resentful, cold, and at times cruel. This scale assesses a sort of hostile narcissist.

LPE- Low positive emotionality (34 items); highly correlates with D, Si, DEP, SOD, and with Morey's Avoidant, Schizotypal and Schizoid scales. It negatively correlates with Morey's Narcissistic and Histrionic scales. High scores have low energy, withdrawn, anhedonia, and low self-esteem; high NEN has more negative emotionality, whereas LPE has more a Schizoid or impoverished emotional life.

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