Is the new MMPI-RF Really an MMPI? Is it better?

Don’t use the MMPI-RF when an MMPI-2 is required. They are not the same test. In fact, the MMPI-RF has poor sensitivity to psychopathology and is a poor diagnostic instrument. When the MMPI-RC scales first came out, I was very critical of them. I had a hard time getting my paper published. I had to fight with Psych. Reports and I won. The editor agreed to publish it finally in 2006 over the reviewers unanimous criticism of it. Later Jim Butcher and Carolyn Williams wrote (2009) “Gordon (2006) indicated that the RC Scales are based on false assumptions about psychopathology (i.e. that consistent items are needed to assess all psychopathologies), pointing to complex diagnostic conditions like Hysteria, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Borderline Personality Disorder that are better understood with a psychodynamic formulation recognizing internal conflicts and contradictions. He indicates that a simplistic behavioral approach with an insistence on more internally consistent and distinct scales does not produce more external validity or useful measures for many of the complex disorders found in clinical practice.”

The MMPI RC scales became the main clinical scales of the MMPI-RF. Now most the leading MMPI experts agree that the MMPI-RF is a flawed test. So stick with the MMPI-2.