Original Clinical Scales Flashcards
7 cards from real MMPI practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Original Clinical Scales flashcards as text
The MMPI Scale 3 (Hy) contains two seemingly contradictory clusters of items. What are they?
Answer: Items reflecting somatic complaints and items reflecting positive social virtues/denial of psychological problems
Scale 3 (Hysteria) uniquely combines somatic symptom items with items reflecting naive optimism, social dependency, and denial of negative traits — reflecting the 'la belle indifférence' of classic hysteria.
Scale 6 (Pa) of the MMPI was developed using a criterion group of patients with what primary diagnosis?
Answer: Paranoid conditions including paranoid schizophrenia and paranoid states
The Pa scale criterion group consisted of patients with paranoid diagnoses, including paranoid schizophrenia, which is why elevated Pa scores suggest suspicious, guarded, and hostile attitudes.
When interpreting the MMPI, the '2-7/7-2 code type' (elevated Depression and Psychasthenia) is most associated with what presentation?
Answer: Anxious depression, rumination, guilt, and self-criticism
The 2-7/7-2 code type characterizes individuals experiencing anxious depression with worry, rumination, guilt, self-blame, and indecisiveness — one of the most common neurotic code types.
Which scale in the original MMPI clinical battery is considered least diagnostically specific due to its heterogeneous item content?
Answer: Scale 8 (Sc)
Scale 8 (Sc) has the most heterogeneous content of any clinical scale, tapping alienation, unusual thinking, sensory disturbance, and social withdrawal — making it least specific to any single diagnosis.
A moderately elevated Scale 5 (Mf) score in a male client most likely suggests what?
Answer: Broad aesthetic and intellectual interests, emotional sensitivity, and less traditional masculine role endorsement
Elevated Mf in males indicates interests and sensitivities that overlap with traditionally feminine roles — aesthetic, artistic, and emotionally expressive — and does not directly indicate sexual orientation.
Scale 1 (Hs) and Scale 3 (Hy) are both part of the 'neurotic triad.' Which scale completes this triad?
Answer: Scale 2 (D)
The neurotic triad consists of Scales 1 (Hs), 2 (D), and 3 (Hy), reflecting the core somatic and emotional features of classic neurosis when all three are elevated.
High scorers on Scale 0 (Si) are typically described in which way by observers who know them well?
Answer: Reserved, modest, hard to get to know, and sensitive to criticism
High Si scorers are characterized by observers as shy, introverted, socially inhibited, reserved, modest, and overly sensitive to perceived slights from others.