Running head: TEST ADMINISTRATION 1
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Test Administration 1
Sarah Brothwell
CEP 586: Assessment in Mental Health Counseling
Spring 2014
Introduction/Rationale- To complete this assignment, I chose my friend and classmate Ashley
to act as a mock client. Two well-renowned personality tests were administered, including: the
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) and the Big Five Personality
Inventory. These measurements were chosen for self-exploratory purposes, intended to help the
“client” gain insight into her own personality characteristics and patterns of interacting with the
world. This assignment will assist me with becoming familiar with the basics of interviewing,
test administration, scoring, and interpretation, before administering assessment to actual
clients at my internship site.
Client Demographic Information- Ashley is a 24 year old, Caucasian, female, who is currently
attending graduate school for her Masters degree in Mental Health Counseling, at The University
at Buffalo. Ashley is a bright student and is excelling in her program. She does not hold a
disability status. Ashley is not employed outside of her occupation as a student, but currently
apprentices as a jewelry artisan. In the past, Ashley has struggled with issues of depression and
social anxiety. Ashley has developed ways to manage these issues successfully.
Behavioral Observations- Ashley freely volunteered to participate as a mock client in this
assignment, which indicated that she was willing, if not eager, to take the assessments. While
taking the MMPI, she expressed that it felt as if many of the items in the assessment were
ambiguous or confusing. The client would often ask for clarification or interpretation from the
administrator and then deeply reflect on the question. In the case that the client could not come to
a decision, she would circle the question for later viewing. The client took the assessment over a
few different sittings, due to time constrains and fatigue. This is understandable due to the length
and nature of this questionnaire. The client appeared to be slightly overwhelmed by the density
and length of the questionnaire.
The Big Five Personality Inventory was administered to Ashley in a separate sitting, three
days after the MMPI-2 was given. This test was significantly shorter and completed in a single,
20 minute sitting. Ashley did not ask for clarification on any of the items, indicating that the
questions were more straightforward. Behaviorally, Ashley did not exhibit any indications of
being overwhelmed or stressed by taking the assessment.
Description of the Assessment- The MMPI-2 is a broad-band test (an instrument designed to
assess a variety of attributes at once) developed to examine major patterns of personality and
psychological disorders. The MMPI-2 consists of 567 self-reported, true or false statements and
participants are assessed using nine clinical scales. Hypochondriasis (Hs) assesses excessive
concern for health or the presentation of a variety of somatic complaints. Depression (D)
measures subjective perceptions of depression, including: psychomotor retardation, physical
malfunctioning, mental dullness and brooding. Hysteria (Hy) scores reflect specific physical
complaints, as well as the denial of problems in one’s life and denial of social anxiety.
Psychopathic deviate (Pd) assesses willingness to acknowledge difficulties in school and/or with
the law and lack of concern about most social and moral standards of conduct. Masculinity-
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femininity (Mf) assesses concerns with sexuality as well as other topics that are not sexual in
nature such as recreational interests, worries, fears, excessive sensitivity, and family
relationships. Paranoia (Pa) measures the degree to which persecutory ideas, poignancy (feeling
lonely and misunderstood), and naivete (unrealistically optimistic attitudes about other people).
Psychathenia (Pt) assesses for obsessive thoughts, feelings of fear and/or anxiety, and doubts
about one’s own ability. It also assess for physical complaints, and difficulties with
concentrating. Schizophrenia (Sc) measures psychotic symptoms such as bizarre mentation,
peculiarities of perception, delusions of persecution and hallucinations. Hypomania (Ma)
assesses typical features of hypomania such as activity level, excitability and grandiosity. Scores
are also reported in terms of their content and include: anxiety, fears, obsessiveness, depression,
health concerns, bizarre mentation, anger, cynicism, antisocial practices, Type A personality, low
self-esteem, social discomfort, family problems, work interference and negative treatment
indicators. After the assessment is completed, a report on the validity of the test taker’s
responses is offered. In addition, a T-score is generated for each scale, with higher scores
indicating greater psychopathology. Generally, a T-score under 65 is considered “normal”
(Butcher, Graham, Ben-Porath, Tellegen, & Dahlstrom, 2001).
The Big Five Personality Inventory is a self-reported, 50-item questionnaire that is based
on the Five Factor Model (FFM). The FFM postulates that there are five broad domains or
dimensions of personality, including: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness
and neuroticism. Each factor exists on a scale, ranging from low to high. Openness refers to the
degree of intellectual curiosity, creativity and desire for varied experiences. Conscientiousness is
a tendency to be well organized, dependable, and to demonstrate self-discipline. Those who are
less conscientious are often viewed as easy-going or careless. Extraversion is the degree to which
an individual has a tendency to seek stimulation in the company of others, or conversely, the
tendency to value solitude and internal reflection. Agreeableness signifies a propensity to be
compassionate, cooperative, and trustful towards others rather than being difficult or
antagonizing. Neuroticism is the tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as
anger, anxiety, and depression. These five domains account for a majority of variance in
personality traits without overlapping. Participants are asked to read a list of self-descripted
sentences and rate the degree to which they agree with the following sentence from a low of 1
(Strongly Disagree) to a high of 5 (Strongly Agree). A raw score and a percentile score is
provided for each of the 5 dimensions in order to allow a comparison to others who have
completed the questionnaire.
Psychometric Properties of the Assessment- The MMPI-2 is the most widely used measure of
adult psychopathology in the world and is commonly employed in mental health, medical and
employment settings. It has been validated using a normative sample of 2600 adults. The testretest coefficients for a one-week interval range from .70 to .93 for a sample of 82 men, and from
.54 to .92 for a sample of 111 women. Internal consistency coefficients of the clinical scales are
moderately variable, ranging from .34 to .85 for men and from .37 to .87 for women. This
finding is desirable when taking into consideration the variation in the content of the scales
(Butcher, Graham, Ben-Porath, Tellegen, & Dahlstrom, 2001).
Research has shown that the five factors of personality proposed by the Five Factor
Model are fundamental dimensions of personality in children, adolescence, college students, and
older adults. In addition, it has been normalized for English, Dutch, German and Japanese
populations (as cited in, McCrae and Oliver, 1992). All five factors were shown to have
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convergent and discriminant validity and observations were shown to endure across decades in
adults. Furthermore, the Five Factor Model has been used to develop various assessments.
Examples include the Big Five Personality Inventory, NEO Five-Factor Inventory, and the Trait
Descriptive Adjectives, which all propose to measure the five factors of personality. Internal
consistency has been demonstrated between these measures with correlation coefficients ranging
from .75 to .87. The average convergent validity correlations across measures demonstrated a
mean of .80. Discriminant correlations were low, with values averaging .19 overall. The alpha
reliabilities were normalized to United States and Canadian samples, ranging from .75 to .90, and
averaged above .80. Three-month test-retest reliabilities ranged from .80 to .90. (John,
Naumann, & Soto, 2008).
Results and Interpretation- Ashley’s results on the MMPI-2 were suggested to be valid,
however, her scores may be lower than expected due to the omission of 6-items. Findings also
suggested that she might attempt to portray herself in an overly positive manner, while
minimizing her personal faults. Ashley demonstrated elevated scores on the Hysteria (Hy)
clinical scale (T-score =70), Masculinity-femininity (Mf) clinical scale (T-score = 67) and
Psychathenia (Pt) clinical scale (T-score = 66). The elevated scores on the Hy and the Pt may
indicate a tendency to be over reactive to minor problems, which are then expressed through
physical symptoms. Ashley may approach life rigidly, in a moralistic and perfectionistic manner,
which may cause her to deny problems and “look on the bright side.” Pronounced scores on the
Mf clinical scale suggests that Ashley has diverse interests and enjoys partaking in activities that
are not associated with her gender. In terms of her interpersonal relations, she demonstrates good
social skills, but may deny that she has trouble with social anxiety. She may also attempt to
ignore interpersonal problems rather than confront them. Ashley’s scores, with a peak in the
clinical Hy scores were found in 10.5% of the normative sample of women. However, only 3.7%
of the sample had Hy scores at or above a T-score of 65. Due to the instability of her profile, if
she is re-tested at a different time, Ashley may show a shift in peak scores, with higher scores on
emotional alienation, unusual thinking, bizarre perceptions of other and a tendency to engage in
extreme fantasy.
Results on the Big Five Personality Inventory demonstrated that Ashley was in the 92th
percentile for Extroversion, indicating that she takes a great deal of pleasure from interacting
with others. Ashley fell in the 28th percentile for Conscientiousness, which suggests that she may
not pay close attention to details or is disorganized. An average score for Neuroticism was
obtained, which means that she is as likely as half the population to experience negative
emotions. Ashley was in the 97nd percentile for agreeableness, indicating that she enjoys pleasing
others and is easy to get along with. She also demonstrated a high level of Openness, with a
score in the 71st percentile, reflecting her willingness to seek out new experiences.
Issues and Limitations- The comparison of these two assessments generates considerable
discussion. Both indices converge on the notion that Ashley is sociable and extraverted.
However, the MMPI-2 indicates that she has difficulty acknowledging that she has issues with
social anxiety. We can conclude from the introduction of the paper that Ashley is fairly open
with herself, as well as others about her challenges with social anxiety. This result may need to
be discussed with the client to achieve a better understanding of how she views her issues with
social anxiety. Results from the Big Five Personality Inventory suggests that Ashley displays an
average amount of neuroticism, where as her elevated scores on Hy and Pt from the MMPI-2
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suggests that she may experience more serious issues with physical complaints, obsessive
thinking, and social anxiety than the general population. It is possible that the Big Five
Personality Inventory was not able to acquire an accurate gauge on levels of neuroticism due to
her tendency to deny problems, as indicated by the MMPI-2. In addition, the assessments
reported conflicting findings in terms her interpersonal relations with others. In The Big Five
Personality Inventory, Ashley’s reported scores on agreeableness suggested that she is easy to
interact with and enjoys pleasing others, whereas the MMPI-2 indicates that she may be ridged
and moralistic in her interpersonal relations with others. It seems as though the MMPI-2 is
inclined to portray client characteristics as pathological or disordered, where as the Big Five
Personality Inventory depicts a more positivistic and health orientated perspective. My
interactions with Ashley lend support for the interpretation of Ashley’s personality
characteristics as provided by the Big Five Personality Inventory. Ashley is a creative individual,
who is accepting and open to others. She is able to acknowledge her personal obstacles and
works very hard towards resolving them. She is also able to confront interpersonal issues if
needed and holds her close relationships in high esteem.
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TEST ADMINISTRATION 1
References
Butcher, J. N., Graham, J., Ben-Porath, Y., Tellegen, A., & Dahlstrom, G. (2001). MMPI-2:
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2: manual for administration, scoring,
and interpretation (Rev. ed.). Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
John, O. P., Naumann, L. P., & Soto, C. J. (2008). Paradigm shift to the integrative Big Five trait
taxonomy: History, measurement, and conceptual issues. In O. P. John, R. W. Robins, L.
A. Pervin (Eds.), Handbook of personality: Theory and research (3rd ed.) (pp. 114-158).
New York, NY US: Guilford Press.
McCrae, R. R., & John, O. P. (1992). An Introduction to the Five-Factor Model and its
Applications. Journal Of Personality, 60(2), 175-215.