Personality assessment and the Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory: 50 years on: Do we still need our security blanket?

Abstract

Personality assessment has a long history in the investigation of pain problems, and perhaps it is time to reflect on its relevance in the context of understanding pain. Although number of different personality inventories have been developed recently, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)15 is still the most widely used personality inventory and, in terms of detailed debate, particular emphasis will be placed on the MMPI and its successor, the MMPI-2.4 Although much of the subsequent discussion will be of a more general nature, the authors contend that its continued use is understandable, but no longer justifiable, and will argue that, even in its latest incarnation, the MMPI is overdependent on outdated concepts of psychopathology, and that the recent critiques of the MMPI,16 while illuminating, have failed to address a more fundamental set of problems with personality assessment, which inherently constrain and limit its utility.