Psychological mindedness, intelligence, and item subtlety endorsement patterns on the MMPI.

Abstract

Investigated the relationship between psychological mindedness (measured by the Psychological Mindedness [Py] scale of the California Psychological Inventory [CPI]), intelligence (estimated by American College Test [act] scores), and item subtlety endorsement patterns of Ss asked to answer the MMPI under standard, fake-good, and fake-bad response sets. Male (N equal to 30) and female (N equal to 30) undergraduate students completed the Py scale and two MMPI protocols--one under standard test-taking instructions and the other under either a fake-good or a fake-bad set with order of administration and sex counterbalanced. Under the standard response set, Ss who scored high on the CPI-Py endorsed more very subtle and somewhat subtle items and fewer neutral, somewhat obvious, and very obvious items than Ss who scored low on this scale. Intellectual ability was not related to the endorsement of subtle or obvious items under standard or fake-good response sets. Under instructions to fake-bad, more intelligent individuals endorsed fewer somewhat subtle items and more very obvious items than less intelligent individuals. These results were discussed in reference to the utility of subtle items as unobstrusive measures of personality or as indicators of certain response sets.