Definition
Scales developed as a means of quantifying the quality of information provided by a respondent and determining the level of confidence the test-giver can have that the resulting substantive scale(s) will be meaningfully associated with the external correlates seen in the research literature.
Introduction
Objective personality assessment relies on the direct disclosure of information by the individual being assessed (i.e., self-report) or by others familiar with the individual (i.e., informant report). With face-valid questionnaire items, the assessment process becomes a meaningful communication between the test-giver and the test-taker, collecting valuable data in a structured and consistent manner across respondents. Despite the wealth of information provided via personality inventories, the predictive utility for individual cases can be undermined by intentional or unintentional biases in the respondent’s reporting. Validity scales were developed as a means of quantifying...
References
Anestis, J., Finn, J. A., Gottfried, E., Arbisi, P. A., & Joiner, T. (2015). Reading the road signs: The utility of the MMPI-2 restructured form validity scales in prediction of premature termination. Assessment, 22, 279–288.
Ben-Porath, Y. S. (2003). Assessing personality and psychopathology with self-report inventories. In I. B. Weiner, J. R. Graham, & J. A. Naglieri (Eds.), Handbook of psychology: Assessment psychology (pp. 553–577). Hoboken: Wiley.
Butcher, J. N., & Perry, J. N. (2008). Personality assessment in treatment planning: Use of the MMPI-2 and BTPI. New York: Oxford University Press.
Dragon, W. R., Ben-Porath, Y. S., & Handel, R. W. (2012). Examining the impact of unscorable item responses on the validity and interpretability of MMPI-2/MMPI-2-RF restructured clinical (RC) scale scores. Assessment, 19, 101–113.
Finn, J. A., Ben-Porath, Y. S., & Tellegen, A. (2015). Dichotomous versus polytomous response options for psychopathology assessment: Method or meaningful variance? Psychological Assessment, 27, 184–193.
Graham, J. R. (2012). MMPI-2: Assessing personality and psychopathology (5th ed.). New York: Oxford University Press.
Handel, R. W., Ben-Porath, Y. S., Tellegen, A., & Archer, R. P. (2010). Psychometric functioning of the MMPI-2-RF VRIN-r and TRIN-r scales with varying degrees of randomness, acquiescence, and counter-acquiescence. Psychological Assessment, 22, 87–95.
McGrath, R. E., Mitchell, M., Kim, B. H., & Hough, L. (2010). Evidence for response bias as a source of error variance in applied assessment. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 450–470.
Morey, L. C. (2012). Detection of response bias in applied assessment: Comment on McGrath et al. (2010). Psychological Injury and Law, 5, 153–161.
Rogers, R. (2008). An introduction to response styles. In R. Rogers (Ed.), Clinical assessment of malingering and deception (pp. 3–13). New York: Guilford Press.
Rohling, M. L., Larrabee, G. J., Greiffenstein, M. F., Ben-Porath, Y. S., Lees-Haley, P., Green, P., & Greve, K. W. (2011). A misleading review of response bias: Comment on McGrath, Mitchell, Kim, and Hough (2010). Psychological Bulletin, 137, 708–712.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG (outside the USA)
About this entry
Cite this entry
Finn, J.A., Anestis, J.C. (2017). Validity Scales. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_958-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_958-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences