MMPI study of negro mental hygiene clinic patients.

A comparison was made of MMPI data for 100 Negro and 100 white patients in a Veterans Administration mental hygiene clinic. The 2 groups were similar in all respects investigated including educational level, but the Negroes were at a significantly lower occupational level. The mean profiles for the 2 groups were similar. Ordering the MMPIs by the highest and 2 highest clinical scale scores showed differences on Mf and Sc as the highest scores, and on Hs-Sc, Sc-Hs, D-Pt, and Pt-D for the 2 highest scores. The conclusions from the several methods of studying the MMPI data are that the Negro patients tended to be more conforming to middle-class standards, more denying of anxiety and sensitivity, and more focused on physical symptoms than the white patients. In addition, it appeared that anxiety and hostility were more frequently denied or displaced and projected onto impersonal and distant objects by the Negroes.