Historical Highlights on the Empirical Method Underlying the Mmpi/mmpi-2 and Mmpi-a1

What is there about the MMPI scales that make them such valid and effective measures at detecting mental health and personality problems? What is the basis for their long-term survival value in personality assessment? The primary reason is that they were developed with the idea that personality scale items needed to be valid predictors before they were included on a measure. The original MMPI clinical valid scales were constructed following the empirical method of scale construction. The empirical method has evolved over the past 75 years. The following highlights describe some special contributions to the empirical scale construction method to assure that the test scales were appropriate, reliable, and valid in predicting symptoms and behavior relevant to psychological treatment. Hundreds of scales have been developed for the MMPI/MMPI-2 and MMPI-A. Several major research studies of the MMPI/MMPI-2/MMPI-A are summarized and both modification and verification of the empirical approach to scale development are highlighted. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________