Effects of Response Sets on New and Old MMPI Scales

Abstract

The effects of seven response sets were tested on the new scales as well as on the standard MMPI scales, with and without K correction. Among the standard MMPI scales, the K-corrected scales were only slightly better than the same scales without correction in withstanding distortion by response sets. On the whole, the 45 new scales were better than the standard MMPI scales in withstanding distortion by response sets by the criteria used. The problem is still far from solved, however, in regard to two response sets: “social undesirability” or “faking bad” and “set to give uncommon answers.” The newly-derived scales were so designed that random error in answering does not tend to resemble genuinely sick profiles. That feature is an improvement over the established MMPI scales.