Date of Award
2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Psychology
Abstract
The transition from the MMPI-2 clinical scales to the restructured clinical (RC) scales sparked controversy and debate on several levels of analysis. At the psychometric level, the RC scales have been criticized for alleged construct drift, poor sensitivity, and potential redundancy due to their factor analytic construction. The first issue of construct validity, one of the most essential components of any psychometric tool, was the primary focus of this investigation. Specifically, claims have been made that because the RC scales demonstrate stronger correlations with the content scales than they do with their parent clinical scales, they do not adequately assess the constructs they were designed to measure. However, construct validity cannot be assessed merely by observing correlations between scales. Factor analysis is required to evaluate individual scales loadings on particular constructs. To begin this form of evaluation, this investigation sought to compare the construct validity of clinical scale 8 ( schizophrenia ) and its restructured clinical scale derivative, RC8 ( aberrant experiences ), using factor analysis. As such, a model was generated based on the commonly accepted hypothesized factor structure of schizophrenia using extant MMPI-2/MMPI-2-RF scales to reflect four dimensions of the construct. The differential factor loadings of clinical scale 8 and RC8 were evaluated along with model statistics to assess goodness of fit to an overall sample and individual samples. The results of this investigation demonstrated that RC8 evinced stronger loadings on the core dimension of schizophrenia (positive symptomology) in comparison to clinical scale 8 . The final iteration of the model demonstrated relatively poor fit with the data. Implications of this investigation are discussed at several levels of analysis including the psychometric level, the practical level, and the diagnostic philosophy level.
Recommended Citation
Musselman, Aubrie R., "Assessing The Core Construct? A Confirmatory Factor Analysis Of Positive Symptomology In Mmpi-2 Clinical Scale 8 And Restructured Clinical Scale 8" (2023). All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1867.
https://scholars.indianastate.edu/etds/1867