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A qualified mental health diagnostician administers lengthy tests and personal interviews to determine the existence and virulence of a personality disorder.
The predictive power of these tests - often based on literature and scales of traits constructed by scholars - is hotly disputed. Still, they are far preferable to subjective impressions of the diagnostician which are often amenable to manipulation.
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Diagnostic test composed of 567 true-or-false questions arranged in three validity scales and ten dimensional clinical scales. The latter
measure hypochondriasis, depression, hysteria, psychopathic deviation, masculinity-femininity, paranoia, psychasthenia, schizophrenia, hypomania, and social introversion. There are also scales for alcoholism, post-traumatic stress disorder, and personality disorders.
The interpretation of the MMPI-II is now fully computerized. The computer is fed with the patients' age, sex, educational level, and marital status and does the rest.
The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III) tests for personality disorders and attendant anxiety and depression. The third edition was formulated in 1996 by Theodore Millon and Roger Davis.
Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory. Diagnostic test composed of 157 true-or-false items.
The MCMI-III consists of 24 clinical scales and 3 modifier scales. The modifier scales serve to identify Disclosure (a tendency to hide a pathology or to exaggerate it), Desirability (a bias towards socially desirable responses), and Debasement (endorsing only responses that are highly suggestive of pathology). Next, the Clinical Personality Patterns (scales) which represent mild to moderate pathologies of personality, are: Schizoid, Avoidant, Depressive, Dependent, Histrionic, Narcissistic, Antisocial, Aggressive (Sadistic), Compulsive, Negativistic, and Masochistic. Millon considers only the Schizotypal, Borderline, and Paranoid to be severe personality pathologies and dedicates the next three scales to them.
The last ten scales are dedicated to Axis I and other clinical syndromes: Anxiety Disorder, Somatoform Disorder, Bipolar Manic Disorder, Dysthymic Disorder, Alcohol Dependence, Drug Dependence, Posttraumatic Stress, Thought Disorder, Major Depression, and Delusional Disorder.
Scoring is easy and runs from 0 to 115 per each scale, with 85 and above signifying a pathology. The configuration of the results of all 24 scales provides serious and reliable insights into the tested subject.
The Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) is used to spot narcissistic traits.
The Borderline Personality Organization Scale (BPO) was designed in 1985. It sorts the responses of respondents into 30 relevant scales. It indicates the existence of identity diffusion, primitive defenses, and deficient reality testing.
To these one may add the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-IV, the Coolidge Axis II Inventory, the Personality Assessment Inventory (1992), the excellent, literature-based, Dimensional assessment of Personality Pathology, and the comprehensive Schedule of Nonadaptive and Adaptive Personality and Wisconsin Personality Disorders Inventory.
The next diagnostic aim is to understand the way the patient or client functions in relationships, copes with intimacy, and responds to triggers.
The Relationship Styles Questionnaire (RSQ) (1994) contains 30 self-reported items and identifies distinct attachment styles (secure, fearful, preoccupied, and dismissing). The Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) (1979) is a standardized scale of the frequency and intensity of conflict resolution tactics - especially abusive stratagems - used by members of a dyad (couple).
The Multidimensional Anger Inventory (MAI) (1986) assesses the frequency of angry responses, their duration, magnitude, mode of expression, hostile outlook, and anger-provoking triggers.
The Rorschach Inkblot Test is a diagnostic test comprised of 10 ambiguous inkblots printed on 18X24 cm. cards, in both black and white and color. The cards and the diagnostician's questions provoke free associations in the test subject. These are recorded verbatim together with the inkblot's spatial position and orientation. The patient can then add details and comment on his choices.
Scoring is based on the parts of the cards referred to in the subject's responses (location), the correspondence between the blot and the answers provided (determinant), the content of the responses, how unique or common they are (popularity), how coherent are the patient's narratives (organizational activity), and how well does the patient's percept fit the card (form quality).
The interpretation of the test relies on both the scores obtained and on what we know about mental health disorders. The test teaches the skilled diagnostician how the subject processes information and what is the structure and content of his internal world. These provide meaningful insights into the patient's defenses, reality test, intelligence, fantasy life, and psychosexual make-up.
The Thematic Appreciation Test (TAT) is a diagnostic test comprised of 31 cards. One card is blank and the other thirty include blurred but emotionally powerful (or even disturbing) photographs and drawings. Subjects are asked to tell a story based on the content of the cards. The TAT was developed in 1935 by Morgan and Murray.
The patient's reactions (in the form of brief narratives) are recorded by the tester verbatim. Some examiners prompt the patient to describe the aftermath or outcomes of the stories, but this is a controversial practice.
The TAT is scored and interpreted simultaneously. Murray suggested to identify the hero of each narrative (the figure representing the patient); the inner states and needs of the patient, derived from his or her choices of activities or gratifications; what Murray calls the "press", the hero's environment which imposes constraints on the hero's needs and operations; and the thema, or the motivations developed by the hero in response to all of the above.
The Structured Clinical Interview (SCID-II) was formulated in 1997 by First, Gibbon, Spitzer, Williams, and Benjamin. It is based on the language of criteria for personality disorders in the the DSM-IV. Its 12 groups of questions correspond to the 12 personality disorders. The scoring is simple: either the trait is absent, subthreshold, true, or there is "inadequate information to code".
The SCID-II can be administered to third parties (a spouse, an informant, a colleague) or self-administered (in a reduced format with 119 questions).
The Structured Interview for Disorders of Personality (SIDP-IV) was composed by Pfohl, Blum and Zimmerman in 1997. It also covers the self-defeating personality disorder from the DSM-III. It is conversational and the questions are grouped into 10 topics such as Emotions or Interests and Activities. There is a version of the SIDP-IV in which the questions are grouped by personality disorder. The scoring classifies items as present, subthreshold, present, or strongly present.
Yet, even a complete battery of tests, administered by experienced professionals sometimes fails to identify personality disorders. Such patients are uncanny in their ability to deceive their evaluators.
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