Utility of MMPI–2 indicators of response distortion: Receiver operating characteristic analysis.

Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate 11 Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory—2 (MMPI—2) indicators of response distortion. College students who chose to simulate malingering or defensive responding were offered a cash incentive for avoiding detection. The responses of malingerers were compared with those of defendants undergoing pretrial evaluation and general psychiatric inpatients. The responses of defensive students were compared with those of students who responded under standard instructions. Area under the ROC curve (AUC) provided the index of discriminative power. In the detection of malingering, F, F – K and, in 1 of 2 comparisons, F(p) produced significantly larger AUCs than other indices. Differences among indicators of defensiveness were generally small. However, the performance of the S scale was promising, whereas F – K performed significantly worse than several other indices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)