Subtle–obvious ratings of MMPI items: New interest in an old concept.

75 male and 63 female undergraduates rated all 566 MMPI items, answered true and false, on a 5-point subtle–obvious scale. Reliability of ratings was assessed via responses to duplicate items; the reliability coefficients were .98 for items answered true and .91 for items answered false. Males and females gave very similar ratings; correlations were .94 and .90 for true and false items, respectively. Mean ratings for all Ss showed that the F and Sc scales were most obvious and the Mf and Si scales were least obvious with regard to pathology. The correlation between obviousness ratings and desirability ratings was –.78. Analysis of previous measures of the subtlety–obviousness dimension in terms of the present item ratings indicated that previous measures did not adequately represent the very subtle or very obvious extremes of the distribution. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)