a short method of scoring the minnesota multiphasic

8/13/2019 A Short Method of Scoring the Minnesota Multiphasic

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386 E. MORLEY KRISEa blind approach has been observed. At-tempts are made to solve the problem bymultiplying, subtracting, and uselessverbalization which correspond to therandom movements observed in the per-formance items.

SUMMARYMentally defective and control sub-

jects show a marked difference in theirreactions to the difficult arithmetic prob-lem taken from the Binet IntelligenceTest. The mental defectives demon-strate a lack of autocritical attitude anda need for maintaining social integrity.The defectives show no disposition toadmit inability to cope with the situa-tion; the control pupils almost univer-sally admit inability to deal with theproblem. The defectives proceed blindlyin attempting to reason or manipulatenumbers the control subjects respond

more realistically to elements pertinentto arriving at a logical answer to theproblem.1

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BIBLIOGRAPHYCRUICKSHANK,. M. A comparativestrcdy o f the psychological factors involvedin the responses of mentally retarded chil-dren and normal children to problems inarithmetic. Doctoral dissertation, Univer-sity of Michigan , 1946, unpublished.CRUICKSHANK,. M. Arithmetic vocabu-lary of mentally retarded boys. I Except.Children, 13, 1946, 65.MARTINSON,. and STRAUSS, . A. Amethod of clinical evaluation of the re-sponses to the Stanford-Binet intelligencetest. Amer. I Ment . Def . , 45, October1940.REICHARD,. and SCHAFER,. The clini-cal significance of the scatter on the Belle-vue scale. Bull. Menninger Clin., 7 , 1943,93.STRAUSS,. A. nd WERNER, . Qualita-tive analysis of the Binet test. Amer. IMent . De f . , 46, July 1941, p. 52.WE RNE R, nd STRA USS, . A . Causalfactors in low performance. Amer. I Ment.D e f . , 45, October 1940.

A SHORT METHOD OF SCORING THE MINNESOTAMULTIPHASIC PERSONALITY INVENTORY*

E. MORLEY KRISEVeterans H ospital,

INTRODUCTIONThe MMPI is becoming more and

more popular as a clinical instrument,but many psychologists are preventedfrom using it because of the length oftime required. As it is practically self-administered, the time for administra-tion is not an obstacle but with a seri-msly maladjusted subject the average;coring time may be 5 minutes. Fer-TusonW, MansonU) and DavisU)

Published with the permission of the Chiefdedical Director, Department of Medicine andhrgery, Veterans Administration, who assumes8 responsibility for the opinions expressed oronclusions draw n by the author.

Roseburg, Oregon

have outlined methods for abbreviatingthe necessary scoring time. With alldue respect for their ingenuity, thewriter feels that even these improve-ments are too time-consuming. There-fore, a new method was devised, whichis believed to be shorter, less compli-cated in the preparation of the cards,and less involved in its application.

METHODThis method consists basically of

cutting a notch in each card for eachphase of personality for which it issignificant and then counting these


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A SHORT METHOD OF SCORING 387notches visually across the edges of thepack. Thes e notches can be cut with aticket punch. T h e finger-tip type willbe found most useful, as it permits aview of the extent to which the cardha s been inserted before cutting. Itm ay be thought that these notches wouldnot be clearly visible, but the insertionof a blank card of the same thicknessan d so notched will demonstrate howreadily they are seen, even on the whiteedges of the cards. Th e more erect theca rds ar e held the more visible they are.Testers with visual deficiency may havedifficulty distinguishing among two orm or e notches in succession. I n suchcases a reading glass will bring theminto plain view. T h e type that is at-tached t o the end of a letter opener willbe found convenient. Ev en practice incounting these notches has not beenfound necessary, except that one learnsto count the c rds th t have notches,rat he r than the notches.Below is a drawing of a guide-card,which shows the notch-locations allottedt o each phase of personality. W henarranged in this order, the scorer cancheck the columns of notches in the or-de r in w hich the totals a re t o b@ en-tered on the Recording Sheet by work-ing from left to right and clockwisearo und the pack. Fu rther use for thiscard will be explained later.Special explanation is needed for the0 notches, such as D-0 ( the zeronotches) ; the M f-X(O ) , Mf- (X)O , P t -0 and Sc-0, and the dotted-line notches.Each of these will be taken up in turn.It will be recalled that a (zero)on a stencil is counted only if the tallyspace beside it on the record sheet isblank. T hi s means that that card wasnot in the significant or the pile.Therefore, it was in the non-signifi-can t pile. Th eref ore, all columns of

Hr

FInotches from D-0 on, including D-O ar e checked in the non-significantpile, and their totals are added to theX totals already recorded.The Mf -X (0 ) and M f- (X )O no tchesare the male and female parts respec-tively of the XO items on the Mfscale. Th ere fore , in testing males, theM f- (X )O column of notches is skipped,while in testing females the Mf-X(0)column of notches is skipped. I t willbe noticed that in the symbols for thesenotches the significant part of the XOsymbol is without parentheses.Inspection of the P t and S c stencilswill disclose that their Zero items com-bined include only three cards, two foreach with one repeated (Pt-B33 andJ41; Sc-C18 and J41). I t wasthought advisable to allot only onenotch to these two scales on the Zeroside, as one o r two cards a re readily in-spected to check their numbers, while,if three notches appear in this column,the scorer automatically knows thatthere are two 0points to be added tothe Pt-X total and two to be added tothe Sc-X total.The dotted-line notch was drawn torepresent holes in some cards, thosewith left lower-corner cuts in the origi-nal cards, and coinciding slots in theremaining cards, those with r ig ht lower-corner cuts. These holes an d slots weremade to speed the separation of the en-


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388 E MORLEY KRISEtire pack of cards into the significantand non-significant packs, the firstoperation in scoring. It will be recalledthat those with right lower-corner cutsare significant in the TRUE section,and those with left lower-corner cutsare significant in the FALSE sec-tion. In the prescribed method ofseparating these cards only a small packcan be handled at a time, while by nee-dling these holes and slots and raisingthe needler upward the TRUE cardscan be separated in one operation andthe FALSE in two. An ice pick hasbeen found convenient for this needling.The cards should be erect and loosewhen needling. Some shaking is re-quired while raising the needler in or-der to drop all the slotted cards in thebox Inspection of these removed willreadily disclose whether any failed todrop, as a slot in the slot-hole columnof the cards removed will be readilyseen. Those cards which remain in thebox after needling the TRUE sec-tion will be significant, while thosewhich are removed from the FALSEsection on needling will be significant.Therefore, those which are removedfrom the FALSE section must beexchanged for those which remain inthe box from this section. The dividerscan be removed after this operation iscompleted, forming one pack of sig-nificant cards and one pack of non-significant cards. It will be noticedthat the slots and holes are cut slightlyoff-center of the top of the cards. Thisis done in order to facilitate checkingwhether any cards have been reversed.On needling, such cards, and cardsturned up-side down, will stop theneedler. These holes can be cut witha ticket punch, and the slots can bestarted in this manner and then cut tothe edge with scissors. Care must be

taken to leave part of the original edgebetween these slots and the notches oneither side. It may be thought that thiscolumn of slots might be mistaken fora column of notches in scoring, but theyare readily distinguished, as all the slot-ted cards are together in each pack,forming a deep trench.

It was stated earlier that further usefor the guide-card would be mentioned.This card can be used to mark thenotches and the hole or slot to be cutin each card. If it could be made ofsome material which cannot be cut withthe ticket punch, it could be used as adirect guide, making marking for cut-ting unnecessary. This guide-card canalso be used as a guide for identifyingthe columns of notches, especially par-ticular ones the scorer desires to inspectfor item analysis.

It will be recalled that a number ofcards in this test are not significant forany scale, 201 in all, and that the re-mainder, 349, are each significant forfrom one to five scales. Listed beloware the numbers of those cards whichare truly significant, those which mustbe notched, and after each card numberis the scale or scales for which it is sig-nificant, or the notches which are to becut.*Significant Items and the Scales for W h i c hThey re SignificantA 1-Hs, D, Hy 11-Hy2-Hs, D, Hy 12-Hs, Hy3-D-0, Hy-0 13-HsG H s , D, P d 1 A H s

b D , P t l b H s , Hy9-Mf, Pa 18-D

S H s , Hy8-D 17-Hy

15-F, Hs, D, Hy

10-Hs, Hy l%F, Sc, M aIndebtedness is acknowledged to Miss I. E.Harms, Clinical Psychologist, Veterans Ad-ministration Hospital, American Lake, Wash-ington, for assembling the material in th is table.


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390 E M O R L E Y KRISE50-Pd, Pt5 S H y - 054-Hy-0

F 1-F, SC3-Pt4-Pt5-Hy-0, Pd-07-Hy, Pd%Hy-08-Pd-0, Ma-0lCLPa, Pt14-Ma15-Mf18-sc

25-Hy-031-Pt33-Hy-034-D35-Pa, Pt, Sc3 6 D , Pd, P t38-D39-D, Hy, Pd, Pt Sc42-D, SC44-D, Pt, Sc45-D&Mf, Pt49-Hy, Pt. ScSo-Pd, Pt51-D, Pa52-MfG 1-Pt3-FA P d&Pa

9-F, Pa, Sc7-D, SClo-sc11-F, SC12-D, Hy, Pd, PaI b P a , Ma-018-D, Pd19-Ma20-Pt, Sc Ma21-Hy, Pt, Sc, Ma22-Pt23-F, D25-D-0, Pd-026-Ma-0%Pd, Mf-0, Ma-0S H Y - 031-D-032-D-033-F34-Pa, Sc35-Pt

3 6 P t37-D-0, Ma3 9 D40-Hy-0, Mf-041-Pt42-Pt43-Pt44-F45-Pt47-Sc, Ma48-F50-Hy-0, Pa-0, Ma51-sc52-Pa53-F, Pd, Pa, Sc54-Pd, Pa55--Pd, Pa, ScH 2-MfS P d , Pa4-F, Pab F , Pa7-F, Pa&F, Pa, Sc%Pa10-Hy-011-F, Pa, Sc12-Pd, Sc13-Pt, s c14-F, Pa15-Fl b P a , Sc17-F19-Ma20-sc21-F22-F24-F25-F, Pa2 6 P d , Pa, Ma27-F, SC2 9 P t30-Pt, s c31-Pd32-Pt, SC33-F38-Mf43-D47-Ma-049-Pa52-Pt53-sc54-Hy55-D, Pt, SCI I-F

2 5c3 5c4-D-0, Mf-06-F7-FF9-F12-Pd13-Pd, Pt23-Pt, SC25-Pt2 6 P d - 027-D, Hy, Pd, Pt, SC

32-Pt30-Pd34-D, Ma35-Pt, s c37-D, Pt39-D, Pt4QMf45-Mf49-Mf-044-Mf

50-Mf5 2 M f51-Mf-0J 1-Mf5-Mf7-Mf-010-Mf-011-Mf12-Mf18-Mf19-Mf23-Mf24-Mf2 6 M f25-Mf29-Mf-031-Mf32-Mf34-Mf40-Mf41-L, Pa-0 Pt-0, Sc-043-L, F44-L, Ma45 146 147 148 149 150-L, D51-L, D, Hy

42 1


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A S H O R T M E T H O D O F SCORI NG 39152-L 54-L Mf, Ma53-L 55-L

Procedure for preparing cards. Re-move a card from the test and place theprepared guide-card over it. Check thenumber of this card in the table aboveto determine which notches must becut, if any. Mark these notches. Markthe sorting hole. Proceed in the samemanner with all cards in the test, mark-ing the sorting hole even if no notchesare to be cut. Go through entire packagain cutting out notches and holes.Separate the cards in the prescribedmanner into those which have left low-er-corner cuts and those which haveright lower-corner cuts. Make a slot ofthe sorting hole in each card with aright lower-corner cut.Procedure for scoring Remove CAN-NOT S A Y ards, count them and recordtotal on Recording Sheet. NeedleTRUEards and place those removedin lid of box, top edge up. NeedleFALSEards, remove those that re-main in box and place them with theothers in the lid, same position; placethose on the needler back in the box.Remove dividers. Turn all the cards inthe box so that the left edge is up;stack evenly and erect. Count thenotches in the column farthest to theleft and record total for L on theRecording Sheet. Proceed in the samemanner with each successive column ofnotches to the right, recording eachtotal for each successive scale as listedon the Recording Sheet, going aroundthe pack of cards clockwise, skippingthe Mf-X(0) column, the third on thetop edge, if the testee was a female oradding the total notches in this columnto the already recorded Mf score, if thetestee was a male, until a score has beenrecorded for the last scale on the Re-

cording Sheet, the Ma scale. Then setaside these cards and stack those in thelid evenly and erect. Count the notchesin the next column, the third from theright on the top edge, and add the totalto the already recorded D score. Pro-ceed as before, to the right and clock-wise, adding each successive total toeach successive recorded score afterD on the Recording Sheet, skippingMf-(X)O column, the second on theright edge of the cards, if the testee wasa male, or adding the total notches inthis column to the recorded and alreadyonce corrected Mf score, if the testeewas a female, checking the numbers ofthe cards in the Pt-0 and Sc-0 column,the next to the last, if there are lessthan three (B33 and J41 being signifi-cant for Pt, and C18 and J41 for Sc),or automatically adding two points toeach of these recorded scores if thereare three notches in this column, untilthe last column has been counted andthe score for the last scale on the Re-cording Sheet, Ma score, has been cor-rected. The writer has found that scor-ing can be accomplished by this methodfor the most seriously maladjusted tes-tees in six to eight minutes.

Several additional advantages anddisadvantages of this method of scor-ing should be mentioned. The manualfor this test suggests a short form, us-ing only those cards which are signifi-cant for the existing scales. But i f onewishes to use the short form on someoccasions and the long on others, he isrepeatedly faced with the tremendoustask of checking each card against thestencils in order to remove those whichare not>significant. If the cards aremarked in some manner such as sug-gested here, it is an easy matter to re-move the non-significant ones, in thiscase the ones without notches.


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392 A U D R E Y L. ARKOLAThe manual also mentions the possi-

bility of new scales being introducedfrom time to time for which some ofthese same cards will be significant.This has been kept in mind in the pro-cedure recommended here. The bottomedge of the cards has been reserved fornotching for these new scales.

In using this method of scoring nopermanent itemized record is produced,which prevents making an item analysisat a later date. For this reason thewriter has found it advisable on severaloccasions to check the numbers of theresponses in a scale score which mayneed to be-defended or supported at alater date. The manual suggests apermanent record in order to be able togo back and apply the stencils for any

new scales introduced, but this does notseem possible, as new scales will nodoubt use some of the items which arenot now tallied on the Recording Sheetwhen the prescribed procedure is used.

Finally, when the cards are preparedas prescribed here, the notches make re-shuffling for next administration some-what more difficult.

BIBLIOGRAPHY1. DAVIS,C. E. The Minnesota MultiphasicPersonality Inventory: A new method ofscoring and analysis. J din. Psycho ., 3,2. FERGUSON. G. A useful adjunct to theMMPI scoring and analysis. I c l h . P s y -chol., 2, 1946 243-253.3. M ANS ON , . P. and GRAYSON, . M. Key-sort method of scoring the MM PI. J appl.

1947 298-301.

Psychol., 30, 1946 509-516.

AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE EFFECTS OF SODIUMTEST FOR ORGANIC BRAIN DAMAGE

AUDREY L. ARKOLA*University o f Minnesota

AMYTAL UPON PERFORMANCE O N THE HUNT-MINNESOTA

INTRODUCTION have arisen. One of these concernsThe barbiturate drugs comprise an

important group of central nervoussystem depressants. They have beenused widely to produce relaxation andsleep, to reduce apprehension and torelieve anxiety. However, they arecapable of inducing any degree of effectfrom slight sedation to deep surgicalanesthesia. Since they may be utilizedin such a variety of situations, ques-tions of their effects upon the patientClinical Psychologist and Instrugtor, Divi-sion of Child Psychiatry, Department of Pedia-trics, University of Minnesota Hospitals. Ex-perimental work with the collaboration of thestaff of the Division of Psychiatry, Universitypf Minnesota Hospitals and the School of Nurs-ing.

their use under conditions where, al-though a lowering of apprehension isdesirable, intellectual efficiency is re-quired to remain unimpaired. It isknown that drugs of this group particu-larly when given in hypnotic doses may,in addition to the expected sleepiness,produce euphoria with some loss of con-trol and restraint. It is not definitelyknown, however, whether a small butuseful dosage (under three grains)will have a deleterious effect upon men-tal efficiency. It would be helpful forthe clinical psychologist, for instance,to know if a patient who is to a mild de-gree under the influence of a sedative

a short method of scoring the minnesota multiphasic

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