MMPI-2 profiles of Lakehead University students / Elizabeth M.R.M. Lettner.

Abstract

Until most recently university students were considered to score significantly higher on the MMPI clinical and validity scales, in terms of their mean profiles, than the original normative non-psychiatric sample. According to the only study by Butcher, Graham, Dahlstrom and Bowman (1990) on this subject, this does not seem to be the case on the MMPI-2. The present research was a study of the same type as the Butcher, Graham, et al. (1990) study but with a Canadian sample of university students, at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay. The results obtained from the present study showed significant elevations in terms of the mean profiles for both male and female students on several of the validity and clinical scales of the MMPI-2 in comparison to the normative sample. The obtained differences may reflect the younger age, as well as the socio-economic differences of the Lakehead University sample compared to the MMPI-2 normative group. Results also revealed that the L.U. student sample responded, as a group, in a manner similar to the Butcher, Graham, et al. (1990) university student sample. Similar mean scores were obtained with only very few significant differences. The group profiles were also compared between these two student samples and displayed a considerable degree of similarity. It is unclear whether the apparent contradictions between the results of the present study and the Butcher, Graham, et al. (1990) study reflect real differences of statistical and clinical significance, or whether they are the result of too small samples, or the different statistical methods and criteria. However, if these results reflect real differences and not statistical errors, this would suggest that, contrary to the Butcher, Graham, et al. (1990) conclusion, the MMPI-2 norms might not be appropriate for use with college students.