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Self-report psychopathy scales are increasingly used in research and practice despite criticisms that they may be susceptible to response distortion and bias. We assessed the utility of including the Virtuous Responding (VR) and Deviant Responding (DR) validity scales from the Psychopathic Personality Inventory-Revised (PPI-R) for identifying underreporting and overreporting, respectively, on both the full and short-form versions of the Self-Report Psychopathy scale (SRP 4 and SRP-SF) in a pre/post experimental design. Using a sample of 384 male community members and a clinical comparison group of 99 males from a forensic outpatient program, we demonstrated that SRP scores were more susceptible to overreporting than underreporting, and that overreporting significantly and negatively affected convergent validity. Finally, baseline psychopathy scores were unrelated to successful response distortion (i.e., changing scores in correct direction while remaining undetected by the validity scales). It is recommended that assessments using self-report psychopathy scales consider including validity indices to detect response distortion. In doing so, it will be important to consider that general impression management may be conceptually distinct from specific forms of response distortion, such as the intentional amplification or minimization of psychopathic traits. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Behavioral regulation supports children to control their cognitive and emotional skills and participate fully in classroom learning and interactions. Teacher ratings are frequently used to collect data but are highly susceptible to the teacher's response bias, meaning much child level variance is attributable to the teacher level. Multilevel modeling techniques are commonly used to assess the psychometric properties of measures at different levels by disaggregating within- and between-teacher variation in student behaviors. In this study, we attempt to identify the factor structure at each level using teacher ratings on the Child Behavior Rating Scale (CBRS). The sample of 1,375 preschool children (49.2% males) was drawn from a longitudinal study in Singapore. The teacher ratings of these children were collected at three time points (average age at Time 1 was 58.5 months, Time 2 was 69.8 months, and Time 3 was 80.9 months). Using multilevel exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, a three-factor model at the within level and a two-factor model at the between level best fit the data. At the within level, the three factors were identified as basic interpersonal skills, advanced interpersonal skills, and learning-related social skills. The three factors showed good internal consistency and differential correlates. The two factors at the between level may be related to teacher and classroom characteristics. This study provides empirical support for (a) differential factor structures of CBRS at the within and between levels; and (b) two distinct interpersonal skills. Future studies should aim at exploring the sources of between level variability. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The Cognitive Bias Scale (CBS; Gaasedelen, Whiteside, Altmaier, Welch, & Basso, 2019) was developed as a Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) indicator of poor performance on Performance Validity Tests (PVTs) in a neuropsychological context. The current study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the CBS in a forensic disability sample through a series of analyses by comparing it to other PAI validity scales and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)-2-RF overreporting scales with an emphasis on the Response Bias Scale (RBS), which guided the development of the CBS. The participants in this study were drawn from an archival dataset containing 588 consecutive civil disability claimants. Findings showed the RBS and the CBS yielded similar patterns of negative correlations to PVTs, with RBS effect sizes being somewhat larger in most comparisons. Results of ANOVAs showed that the RBS produced the largest effect sizes in distinguishing between incentive only versus probable/definite malingered neurocognitive dysfunction (MND) groups, followed by the CBS. Estimates of sensitivity and specificity were comparable between the RBS and CBS at liberal cut scores, but the RBS was more specific to detecting Probable/Definite MND at more conservative cutoffs. Hierarchical logistic regression analyses showed that RBS accounted for 6% variance over CBS in the probable/definite MND classification, whereas the CBS accounted for 2% variance beyond the RBS. Overall, the results of this study support the utility of the CBS as the most effective PAI validity scale for detecting MND in a civil disability sample, and the RBS generally outperformed the CBS to some degree in all analyses. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

In the near-100 years of their existence, response bias indicators have undergone significant advancements in design, as have efforts at examining their validity. However, opportunities remain for greater sophistication in the development and study of these indicators. We discuss important definitional issues pertaining to response bias before turning to a review of common methods used in this area of research followed by discussion of innovations that could further advance response bias investigation. Specifically, we focus on considerations for conducting research on the need for, evaluation, and design of response bias indicators. We review established and innovative research approaches and how they can be used to further this line of work. Throughout, we identify areas in need of additional study as we work to advance knowledge about the impact of invalid responding and the utility of the indicators available to detect it. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

This article introduces the rationale for developing a special issue on methodological and statistical advancements in clinical assessment, which will appear approximately 25 years after a similar 1995 issue that produced many seminal and highly cited articles. We commissioned articles from a range of expert scholars in important areas of psychometrics (reliability, validity, scale construction, item response theory, and factor analysis) and assessment methodology in specific contexts (multicultural, clinical prediction, response bias, experience-sampling, and neuroscience) in addition to a lead article that considers clinical assessment research in the broader open science framework. We briefly summarize these contributions and their impact. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

We examined the within-domain structure of the five domains of personality measured by the Big Five Inventory-2 with data collected from an adolescent sample (N = 838). Three possible factor models were tested: a single factor, correlated facets, and a single factor with correlated residuals. We examined each model controlling for acquiescence, a response bias in which respondents tend to agree/disagree regardless of item content, using two approaches: acquiescence factor and within-person centering of item-level responses. Across each domain, results indicated both the correlated facets and correlated residuals models demonstrated acceptable fit. Accounting for acquiescent responding was generally associated with improved model fit. However, consistent with past struggles in measuring open-mindedness in adolescents, the correlated residuals model with acquiescence as a factor for open-mindedness failed to converge. Regularized structural equation modeling was conducted on this model for open-mindedness and suggested certain residual covariances that contributed to estimation difficulties should be constrained to zero. Advantages of models are discussed with implications for studying the Big Five personality domains in adolescents. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The symptom reports of individuals with chronic pain are multidimensional (e.g., emotional, cognitive, and somatic) and significantly contribute to increased morbidity and lost work productivity. When pain occurs in the context of a legally compensable event, reliable assessment of a patient's multifactorial symptom experience during psychological or neuropsychological evaluations is a necessity. The Validity Scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) have been shown useful in identifying symptom overreporting and feigning within chronic pain samples and a number of studies have emerged supporting the use of the MMPI-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) in the detection of simulated or feigned impairment in a variety of populations. To date, only 1 other study exists examining the ability of the MMPI-2-RF to detect exaggerated complaints using a strict operationalization of malingering exclusive to chronic pain samples. The purpose of this study was to examine the classification accuracy of MMPI-2-RF Validity Scales in a group of patients with chronic pain using a criterion-groups design. The final sample consisted of 501 clinical chronic pain patients assigned to groups based on the Bianchini, Greve, and Glynn (2005) criteria for Malingered Pain-Related Disability (MPRD). Results showed that all MMPI-2-RF Validity Scales differentiated malingerers from nonmalingerers with a high degree of accuracy. At cut-offs associated with ≥95% Specificity, Sensitivities ranged from 15% (Fs) to 60% (Response Bias Scale; RBS). This study demonstrates that the MMPI-2-RF Validity Scales are capable of differentiating intentional symptom exaggeration from genuine complaints in a sample of incentivized chronic pain patients. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Treatment Adherence Perception Questionnaire (TAPQ) is a new, brief self-report instrument for assessing patient perceptions and attitudes regarding their own adherence to medical treatment plans. It includes 3 distinct scales: Perceived Behavior, Perceived Benefit, and Perceived Burden. In contrast with existing measures, the TAPQ was expected to have a clear factor structure; have good discrimination; and assess distinct types of perception, each of which has different patterns of association with interpersonal, personality, motivational, and emotional variables. Foundational work on the TAPQ (with 891 patients) included 5 quantitative scale development studies and 1 qualitative study. The present report focuses on results from a final validation study using 450 patients recruited via market research panels to complete online questionnaires. This study included a general medical sample and a sample of people with either diabetes or hypertension. A confirmatory factor analysis specifying strict measurement invariance across these groups produced a good fit. Analysis with item-response theory suggested that the scales on the TAPQ provide good discrimination across a wide range of experience levels. The 3 scales on the TAPQ each had distinct patterns of association with criterion variables regarding conscientiousness, health behavior, motivation, affect, type of diagnosis, and interpersonal communication with health-care professionals. These effects could not be explained by another existing measure of adherence or by a measure of response bias. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Misinterpretation of non-content-based invalid (e.g., random, fixed) responding as overreporting or underreporting is likely to adversely impact test interpretation and could bias inferences about examinee intentions. We examined the impact of non-content-based invalid responding on the following Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) content-based invalid responding indicators: Infrequent Responses (F-r), Infrequent Psychopathology Responses (FP-r), Infrequent Somatic Responses (FS), Symptom Validity (FBS-r), Response Bias Scale (RBS), Uncommon Virtues (L-r), and Adjustment Validity (K-r). In 4 samples from which invalid responders were excluded, we systematically inserted increasing percentages of random, acquiescent, or counter-acquiescent item responses ranging from 0% to 100% and examined the impact that non-content-based invalid response styles had on the content-based invalid responding indicators. F-r, FP-r, FS, RBS, and L-r were susceptible to non-content-based invalid responding, whereas FBS-r and K-r were unaffected. Individuals with Variable Response Inconsistency (VRIN-r) and True Response Inconsistency (TRIN-r) elevations were removed, and the frequencies of content-based invalid responding elevations were then reexamined for false indications of feigning. Findings were consistent across samples and emphasize the need to screen for non-content-based invalid responding before screening for content-based invalid responding in the assessment of personality and psychopathology. VRIN-r and TRIN-r were useful in detecting most-but not all-cases of non-content-based invalid responding. A small but meaningful percentage of the remaining individuals were misclassified as overreporters (i.e., false feigners) by FP-r and FS. Clinicians should interpret FP-r and FS with some caution in the presence of moderate levels of non-content-based invalid responding. Post hoc examinations of scale characteristics indicated that the most susceptible scales were brief, consisted of rarely endorsed items, included a relatively high percentage of true-keyed items, and required a low percentage of endorsed items to reach clinical significance. (PsycINFO Database Record

Measures of self-favoring response biases such as impression management (IM) scales or the overclaiming technique (OCT) have been developed to detect distorted self-reports. However, the validity of these approaches has been questioned. In the present study (N = 461), we further examined both IM (assessed by the respective subscale of the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding [BIDR]) and the OCT as measures of self-favoring response biases and their associations with honesty-humility. Specifically, we tested the 2 competing accounts of IM as a measure of true virtues or a measure of overly positive self-presentation against each other. Using 2 behavioral paradigms, we corroborated recent findings that higher IM scores are associated with higher trait honesty as well as with more honest behavior. At the same time, individuals with high IM scores also presented themselves overly favorably, as IM accounted for discrepancies between hypothetical and actual (incentivized) behavior in a dictator game. Thereby, the present results provide direct evidence for the notion that the IM subscale of the BIDR confounds trait honesty with response bias and thus measures both. In contrast, overclaiming was unrelated to trait honesty, all observed behaviors, and self-presentation, indicating that the OCT is not a valid measure of self-favoring response bias. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Rogers, Sewell, and Gillard (2010) released a revised version of the Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms (SIRS; Rogers, Bagby, & Dickens, 1992), the SIRS-2, which introduced several new scales, indices, and a new classification model with the overall goal of improving its classification of genuine versus feigned presentations. Since the release of the SIRS-2, several concerns have been raised regarding the quality of the SIRS-2 development and validation samples and the method used to calculate classification accuracy estimates. To further explore issues related to the clinical utility of the SIRS-2, the current study examined associations of the SIRS and SIRS-2 with the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008/2011) validity scales in separate samples of disability claimants and criminal defendants. Results indicate that the SIRS-2 reduced the number of feigning classifications. Additional analyses suggest that the Modified Total Index and Supplementary Scale Index do not assess the test-taking strategy that Rogers and colleagues (2010) intended the indices to capture. External data indicates that evaluees reclassified on the SIRS-2 in nonfeigning categories exhibited feigned symptoms of psychopathology. Indeed, we found that SIRS-identified feigners showed significant evidence of overreporting on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form validity scales, regardless of their SIRS-2 classification. The current study highlights the overall weakness in clinical utility of the SIRS-2. Implications of these results for both clinical and forensic settings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

This study examines the accuracy of the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM), a frequently administered measure for evaluating effort during neurocognitive testing. In the last few years, several authors have suggested that the initial recognition trial of the TOMM (Trial 1) might be a more useful index for detecting feigned or exaggerated impairment than Trial 2, which is the source for inference recommended by the original instruction manual (Tombaugh, 1996). We used latent class modeling (LCM) implemented in a Bayesian framework to evaluate archival Trial 1 and Trial 2 data collected from 1,198 adults who had undergone outpatient forensic evaluations. All subjects were tested with 2 other performance validity tests (the Word Memory Test and the Computerized Assessment of Response Bias), and for 70% of the subjects, data from the California Verbal Learning Test-Second Edition Forced Choice trial were also available. Our results suggest that not even a perfect score on Trial 1 or Trial 2 justifies saying that an evaluee is definitely responding genuinely, although such scores imply a lower-than-base-rate probability of feigning. If one uses a Trial 2 cut-off higher than the manual's recommendation, Trial 2 does better than Trial 1 at identifying individuals who are almost certainly feigning while maintaining a negligible false positive rate. Using scores from both trials, one can identify a group of definitely feigning and very likely feigning subjects who comprise about 2 thirds of all feigners; only 1% of the members of this group would not be feigning. (PsycINFO Database Record

Previous research has suggested multiple factor structures for the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), with contradictory evidence arising across different studies on the validity of these models. In the present research, it was hypothesized that these inconsistent findings were due to the interaction of 3 main methodological factors: ambiguous response categories in the negative items, multiple scoring schemes, and inappropriate estimation methods. Using confirmatory factor analysis with appropriate estimation methods and scores obtained from a large (n = 27,674) representative Spanish sample, we tested this hypothesis by evaluating the fit and predictive validities of 4 GHQ-12 factor models-unidimensional, Hankins' (2008a) response bias model, Andrich and Van Schoubroeck's (1989) 2-factor model, and Graetz's (1991) 3-factor model-across 3 scoring methods: standard, corrected, and Likert. In addition, the impact of method effects on the reliability of the global GHQ-12 scores was also evaluated. The combined results of this study support the view that the GHQ-12 is a unidimensional measure that contains spurious multidimensionality under certain scoring schemes (corrected and Likert) as a result of ambiguous response categories in the negative items. Therefore, it is suggested that the items be scored using the standard method and that only a global score be derived from the instrument.

The Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) is a 220-item self-report instrument that assesses the alternative model of personality psychopathology in Section III (Emerging Measures and Models) of DSM-5. Despite its relatively recent introduction, the PID-5 has generated an impressive accumulation of studies examining its psychometric properties, and the instrument is also already widely and frequently used in research studies. Although the PID-5 is psychometrically sound overall, reviews of this instrument express concern that this scale does not possess validity scales to detect invalidating levels of response bias, such as underreporting and overreporting. McGee Ng et al. (2016), using a "known-groups" (partial) criterion design, demonstrated that both underreporting and overreporting grossly affect mean scores on PID-5 scales. In the current investigation, we replicate these findings using an analog simulation design. An important extension to this replication study was the finding that the construct validity of the PID-5 was also significantly compromised by response bias, with statistically significant attenuation noted in validity coefficients of the PID-5 domain scales with scales from other instruments measuring congruent constructs. This attenuation was found for underreporting and overreporting bias. We believe there is a need to develop validity scales to screen for data-distorting response bias in research contexts and in clinical assessments where response bias is likely or otherwise suspected. (PsycINFO Database Record

There has been considerable debate about profiling personality pathology when assessing and treating male perpetrators of domestic violence (DV). This study used the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-III) to explore the severity and diversity of male perpetrator personality pathology and response bias in a group of DV perpetrators being assessed for a treatment program (N = 177). We analyzed the sample using the interpretive guidelines of White and Gondolf (2000); 54% of profiles in our sample fell into categories indicative of a personality disorder, and 37% of the total sample provided profiles indicative of severe personality pathology. These percentages were higher than White and Gondolf's findings but lower than some others. There was considerable diversity of personality pathology as well, supporting the contention that there is no one male DV perpetrator profile. Because of debate concerning the manner of responding on self-report instruments, we paid special attention to response biases in our sample. Twenty-six percent of our sample exaggerated (12%) or minimized (14%) their responses. We also found that response biases on the MCMI-III Modifying Indices were related to self-reported severity of psychopathology. This suggests that assessing severity of psychopathology is inadequate without reference to such biases.

The present study extends the validation of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) Response Bias Scale (RBS; R. O. Gervais, Y. S. Ben-Porath, D. B. Wygant, & P. Green, 2007) in separate forensic samples composed of disability claimants and criminal defendants. Using cognitive symptom validity tests as response bias indicators, the RBS exhibited large effect sizes (Cohen's ds = 1.24 and 1.48) in detecting cognitive response bias in the disability and criminal forensic samples, respectively. The scale also added incremental prediction to the traditional MMPI-2 and the MMPI-2-RF overreporting validity scales in the disability sample and exhibited excellent specificity with acceptable sensitivity at cutoffs ranging from 90T to 120T. The results of this study indicate that the RBS can add uniquely to the existing MMPI-2 and MMPI-2-RF validity scales in detecting symptom exaggeration associated with cognitive response bias.

In the current investigation, the authors examined the validity of the L-r and K-r scales on the recently developed Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF; Y. S. Ben-Porath & A. Tellegen, in press) in measuring underreported response bias. Three archival samples previously collected for examining MMPI-2 validity scales were reanalyzed in 2 studies. In Study 1 L-r and K-r significantly differentiated 2 groups of participants (patients with schizophrenia and university students) who had been instructed to underreport on the MMPI-2 from participants who took the test under standard instructions. L-r and K-r also added incremental predictive variance to one another in differentiating these groups. In Study 2 a similar set of outcomes emerged through the use of a differential prevalence design in which L-r and K-r significantly differentiated a group of child custody litigants who were administered the MMPI-2 from university students taking the test under standard instructions.

The use of response bias indicators in psychological measurement has been contentious, with debate as to whether they actually suppress or moderate the ability of substantive psychological indicators to identify the construct of interest. Suppression would indicate that predictor variables contain invalid variance that the bias indicators can suppress, while moderation would indicate differential levels of predictive validity at different levels of bias. Response bias indicators on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF) [infrequent responses (F-r), infrequent somatic responses (Fs), infrequent psychopathology responses (Fp-r), adjustment validity (K-r), uncommon virtues (L-r), symptom validity (FBS-r), and Response Bias Scale (RBS)] were tested to determine whether they suppressed or moderated the ability of the Restructured Clinical Scale 1 (RC1) and Neurologic Complaints (NUC) scale to discriminate between epileptic seizures (ES) and nonepileptic seizures (NES, a conversion disorder that is often misdiagnosed as ES). The MMPI-2-RF was completed by 399 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of ES or NES via Epilepsy Monitoring Unit evaluation. Moderated logistic regression was used to test for moderation, and logistic regression was used to test for suppression. Most of the response bias variables showed a suppressor effect, but moderator effects were not found. These findings extend the use of bias indicators to a psychomedical context.

This article describes the development and preliminary validation of the Multidimensional Health Profile, Part I: Psychosocial Functioning (MHP-P), a self-report screening instrument for use in mental health and primary care settings. The MHP-P assesses mental health, life stress, coping skills, and social resources. In Study 1, retest reliability, validity, social desirability response bias, and factor structure were examined in a national sample of men and women (N = 673). In Study 2, the effect of time frame on the retest reliability of the mental health scales was examined in a sample of male and female college students (N = 147). A national sample of men and women (N = 2,411) provided data for additional confirmatory factor analyses and norm development in Study 3.

This study developed a scale for detecting random responding on the Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI). Ninety-five undergraduates (derivation sample) completed the MPI randomly, as did 2 cross-validation samples, 34 chronic pain patients (pain) and 115 health care professionals (health care). Up to 71% of random profiles appeared valid. For comparison in validity scale development, a clinical MPI sample (N = 507) was split into derivation and cross-validation samples. Given that responses to similar items should be consistent in nonrandom protocols, 8 pairs of highly intercorrelated items were selected. Absolute differences between pairs were summed into a variable responding (VR) scale; scores were contrasted across clinical and random groups. On the basis of derivation sample results, VR scale cut scores (from 12 to 17) were tested and found to discriminate accurately (p

The current investigation examined the utility of the overreporting validity scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF; Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008) in detecting noncredible reporting of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in a sample of disability-seeking veterans. We also examined the effect of mental health knowledge on the utility of these scales by investigating the extent to which these scales differentiate between veterans with PTSD and individuals with mental health training who were asked to feign symptoms of PTSD on the test. Group differences on validity scale scores indicated that these scales were associated with large effect sizes for differentiating veterans who overreported from those with PTSD and for differentiating between mental health professionals and veterans with PTSD. Implications of these results in terms of clinical practice are discussed.

A recent review offered the conclusion that the utility of considering response bias--in particular, underreporting, or defensiveness--in assessing psychopathology with structured inventories has not been demonstrated in practical criterion-related situations. The present research tested for the presence of suppressor and moderator effects in 3 such mental health classification tasks (disordered participants vs. control participants) using relevant predictors. Regression analyses showed the presence of one or both effects for all 3 tasks. The practical effects of these response biases were then illustrated by examining 4 measures of predictive accuracy at different levels of the response-bias measure: predictor/criterion correlations, hit rates, sensitivity/specificity, and positive/negative predictive power. It was concluded that there is clear utility in taking account of underreporting response bias in practical situations, particularly where extreme response bias is likely to be present. Confirmation of these findings with additional response-bias measures is needed.

If an examinee exerts inadequate effort to perform well during a psychological or neuropsychological exam, the resulting data will represent an inaccurate representation of the individual's true abilities and difficulties. In adult populations, methodologies to identify noncredible effort have grown exponentially in the last 2 decades. Though a comparatively modest amount of work has focused on tools to identify noncredible effort in pediatric populations, recent research has demonstrated that children can consistently pass several stand-alone symptom validity tests (SVTs) using cutoffs established with adults. However, no identified studies have examined the implications of pediatric SVT failure for ability-based test performance. The current sample consisted of 276 children aged 8-16 years referred consecutively for outpatient clinical neuropsychological consultation following mild traumatic brain injury (TBI). An earlier subgroup of this same case series that also included 17-year-olds was presented in Kirkwood and Kirk (2010). Nineteen percent of the current sample performed below the actuarial cutoff on the Medical Symptom Validity Test (MSVT). No background or injury-related variable differentiated those who passed from those who failed the MSVT. Performance on the MSVT was correlated significantly with performance on all ability-based tests and explained 38% of the total ability-based test variance. Participants failing the MSVT performed significantly worse on nearly all neuropsychological tests, with large effect sizes apparent across most tests. The results provide compelling evidence that practitioners should add objective SVTs to the evaluation of school-aged youth, even when secondary gain issues might not be readily apparent and particularly following mild TBI.

Helms, Henze, Sass, and Mifsud (2006) defined good practices for internal consistency reporting, interpretation, and analysis consistent with an alpha-as-data perspective. Their viewpoint (a) expands on previous arguments that reliability coefficients are group-level summary statistics of samples’ responses rather than stable properties of scales or measures and (b) encourages researchers to investigate characteristics of reliability data for their own samples and subgroups within their samples. In Study 1, we reviewed past and current reliability reporting practices in a sample of Psychological Assessment articles published across 3 decades (i.e., from the years 1989, 1996, and 2006). Results suggested that contemporary and past researchers’ reliability reporting practices have not improved over time and generally were not consistent with good practices. In Study 2, we analyzed an archival data set to illustrate the real-life repercussions of researchers’ ongoing misconstrual and misuse of reliability data. Our analyses suggested that researchers should conduct preliminary analyses of their data to determine whether their data fit the assumptions of their reliability analyses. Also, the results indicated that reliability coefficients varied across racial or ethnic and gender subgroups, and these variations had implications for whether the same depression measure should be used across groups. We concluded that the alpha-as-data perspective has implications for one’s choice of psychological measures and interpretation of results, which subsequently affect conclusions and recommendations. We encourage researchers to recognize the people behind their data by adopting better practices in internal consistency reporting, analysis, and interpretation.

The validity of the Wiener-Harmon Subtle-Obvious (S-O) scales has been widely debated despite increasing evidence suggesting that the scales have limited clinical utility. This study used valid MMPI-2 profiles of 49 psychiatric patients and profiles generated by 105 college students under fake-bad, fake-good, and standard instructions to examine whether the S-O scales can correctly classify faked and honest profiles. The S-O scales correctly classified high percentages of profiles, but further analyses showed that they added no information to that provided by L and F in classifying fake-bad, fake-good, and honest profiles. But other analyses showed that L and F provided substantial information not given by the S-O scales. The study also observed the paradoxical effect under the the fake-good instructions and reported evidence suggesting that a naysaying response bias is a cogent explanation of the effect