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Validity scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory—2 (MMPI-2) are widely used for the detection of exaggerated psychological complaints, although little is known about the results of these scales with racial or ethnic minority individuals. Five validity scales derived from the MMPI-2, including the F Scale, the Back Infrequency Scale, the Symptom Validity Scale, the Infrequency-Psychopathology Scale, and the Dissimulation Scale-MMPI-2, were evaluated in 157 medical patients—109 Caucasian Americans and 48 Asian Americans. All patients were involved in personal injury litigation or seeking compensation for alleged psychological conditions. Analyses of variance (ANOVAs) conducted on the five validity scales revealed no significant group effects for race. The results were consistent with the limited available data on the MMPI-2 validity scales with minority group samples. Further research with other racial minorities, including relevant extra-test criteria for malingering, is encouraged.

Five MMPI-2 validity scales were evaluated with 120 personal injury litigation patients (LP) and 208 clinical patients (CP) along with 43 normal participants (NP). The validity measures included the Fake Bad Scale (FBS), Infrequency scale (F), Back Infrequency scale (Eb), Infrequency-Psychopathology scale (F[p]), and the Dissimulation scale-2 (DA2). Results showed that only the FBS significantly differentiated the LP and CP, whereas the LP and CP scored significantly higher than the NP on FBS, F, Fb, and Ds2. The content of the FBS, with several items from the Hypochondriasis (Hs) and Hysteria (Hy) Scales, appears to enhance the FBS' ability to detect the somatic overreporting often observed with personal injury claimants. The authors suggest that the FBS may be a useful index of symptom magnification when employed within a comprehensive assessment of malingering in personal injury plaintiffs.

The Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA) was administered to 15 children with learning difficulties, ranging from 6 through 8 years of age, who had questionable brain disorder as a result of a history of a serious illness or trauma involving possible brain injury. A comparable group of 15 children with learning difficulties but with no such history of possible brain disorder was employed. Results of t tests revealed that the performance of young children with questionable brain disorders was inferior to those of young children with no brain disorder on all 11 ITPA subtests. The effects of brain disorder on visually mediated functions are discussed along with previous similar and conflicting data.

The Screening Test of Academic Readiness (STAR) was administered to 59 incoming kindergarten boys at a private school with superior academic standards. To assess the predictive validity of the STAR, the Metropolitan Readiness Test (MRT) and teachers' academic ranking of the students were obtained as criterion measures toward the end of the kindergarten year. Except for a low but significant correlation (.24) between the STAR and the MRT Numbers subtest, there was no substantial relationship between the STAR and MRT scores. The Spearman rank-difference correlation between the STAR and teachers' ranking of the kindergarten (.23) was statistically significant but low. The findings suggested that the STAR may not be an effective screening test for kindergarten pupils in a population of children with superior IQs. The results call for local validation of tests to be used for admissions purposes.