Date of Award

2003

Publication Type

Doctoral Thesis

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Department

Psychology

Keywords

Psychology, MMPI-2, Psychopathology, Rorschach

Supervisor

Stephen Hibbard

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Abstract

Although the MMPI-2 and Rorschach are commonly used and researched tests, studies examining the convergence of similarly named constructs (e.g., depression) have typically found that the tests are unrelated (Archer & Krishnamurthy, 1997). Meyer (1997, 1999) and Meyer, Riethmiller, Brooks, Benoit, and Handler (2000) established that choosing participants who respond to the Rorschach and the MMPI-2 in a similar way based on their placement on the first unrotated principal component (FUPC) moderates convergence between similarly named constructs (e.g., depression). However, it has been unclear as to whether these results were due to specific construct convergence or whether they were due merely to the match of FUPC. In addition, the matches based on FUPC markers might have been due to response style and/or general psychopathology. Thus, it had been unclear in the literature to what extent the convergence of similarly based constructs on the MMPI-2 and Rorschach has been due to: specific construct convergence, response style, or general psychopathology. The current study sought first to replicate Meyer's findings in a new sample. Secondly, additional analyses were conducted that were designed to disentangle the respective influences of construct specific convergence, response style, and general psychopathology. Meyer's results were generally replicated in a new sample. Second, after having separated the influences of response style and general psychopathology, correlations between conceptually related constructs were not higher than correlations between conceptually unrelated constructs indicating that construct-specific convergence could not be established. Third, correlations between conceptually unrelated psychopathology constructs were not higher than correlations between non-psychopathology constructs. This suggests that the effect of general psychopathology did not have an effect over and above the effect of response style. The findings suggest that there is no construct-specific convergence between similarly named (e.g., depression) constructs on the MMPI-2 and the Rorschach. The findings also highlight the large influence of response style on the convergence of similarly named constructs.

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