OUR RESEARCH

Current Projects

PROJECT: Cultural Influences on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–3 (MMPI-3)

*In collaboration with Dr. Joye Anestis (Rutgers University), Mattea I. Parker (University of California – Berkeley), & Cheyenne McIntyre (Ball State University)

Psychological assessment instruments must function equitably across individuals to yield accurate descriptions and meaningful implications for people from diverse cultural contexts (AERA/APA/NCME, 2014; APA, 2020). This project examines whether conclusions about the cultural fairness of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–3 (MMPI-3; Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2020a, 2020b) scale scores hold when traditional, categorical understandings of race are replaced with dimensional, experience-based approaches to identity (Helms, 2007; Umana-Taylor et al., 2014). Building on past work examining differences between racialized groups (e.g., Anestis, et al., 2022; 2024), this study evaluates whether MMPI-3 Restructured Clinical (RC) scales demonstrate differential validity in predicting mental health outcomes when racial identity is conceptualized as a multifaceted, dynamic construct. A second aim explores whether identity-related stressors, such as experiences of discrimination, moderate associations between MMPI-3 scale scores and key outcome variables. To address these aims, we are using a two-part design involving both online surveys and digitally administered sessions to collect data from approximately 800 U.S. adults who identify as Black or White. This research will clarify whether the MMPI-3 functions comparably across cultural groups and highlight factors that may influence its interpretation, helping ensure the measure is used appropriately and fairly in diverse populations.

 

 

PROJECT: Advancing Adolescent Assessment – Revising & Updating the MMPI-A-RF

*In collaboration with Dr. Richard Handel (Old Dominion University), Dr. Radhika Krishnamurthy (Florida Institute of Technology), and Dr. Yossef S. Ben-Porath (Kent State University); supported by the University of Minnesota Press – Test Division

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–Adolescent–Restructured Form (MMPI-A-RF; Archer, et al., 2016) is a well-validated measure of adolescent emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal functioning. Although psychometrically sound, the instrument would benefit from revision to ensure that its items, construct coverage, and norms reflect the experiences and diversity of today’s youth, as well as consistency with current models of adolescent personality and psychopathology. This multi-phase project is designed to address these needs. The project will involve improving item clarity and readability for adolescents, expanding content to address important domains not well represented on the MMPI-A-RF, updating normative data to reflect current U.S. demographics, developing a Spanish-language version, and examining how the instrument performs across clinical, educational, and forensic settings. We are currently addressing some of these aims using data collected from adolescents through partnerships with Dr. Janay Sander (Ball State University Department of Educational Psychology), Muncie Community Schools, and the Indiana Academy. Future phases will involve additional data collection with these and other youth-serving community partners. This work will ideally yield a fully updated adolescent MMPI that is psychometrically sound, developmentally appropriate, and clinically useful in a variety of contexts.

 

Graduate Student Projects

PROJECT: Cultural Experiences and the Assessment of Persecutory Ideation in Black Americans

*Cheyenne McIntyre’s Thesis 

Psychological assessments play a central role in identifying symptoms of psychosis, including paranoia. However, experiences such as discrimination and cultural mistrust may influence how individuals from marginalized racial and ethnic groups respond to measures designed to assess persecutory thinking, complicating interpretation and risking misclassification. This project examines whether two widely used instruments, the MMPI-3’s Restructured Clinical Persecutory Ideation Scale (RC6) and the Revised-Green Paranoid Thoughts Scale (R-GPTS), capture persecutory thinking equivalently across racial groups using data from a large sample of White- and Black-Americans. The mixed-methods design also allows examination of whether culturally relevant factors, including discrimination and cultural mistrust, influence scores on these instruments among the Black American participants, as well as how they interpret paranoia-related items within the context of their lived experiences. Findings will inform culturally responsive interpretation of these instruments by clarifying whether elevated scores among Black respondents reflect clinically significant persecutory thinking, culturally adaptive vigilance, or a combination of both.