The Use of Million Clinical Multiaxial Inventory III

608 Words2 Pages

The Use of Million Clinical Multiaxial Inventory III

Psychologists have been using Million Clinical Multiaxial Inventory III (MCMI-III) to diagnose patients with personality disorders, but it has been questioned on its accuracy and fairness when it comes to gender differences. MCMI-III is mainly used for objective measuring of personality and psychopathology and it is stated that its works best on Axis II disorders.

Empirical evidence does not support MCMI-III with prevalence of personality disorders in men and women. MCMI-III uses base rate in its scoring system and base rate is the frequency or dominance of a characteristic in a particular population therefore the accuracy of the assessment measure can be affected. Raw scores are transformed in to base rate score for each scale. If raw score is 0 then the base rate is 0 however if the base rate is 60 then the raw score is at a median for that particular scale.

Not only does the MCMI-III evaluate Mental Health problems, more importantly, its strength is in determining underlying personality patterns that are essential to understanding and effectively treating clients. These personality patterns are also vital in identifying Thinking Errors that can be treated with a Cognitive Behavioral approach. However showing gender differences in mean test scores via the personality disorder scales are still hard to figure out compared to its predecessors. (Version 1&2) This is mainly due to the unrevised manuals that accompany i...

Open Document