Susceptibility of the trauma symptom inventory to malingering. Academic Article

abstract

• This study examined the sensitivity and specificity of the Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI; Briere, 1995), a self-report measure of psychological sequelae of potentially traumatic events, to malingering. An optimal cutting score for a validity scale--Atypical Responding (ATR)--designed to identify exaggeration or other unusual response sets was developed in an analogue sample of 155 college students and subsequently applied to TSI profiles from several samples of patients with various psychiatric disorders. Use of a cross-validated T-score cutoff of 61 and below on the ATR scale produced good sensitivity (81%) and specificity (92%) rates in the analogue sample. Participants in the analogue sample who reported a history of traumatic experiences were no more able to successfully malinger trauma symptoms than were participants without such histories. Furthermore, false-positive rates in the clinical samples were generally low, suggesting that relatively few genuinely symptomatic individuals would be misclassified as malingering.

authors

• Edens, John

published proceedings

• J Pers Assess

author list (cited authors)

• Edens, J. F., Otto, R. K., & Dwyer, T. J.

citation count

• 38

complete list of authors

• Edens, JF||Otto, RK||Dwyer, TJ

publication date

• January 1998

publisher

• Taylor & Francis  Publisher

published in

• Journal of Personality Assessment  Journal

keywords

• Adult
• Female
• Humans
• Male
• Malingering
• Reproducibility Of Results
• Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
• Surveys And Questionnaires

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1207/s15327752jpa7103_7

start page

• 379

end page

• 392

volume

• 71

issue

• 3

URL

• http%3A%2F%2Fdx.doi.org%2F10.1207%2Fs15327752jpa7103_7