Personality Test Gets a New Face : Psychological Profile Survey Updated After 50 Years of Use

One of the most widely used psychological tests in the world has undergone a personality change after about 50 years.

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, administered millions of times a year to job applicants and others, has been updated to reflect modern attitudes and ailments.

For instance, it no longer asks test subjects if they enjoyed reading “Alice in Wonderland.” The test has also done away with male pronouns in questions pertaining to both sexes, no longer assuming, for example, that political candidates are male in a question about voting habits.

Among questions removed were those about religion, sexual preference and bodily functions such as excretion. Several references that researchers thought were anachronisms were deleted, such as one to the children’s game “Drop the Handkerchief.”

“Some of the questions were objectionable and some were out of date,” said James Butcher, a psychology professor at the University of Minnesota who helped revise the test. “My conclusions were that it was basically a very sound instrument, but it could be improved.”

Modern Problems

About 100 items have been added, designed to pinpoint such modern problems as “Type A” achievement-oriented behavior, drug abuse and attitudes about mental health treatment. Researchers turned to alcohol treatment centers, mental health programs and personnel settings to get a read on contemporary issues.

The original test of 556 true-false statements was questioned by critics because it used as a basis for normal personality the answers from a sample group of about 700 rural Minnesotans, averaging 35 years old with eighth-grade educations.

Butcher said the revised sample is four times that size and covers various ethnic, economic and geographic groups from seven U.S. regions.

“We’ve tried to make the test more applicable to today’s problems,” he said. The revision is designed to be “more user-friendly and of similar validity as the original test.”

The test was developed at the University of Minnesota in the 1930s and ‘40s by psychologist Starke R. Hathaway and psychiatrist J. Charnley McKinley.

Reveal Maladjustment

They compared a sample group with a group of patients diagnosed with problems including paranoia, schizophrenia, depression and obsessive-compulsive tendencies. Results were intended to reveal social and personal maladjustment.

The test is used in more than 100 countries in scores of translations, Butcher said. Originally used primarily in clinical settings, it has spread to personnel, military and research applications.

Sample true-false questions include: “I do not tire quickly,” “I am worried about sex” and “I believe I am being plotted against.”

The seven-year revision was completed by Butcher and psychology professors Auke Tellegen, also of the University of Minnesota, John R. Graham of Kent State University and W. Grant Dahlstrom of the University of North Carolina.

The revised test is similar to the original, with test subjects answering 567 questions on their feelings, symptoms, attitudes and beliefs.

Only licensed psychologists are authorized to buy the test, whose rights are owned by the University of Minnesota Press.

“Anybody who can count can score it, but it takes expertise to interpret it,” Butcher said.