When Patients Overreport Symptoms: More Than Just Malingering

Mental-health patients may report more symptoms than they actually experience. Experts and laypeople often view this overreporting as a sign of malingering. We show that there are multiple pathways to symptom overreporting: carryover effects from previous tests that lower the threshold for answering...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inCurrent directions in psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society Vol. 28; no. 3; pp. 321 - 326
Main Authors Merckelbach, Harald, Dandachi-FitzGerald, Brechje, van Helvoort, Daniel, Jelicic, Marko, Otgaar, Henry
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.06.2019
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
symptoms
malingering
negative affectivity
alexithymia
self-reports
misinformation
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Mental-health patients may report more symptoms than they actually experience. Experts and laypeople often view this overreporting as a sign of malingering. We show that there are multiple pathways to symptom overreporting: carryover effects from previous tests that lower the threshold for answering affirmatively to symptom items, suggestive misinformation that escalates symptom reports, inattentive responding that promotes indiscriminate endorsement of symptoms, and personality traits that bias symptom reports in an upward direction. A one-sided focus on malingering may distract from a research agenda that may contribute to knowledge accumulation in this domain.
ISSN:0963-7214
1467-8721
DOI:10.1177/0963721419837681