The Operating Characteristics of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory

• Published in: Journal of personality assessment Vol. 50; no. 4; pp. 554 - 567
• Main Authors: Gibertini, Michael, Brandenburg, Nancy A., Retzlaff, Paul D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia, PA Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc 01.12.1986; Taylor & Francis; Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, etc
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Humans; Manuals as Topic; Medical sciences; Nosology. Terminology. Diagnostic criteria; Personality Disorders - diagnosis; Personality Disorders - psychology; Personality Tests; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Techniques and methods; Human; Clinical test; Test validation; Personality test; Classification; Clinical Multiaxial Inventory Millon; Prediction; Psychometrics; Differential diagnostic
• ISSN: 0022-3891; 1532-7752
• DOI: 10.1207/s15327752jpa5004_3

The operating characteristics of the 20 scales of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) were analyzed with respect to the construction sample data as presented in the test manual. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive power, negative predictive power, and overall diagnostic power of each scale were derived. Results indicated that eight scales show excellent characteristics, nine were classified as fair, and three were determined to have poor positive predictive power for identifying the presence of a syndrome in an individual patient. Five scales had good positive predictive power for identifying the most prominent syndrome in a patient's clinical picture, eleven scales were classified as fair, and four were seen as poor on this dimension. We suggest a method for determining the utility of individual scales for different clinical populations and discuss implications of this type of analysis of the MCMI for diagnosis of the individual case.