MMPI profile types and the self-report of psychiatric patients.

Traditionally, the content of patients' communications has been ignored in the development of both MMPI clinical scales and of systems for interpreting profile configurations. Two hypotheses were investigated: (a) patients classified as falling within the same MMPI profile type tend to be homogeneous in the content of their self-report; and (J) the content of self-report of patients in the same profile type tends to be related in a straightforward fashion to nontest descriptions of such patients. The first hypothesis was confirmed by demonstrating that the more complex the profile system employed for classification, the more homogeneous the content of self-report for patients within profile types. The second hypothesis was confirmed for five of six Gilberstadt-Duker profile types. It was emphasized that person-item interactions represent a legitimate realm of inquiry.