MMPI-A: Assessing Adolescent Psychopathology

Dr. Archer's 1987 text, Using the MMPI With Adolescents, received outstanding critical reviews and served as a comprehensive guide to the application of the original MMPI with teenagers. This text included a series of practical recommendations concerning the interpretive practices uniquely suited for this age group. The University of Minnesota Press has recently developed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory - Adolescent (MMPI-A) which represents the first revision of the MMPI for use specifically with adolescents. As a member of the University of Minnesota Adolescent Project Committee responsible for the development of the MMPI-A, Dr. Archer is uniquely qualified to provide an in-depth introduction to this new instrument. The MMPI-A features the release of new dolescent norms based on a contemporary sample of 1620 adolescents, the revision of many traditional items to increase readability and relevance to adolescent development and psychopathology, and the inclusion of new items and scales.

This guide was written to provide facts and recommendations on the essential features of the MMPI-A for those clinicians, students, and researchers interested in understanding and using this new instrument. The text reviews the reasons for the development of the MMPI-A, and discusses its salient features including new validity, content, and supplementary scales. MMPI-A single-scale and codetype correlates are presented, as well as clinical case examples illustrating interpretive principles. Throughout this book, emphasis is placed on presenting information that is of direct clinical relevance for practitioners, while also providing sufficient technical information and research data to serve as a guide for research efforts in this field.