Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2007

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

William Fremouw.

Abstract

Sixty-four individuals undergoing a social security disability evaluation were administered the Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms (SIRS), Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS), and Assessment of Depression Inventory (ADI). Individual results were classified as honest or suspected malingering based on SIRS scores. In addition, 63 individuals from the community were randomly assigned to complete the SIMS and the ADI honestly or as if they were malingering depression. Both malingering groups had significantly higher mean scores on the SIMS Total and ADI Feigning scales than both honest groups. The scores of the malingering groups did not significantly differ. In the clinical sample, previous recommended SIMS Total cut-scores (>14 or >16) had excellent sensitivity, but low specificity. Conversely, the recommended ADI Feigning cut-score (>13) had excellent specificity, but low sensitivity. Higher and lower cut-scores on the SIMS Total and the ADI Feigning scale, respectively, may improve their utility in screening for malingering among disability seeking outpatients.

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