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There is a hazard in using statistically derived means when dealing with data that essentially involve self-reportage. Using those to come to diagnostic conclusions based on data normed on a dominant population has an added potential for bias. This is especially true where those being evaluated come from a group significantly different in areas that affect self-report of mental health symptoms. Research has determined that there are differences in various populations which require assessors to take into consideration these cultural differences when using these instruments with individuals from the specific groups (Butcher, Nezami, & Exner, 1998; Dana, 1988; Tsai, Butcher, Munoz, & Vitousek, 2001). This study assessed the usability of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) for the Orthodox Jewish Yeshiva population. It examined a sample of 154 male American Yeshiva students (mean age = 23.21) from various Yeshivas from the United States and from Israel through studying cultural differences of the Yeshiva population and how they impact MMPI-2 scores. The data from this study illustrate the impact that culture can hold on test responses, scores, and interpretation. This has many applications to other groups and cultures and the outcomes of these data can be applied to those similar populations. The study used Fisher's Exact Test on thirty-three hypotheses (nine L scale items and twenty-four Mf scale items) to compare this sample Yeshiva population with the contemporary national normative sample on which the MMPI-2 is based. All of hypotheses, which predicted that the Yeshiva population would respond significantly different than the norm population in a particular direction, were validated. The study offers speculative rationale to explain the hypotheses, however a follow-up qualitative study is necessary to better understand the underlying motivators. In scale L (54.4805, SD=11.5991), there are particular L scale items that this group endorsed in one direction more than the norm group. They do have a general concern of how they are perceived in the eyes of the world; however, some of the L scale items do not appear to be the type of items that would be grounds of concern to them as illustrating that they have shortcomings and are endorsed more frequently than is found in the norm group. Other L scale items are items which people of this religious group are continuously working on to diminish and many of this group have difficulty admitting having these challenges and therefore do not endorse these items as frequently as the norm group. Three items (e.g., feeling like swearing, slipping into a movie without being caught, to laugh at a dirty joke) are items that are frowned upon in this community perhaps more than in the norm group and individuals of this group endorsed these items less than the norm group. While the MF scale test questions were designed to assess masculinity, the Yeshiva population demonstrates that in some populations there is a reversal from what is stereotypically conceived of as masculinity, yet their MF scale score is strongly masculine (44.974, SD=7.199). Many MMPI-2 test items stereotypically thought of as defining masculinity were not endorsed by this population, however the population as a group obtained a very masculine MF scale score. The study demonstrates that masculinity, as an example, can be characterized in various and diverse manners, based on an individual's culture. The Yeshiva group had statistically significant lower scores than the norm population on clinical scales Pa and Pt, however statistically significant higher scores on all others but scale D. The highest scale score was Pd (57.2597, SD=9.0646), however the study explains how an elevated Pd scale score is commonly found in religious groups. When the group was subdivided by marital status, the Single (n=120) group's clinical scales scores were higher than the Married (n=34) group's on all but K, L, D, Hy, and Mf. Using a t-test analysis, the Married group had statistically significant lower scores than the Single group on scales F, Pd, Pa, Pt, Sc, AAS, and APS. Using a Fisher's Exact Test analysis, 19 items from the Koss-Butcher and Lachar-Wrobel critical item lists (3, 42, 60, 72, 73, 84, 85, 105, 130, 134, 142, 176, 213, 227, 261, 268, 295, 299, and 464) were tested in the study and were each found to have a statistically significant higher endorsement in the Yeshiva population than the norm population. The 2-point codes of the 18% who presented are also discussed. This study certainly supports that if the MMPI-2 is utilized with other religious or self-insulated groups, its information must be supplemented heavily with knowledge of the clients' unique beliefs and predicaments within their cultural context. Today, when the MMPI-2 is used in so many dimensions, it cannot be stressed enough that there is a need to be aware of the situational/social context factors of the individuals being tested where important decisions regarding their futures are influenced by the outcomes of the test. Clinicians need to remember that assessments of individuals from subpopulations outside of the general population should be interpreted with caution so as to not overstate their level of pathology. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
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