377 questions smil interpretation. Example of a paid consultation on decoding tests
Ministry of General and Vocational Education
Russian Federation
Omsk State Pedagogical University
Test materials
to the course Psychodiagnostics
Printed by decision
Editorial and publishing
Omsk State Council
pedagogical university
I.A. Vishnyakov, V.V. Usoltseva. Test materials for the course Psychodiagnostics. – Omsk: Omsk State Pedagogical University Publishing House, 1998. – 134 p.
This methodological manual is intended for students studying in the specialty “Psychology”. It contains instructions, texts of questions and assignments, keys and principles for processing tests used in studying the discipline “Psychodiagnostics”. These materials will be useful to all practicing psychologists.
Reviewer: PhD in Psychology Sc., Associate Professor F.Z. Kabirov
ISBN 5-8268-0233-2
Omsk State Pedagogical University, 1998
From the compilers
These materials contain a set of tests used in a comprehensive psychodiagnostic study of the personality of an adult. This kit includes personality tests, tests to determine individual social characteristics of a person, tests for studying emotional characteristics, communication characteristics and psycho-functional states.
For each specific technique, instructions, text of questions, keys or principles for processing are given. If necessary, a form is provided for the subject's answers. This booklet does not contain detailed interpretations, since its purpose is different: to provide a set of test materials for the student. Well, detailed interpretations and interpretations of various test results can be found in the relevant psychodiagnostic literature.
The authors appeal to users of these materials with a reminder: the test known to the test subject does not work, it is dying for the professional community of psychologists. Therefore, be careful with this book. Make sure that it does not fall into the wrong hands.
Methodology for multilateral personality research
(MMPI test (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory), adapted by F.B. Berezin and M.P. Miroshnikov. Version 377 questions).
The manual contains instructions, text of questions and a key to the text. For comments on the processing and analysis of the results, see the book: Berezin F.B., Miroshnikov M.P., Sokolova E.D. methodology for multilateral personality research (structure, basics of interpretation, some areas of application). M., "Folium", 1994.
1. Instructions
This leaflet contains statements regarding your health and character. An answer sheet is included with the brochure.
1.Write your last name and other information about yourself on the top line of the answer form.
2.Read each statement and decide if it is TRUE for you.
3.The number on the answer form corresponds to the statement number. If you decide that this statement is TRUE, then cross the left square next to the corresponding number on the answer form (this square is located in the column marked with the letter “B”. If the statement is FALSE in relation to you, cross the square located on the right with an oblique cross from the corresponding number (this square is located in the column marked with the letter "H".
4. Carefully read and mark all the statements on the answer sheet, without omitting any. It may be difficult for you to relate to some of the statements, then try to make the best guess possible. Read and mark all the statements on your answer sheet. 5. If a statement in relation to you is both true and false, then choose a solution in accordance with what happens more often.
6. If a statement in relation to you is true and false at different periods of your life, choose the decision as it is correct at the present time.
7. When in doubt, remember that any statement that you cannot regard as true in relation to yourself should be considered false.
8.You should not be afraid of making mistakes in your choice, since whether each statement is true or false is determined only in relation to you and in accordance with your own opinion.
9.If you cannot make a decision on your own, then try to keep such statements as few as possible. Do not forget to skip the number of this statement on the answer form.
10.When deciphering the research results, the content of the statements is not taken into account. All further processing is carried out according to the number that each statement has, so you can be completely honest.
Interpretation.
The information about the meaning of various types of profiles that are given in this section does not exhaust the variety of possible options, but they can be used as a guide when working with the methodology of multifaceted personality research. A systematic presentation of this information is especially useful for researchers beginning to work with the described methodology, since it allows them to quickly acquire the necessary interpretation experience.
The basic rules for assessing a profile, the violation of which most often leads to erroneous interpretation, can be formulated as follows.
1. The profile should be assessed as a whole, and not as a set of independent scales. The results obtained on one of the scales cannot be assessed in isolation from the results on other scales.
2. When assessing a profile, the most important thing is the ratio of the profile level on each scale to the average profile level and, especially in relation to neighboring scales (profile peaks). The absolute value of the T-norm on one scale or another is less significant.
3. The profile characterizes the personality characteristics and current mental state of the subject. In clinical practice, it reflects the characteristics of the psychopathological syndrome, and not the nosological affiliation of the disease. Therefore, the profile cannot be evaluated as a "Diagnostic Label".
4. The results obtained cannot be considered as unshakable, since the connection of the profile with the current mental state determines its dynamics with changes in this state.
5. Interpretation of individual profiles requires taking into account the entire set of data, which cannot be foreseen in advance due to the already noted variety of individual options. Therefore, literature data containing a description of typical profiles can only be used to master the basic principles of interpretation, and not as ready-made recipes.
Trying to use a set of ready-made recipes can lead to significant errors in assessing the results of the study. For example, the same profile obtained in the study of a practically healthy person and an inpatient with severe clinical symptoms will have different meanings.
These preliminary remarks must be kept in mind in any research conducted using a multifaceted personality research methodology. Since profile types are determined by the ratio of its level on various scales, the values of isolated profile elevations on each of the scales and their combinations are discussed below.
Rating scales.
Rating scales (scales L, F and K) were introduced into the original version of the MMPI test in order to study the subject's attitude towards testing and judge the reliability of the study results. However, subsequent study made it possible to establish that these scales also have significant psychological correlates.
ScaleL.
The statements included in the L scale were selected to identify the subject's tendency to present himself in the most favorable light possible, demonstrating strict adherence to social norms.
The scale consists of 15 statements that relate to socially approved, but unimportant attitudes and norms of everyday behavior, which, due to their low significance, are actually ignored by the vast majority of people. Thus, an increase in the result on the L scale usually indicates the desire of the subject to look in a favorable light. This desire may be situationally determined, due to the subject’s limited horizons, or caused by the presence of pathology. However, it must be borne in mind that some people tend to punctually follow the established standard, always observing any rules, even the most insignificant and not of significant value. In these cases, an increase in the result on the L scale reflects the specified character traits. Belonging to a professional group, from which, due to its specificity, an extremely high standard of behavior and punctual adherence to conventional norms is required, also contributes to an increase in the result on the L scale. This kind of high standard of behavior can be observed, in particular, among justice workers, teachers and in some other professional groups.
It should be noted that since the statements that make up the L scale , used in their literal meaning, they may not reveal a tendency to appear in a favorable light if it occurs in persons of sufficiently high intelligence and extensive life experience.
If the results on the L scale are from 70 to 80 T-scores, the resulting profile seems doubtful, and with results over 80 T-scores, it is unreliable. High results on the L scale are usually accompanied by a decrease in the profile level on the main clinical scales. If, despite the high result on the L scale, significant increases in the level of the profile on certain clinical scales are detected, they can be taken into account in the totality of data available to the researcher.
F scale.
A significant increase in the profile on this scale indicates accidental or intentional distortion of the study results.
The scale consists of 64 statements that were extremely rarely regarded as “true” by persons included in the normative group of healthy subjects, which was used to standardize the methodology for multilateral personality research. At the same time, these statements rarely differentiated the normative group from the groups of patients against whom the main test scales were validated.
Statements included in the F scale relate, in particular, to unusual thoughts, desires and sensations, overt psychotic symptoms, and those whose existence is almost never recognized by the patients being studied.
If the F scale profile exceeds 70 T-scores, the result is questionable, but can be taken into account when confirmed by other, including clinical, data. If the F-scale result exceeds 80 T-scores, the study result should be considered unreliable. This result may be caused by technical errors made during the study. In cases where the possibility of error is excluded, the unreliability of the result is determined by the attitude of the subject or his condition. During attitudinal behavior, the subject may lay out cards without any connection with their meaning (if he seeks to avoid research) or recognize as true statements regarding unusual or clearly psychotic phenomena (if he seeks to aggravate or simulate psychopathological symptoms).
An unreliable result associated with the patient's condition can be observed in cases of acute psychotic state (impaired consciousness, delusions, etc.), distorting the perception of statements or the reaction to them. A similar distortion can be observed in cases of severe psychotic disorders leading to a defect. A dubious or unreliable result can be obtained from anxious individuals in cases where an urgent need for help prompts them to give considered answers to most statements. In these cases, simultaneously with an increase in the result on the F scale, the entire profile increases significantly, but the shape of the profile is not distorted and the possibility of its interpretation remains. Finally, changes in the subject’s attention can lead to an unreliable result, as a result of which he makes mistakes or cannot understand the meaning of the statement. If an unreliable result is obtained, in some cases it is possible to increase the reliability of the study through retesting. In this case, it is more advisable to repeatedly present only those statements for which the responses taken into account were received. If the result of repeated testing is unreliable, you can try to establish the reason for the distortion of the result by discussing his answers with the subject. To avoid breaking contact with the subject, it is necessary to obtain his consent to such a discussion.
With a reliable result of the study, a relatively high profile level on the F scale (deviation from the average by 1.5-2s) can be observed in various types of non-conforming personalities, since such individuals will reveal reactions that are not characteristic of the normative group, and accordingly more often give answers taken into account on scale F. Violation of conformity may be associated with the originality of perception and logic, characteristic of people of a schizoid type, autistic and experiencing difficulties in interpersonal contacts, as well as with psychopathic traits in people prone to disordered (“bohemian”) behavior or characterized by pronounced feelings protest against conventional norms. An increase in the profile on the F scale can also be observed in very young people during the period of personality formation in cases where the need for self-expression is realized through non-conformity in behavior and views. Severe anxiety and the need for help usually manifests itself in a relatively high level of result on the described scale.
A moderate increase on the F scale (deviation from the average by 1.0-1.5s) in the absence of psychopathological symptoms usually reflects internal tension, dissatisfaction with the situation, and poorly organized activity. The tendency to follow conventional norms and the absence of internal tension determine the low result on the F scale.
In clinically undoubted cases of the disease, an increase in the profile on the F scale usually correlates with the severity of psychopathological symptoms.
K scale
The scale consists of 30 statements that make it possible to differentiate between individuals who seek to soften or hide psychopathological phenomena and individuals who are overly open.
In the original version of the MMPI test, this scale was originally intended only to study the degree of caution of subjects in a testing situation and the tendency (largely unconscious) to deny existing unpleasant sensations, life difficulties and conflicts. The result obtained from the K scale is added to correct the indicated tendency to five of the ten main clinical scales in a proportion corresponding to its influence on each of these scales. To the greatest extent, this trend affects the results obtained on the seventh and eighth scales, and therefore the primary result obtained on these scales is completely added to the primary result obtained on the K scale. To a lesser extent, it affects the results obtained on the first and fourth scales, therefore, when correcting, 0.5 is added to the primary result obtained on the first scale, and 0.4 of the primary result on the K scale is added to the result obtained on the fourth scale. To the least extent this tendency affects the result obtained on the ninth scale; during correction, 0.2 of the primary result on the K scale is added to the primary result on this scale. The results obtained on the remaining scales do not show regular changes depending on the result on the K scale and therefore are not corrected in the described manner. However, the K scale, in addition to its significance for assessing the test subject’s reaction to the testing situation and correcting results on a number of basic clinical scales, is also of significant interest for assessing certain personality traits of the subject.
Individuals with high scores on the K scale tend to base their behavior on social approval and are concerned about their social status. They tend to deny any difficulties in interpersonal relationships or in controlling their own behavior, strive to comply with accepted norms and refrain from criticizing others to the extent that the behavior of others falls within the framework of the accepted norm. Obviously non-conforming behavior of other people, deviating from traditions and customs, going beyond the conventional framework, causes a pronounced negative reaction in persons who give high scores on the K scale. Due to the tendency to deny (to a large extent at the perceptual level) information indicating difficulties and conflicts, these individuals may not have an adequate idea of how others perceive them. In clinical cases, an expressed desire to achieve a favorable attitude towards oneself may be combined with anxiety and uncertainty.
With insignificant expression (moderate increases in the profile on the K scale), the described tendencies not only do not disrupt the individual’s adaptation, but even facilitate it, causing a feeling of harmony with the environment and an approving assessment of the rules accepted in this environment. In this regard, persons with a moderate increase in profile on the K scale give the impression of reasonable, friendly, sociable people with a wide range of interests. Extensive experience in interpersonal contacts and denial of difficulties determine in individuals of this type a more or less high level of enterprise and the ability to find the right line of behavior. Since such qualities improve social adaptation, a moderate increase in the profile on the K scale can be considered a prognostically favorable sign.
Individuals with a very low profile on the K scale are highly aware of their difficulties and tend to exaggerate rather than underestimate the extent of interpersonal conflicts, the severity of their symptoms, and the degree of personal inadequacy. They do not hide their weaknesses, difficulties and psychopathological disorders. The tendency to be critical of oneself and others leads to skepticism. Dissatisfaction and a tendency to exaggerate the significance of conflicts make them easily vulnerable and create awkwardness in interpersonal relationships.
IndexF-TO. Since the trends measured by the F and K scales are largely in opposite directions, the difference in the primary result obtained on these scales is essential for determining the subject’s attitude at the time of the study and judging the reliability of the result obtained. The average value of this index in the method of multilateral personality research is -7 for men and -8 for women. The intervals at which the obtained result can be considered reliable (if none of the rating scales exceeds 70 T-points) are for men from -18 to +4, for women from -23 to +7. If the F-K difference is from +5 to +7 for men and from +8 to +10 for women, then the result seems doubtful, but if confirmed by clinical data, it can be taken into account provided that none of the rating scales exceeds 80 T-points.
The greater the F-K difference, the more pronounced the subject’s desire to emphasize the severity of his symptoms and life’s difficulties, to evoke sympathy and condolences. A high level of the F-K index may also indicate aggravation. A decrease in the F-K index reflects the desire to improve one’s self-image, mitigate one’s symptoms and emotionally charged problems, or deny their presence. A low level of this index may indicate dissimulation of existing psychopathological disorders.
Clinical scales.
The validity of clinical scales was determined by comparing the results of the study using the described methodology of different groups of patients with a clinically identified syndrome among themselves and with a group of healthy individuals.
Comparison of the profiles of patients with various nosological forms (schizophrenia, organic lesions of the central nervous system of various etiologies, manic-depressive psychosis, neuroses and psychopathy) and various psychopathological syndromes made it possible to establish that the profile of the method of multilateral personality research did not depend on the nosological affiliation of the disease, but was determined by the psychopathological syndrome.
An important advantage of the method of multilateral personality research lies in the possibility of constructing an average profile of any group of subjects identified using a criterion external to the method.
When constructing an averaged profile, the average values for a given group (in T-scores) are used as indicators on individual scales, and methods of variation statistics make it possible to judge whether an observation belongs to the series under consideration, the magnitude of the scatter, and the reliability of the differences between the averaged profiles of any selected groups. It should be assumed that when constructing an average profile of any group that is representative of the population under study, leveling individual tendencies makes it possible to assess the tendencies characteristic of the group as a whole.
Neurotic triad scales.
The scales located in the left half of the profile - first, second and third, in the literature devoted to the original MMPI test, are often combined with the term “neurotic triad”, since an increase in the profile on these scales is usually observed in neurotic disorders. Neurotic reactions are associated with the insufficiency of the individual’s physical and mental resources to implement motivated behavior in a certain situation. The blockade of motivated behavior aimed at satisfying current needs, which underlies neurotic phenomena, is usually designated by the term “frustration.”
In the formation of neurotic disorders, the greatest pathogenic significance is not passive obstacles that interfere with the satisfaction of an urgent need, but the impossibility of realizing motivated behavior due to the presence of needs of comparable strength, but differently directed. In this case, maladaptive behavior associated with the difficulty of choosing one of the simultaneously existing and competing programs is an expression of intrapsychic conflict. A rise in profile on neurotic scales can be caused by any of three possible types of conflict: the need to choose between two equally desirable possibilities; the inevitability of a choice between two equally undesirable possibilities or the necessity of choosing between achieving what you want at the cost of unwanted experiences and giving up what you want in order to avoid these experiences.
However, the nature of the profile is determined not by the type of conflict, but by the degree of participation in the formation of behavior of intrapsychic adaptation mechanisms and the nature of these mechanisms, which ultimately determine the clinical picture of neurosis. The profile on the scales of the neurotic triad and the severity of its rise on the seventh scale quite accurately reflect the nature of neurotic syndromes. It is also important to take into account the ratio of the results obtained on these scales and on other profile scales. It should be noted that the term “neurotic triad” reflects only the high value of these scales for the study of neurotic types of reactions, but in no way excludes an increase in the profile on these scales (in combination with other profile scales) in other forms of pathology, and if profile peaks do not go beyond the boundaries of normal fluctuations even during certain forms of normal mental reactions.
Second scale. Anxiety and depressive tendencies.
It is advisable to start considering the clinical scales of the test with the second scale, since it best reflects the occurrence of anxiety. Anxiety, arising as a subjective reflection of disturbed psychovegetative (neurovegetative, neurohumoral) balance, serves as the most intimate mechanism of mental stress and underlies most psychopathological manifestations.
The 60 statements that make up the second scale relate to such phenomena as internal tension, uncertainty, anxiety, decreased mood, low self-esteem, and a pessimistic assessment of the future. This enumeration makes clear the pronounced increase in the profile on the scale under consideration, both in the phenomena of anxiety and depression. For example, individuals who exhibit these phenomena typically respond “true” to the statements: “You definitely lack self-confidence,” “You often have dark thoughts,” and respond “false” to the statements: “Compared to most people, you are quite capable and smart”, “You believe that in the future people will live much better than now”, “In good weather your mood improves.”
The nature of the profile usually allows one to differentiate between the predominance of anxiety or depression. An isolated and moderate increase in the level of the profile on the second scale (especially in those cases where there is no simultaneous decrease in it on the ninth) usually indicates anxiety more than depression.
Clinically, anxiety is manifested by a feeling of an uncertain threat, the nature and (or) time of occurrence of which cannot be predicted, diffuse fears and anxious anticipation. However, anxiety itself is a central, but not the only element in the group of disorders that can be called anxiety-related phenomena, and the occurrence of each of which causes an increase in the profile on the second scale.
The least pronounced disorder of this series is a feeling of internal tension, readiness for the occurrence of some unexpected phenomenon, which, however, is not yet assessed as threatening. An increase in feelings of internal tension often leads to difficulty in isolating a signal from the background, that is, in differentiating significant and insignificant stimuli. Clinically, this is expressed by the appearance of an unpleasant emotional connotation of previously indifferent stimuli. A further increase in the severity of anxiety disorders leads to the emergence of anxiety itself (free-floating anxiety, vague anxiety), which is usually replaced by fear, i.e. a feeling of no longer an uncertain, but a concrete threat, and in the most pronounced cases, a feeling of the inevitability of an impending catastrophe. A change in the disorders included in this series manifests itself mainly in an increase in the profile on the second scale, which, due to its mobility, can serve as a very accurate indicator of the severity of the feeling of trouble and threat. An isolated peak in the profile on the second scale, which arose as a reflection of anxiety, is usually not constant; upon repeated testing, either the disappearance of this peak is detected, or rises are also noted on other scales of the profile. This may be due to the fact that pronounced disturbances in homeostasis, which characterize the occurrence of anxiety, trigger the activation of mechanisms that ensure its elimination. Since anxiety arises in connection with a violation of the established unity of needs and the stereotype of behavior aimed at satisfying these needs, its elimination can occur, firstly, if the environment changes, and, secondly, if the individual’s attitude towards a non-changing environment changes. In the first case, i.e., in the case when anxiety is eliminated by changing the environment (heteroplastic adaptation), the peak of the profile on the second scale also disappears. In the second case, when anxiety is eliminated by turning on the mechanisms of intrapsychic adaptation, then, depending on the nature of these mechanisms, the shape of the profile will change as the indicators on other scales change. At first, the initial rise in profile is usually maintained on the second scale, which subsequently disappears if the anxiety is effectively eliminated. The peak of the profile on the second scale, however, persists if anxiety is eliminated while depression increases.
At the physiological level, the elimination of anxiety as depression deepens can be considered as the elimination of generalized activation and pronounced disturbances of homeostasis due to the inclusion of ancient mechanisms of autonomic regulation, which reduce the level of autonomic fluctuations through a general decrease in activity in conditions of insufficiency of differentiated autonomic regulation.
The study of the biochemical mechanism of this phenomenon made it possible to discover, in particular, the activation by glucocorticoids, the level of which increases with anxiety, of the enzyme tryptophan pyrrolase, in connection with which tryptophan metabolism is directed along the kynurenine pathway.
Due to this, the level of serotonin synthesis decreases, the deficiency of which plays a pathogenetic role in the development of depression.
A study of the dynamics of catecholamine metabolism during the change from states of anxiety to depressive states (devoid of an anxiety component) made it possible to establish that as depression develops, the increase in processes of synthesis of catecholamines (especially norepinephrine) characteristic of the period of anxiety and a slowdown in their metabolism are replaced by a slowdown in synthesis and acceleration of metabolism. Thus, research on the humoral correlates of anxiety also indicates a decrease in the intensity of anxiety as depression increases.
Since depressive syndrome is accompanied by a decrease in the level of motivations, depression at the psychological level can be considered, in particular, as the elimination of anxiety-causing frustration by reducing the level of motivations by devaluing the original need.
When anxiety is replaced by depression, the profile usually decreases on the ninth scale, and the increase in the profile on the second scale and the depth of the decline on the ninth are greater, the more pronounced the loss of interests, a feeling of indifference, difficulties in interpersonal relationships, lack of motivation for active activity, suppressed drives. In classic depression not accompanied by anxiety, the depth of the decrease in the profile on the ninth scale in relation to the average level of the profile usually corresponds to the magnitude of its increase on the second, however, very low T-scores on the ninth scale allow one to speak of depression even in cases where the peak is on the second scale relatively low. In this case, we are talking primarily about anhedonic depression.
Individuals whose profile is characterized mainly by an increase on the second scale are usually perceived by others as pessimistic, withdrawn, silent, shy or overly serious. They may appear withdrawn and avoiding contact. However, in reality, these people are characterized by a constant need for deep and lasting contacts with others (i.e., a strong symbiotic tendency). They easily begin to identify themselves with other people and certain aspects of their being. If this identification is disrupted due to changes in the system of established connections, such changes may be perceived as a catastrophe and lead to deep depression, while such a reaction does not seem adequate to an objective observer. The mere threat of breaking symbiotic relationships can cause anxiety in such individuals, further increasing the rise in the profile on the second scale. Their isolation and isolation may reflect a desire to avoid disappointment. In reality, they feel the need to attract and retain the attention of others, value their appreciation, and strive to acquire and maintain their intimacy. Due to the severity of this tendency, situations that require an aggressive reaction directed outward cause them anxiety. They are characterized by reactions accompanied by feelings of guilt, anger directed at themselves, and auto-aggression (intrapunitive reactions).
How to pass a test that will put you and your character into perspective for an employer and not screw it up? There are no right answers, no wrong answers either, but your every action is informative for researchers.
All long questionnaires are based on the fact that a person's character is a stable category, and that it consists of certain inclinations and traits that can be determined based on the reaction to certain circumstances.
In order for the answers to be as honest and accurate as possible, each circumstance is mentioned in several test questions in different wording.
The most popular long questionnaires
Cattell's 16-factor questionnaire
Minnesota multidimensional personality psychological test mmpi, in Russian - multifactor personality analysis SMIL.
This type of test, unlike projective tests, is not assessed by anyone finding the results on the Internet. The results of these tests are ordered from special psychological companies and cost a lot of money. Most often, such tests are used when applying for a job in large companies whose main office is located abroad.
Evaluation of results
Special scales are used to evaluate the results of these tests. For SMIL, for example, there is a lie scale that assesses your honesty in your answers; a question scale that analyzes the number of “not sure” questions; a reliability scale that evaluates errors and inaccuracies due to negligence or attempts at malingering, as well as a correction scale that should smooth out the inaccessibility and isolation of the person being examined.
How to pass the test successfully?
BE CONSISTENT. You usually don't have the opportunity to think about your answers, go back to the previous page, or answer differently. Therefore, be consistent when reading the question in the middle and at the end of the test, remember how you answered questions on the same topic, the same way or differently.
BE HONEST. Don’t embellish the truth, try to be objective, and don’t be afraid to answer that you are prone to gossip, lies, being late, indifference, or some other qualities that are not considered positive. This test is meant to find out what kind of person you are (and we all have flaws), not to make you look like a good girl.
RESPOND QUICKLY. Slow, thoughtful responses may raise suspicions that you are not being honest.
ANSWER ACCURATELY. If you don't fit the character stereotype that has developed around your profession, this does not mean that you are not suitable for it.
DO NOT WORRY. Often such tests do not influence the decision about. Perhaps the employer is already ready to make you an offer, and just wants to understand who he will have to deal with. Fortunately, there are no wrong answers in psychological tests, so don't be nervous, just brace yourself and pay attention.
There are several primitive multifactor questionnaires on the Internet. They are free, anonymous, and will allow you to take the test in the comfort of your own home. You are unlikely to be able to interpret the results correctly, but the process itself will create the right expectations, and you will easily cope with this test in real conditions.
Using the technique MMPI(Minnesota Multidisciplinary Personality Inventory, MMIL modified by Berezin F.B. and etc., SMIL modified by L.N. Sobchik) in models for building effective production activities has a number of significant advantages:
1. The questions presented in the methodology reflect the picture of the well-being of the subject (recipient), his habits, behavioral characteristics, his attitude to various life phenomena and values, the moral side of this attitude, the specifics of interpersonal relationships, the direction of interests, the level of activity and mood, etc. .
Most of the statements are projective in nature and gradually reveal the recipient’s reactions in different situations modeled by the statements of the methodology. Therefore, it can be argued that this method of studying personality occupies a certain intermediate position between a conscious subjective assessment and a projective study of unconscious personality tendencies, which significantly improves the quality of diagnostic material and expands the understanding of personality.
2. Although the MMPI methodology is built on the principle of a questionnaire, the assessment of the data obtained as a result of the study is based not on a direct analysis of the recipient’s answers, but on the data of the statistically confirmed discrete significance of each answer in comparison with the average normative data.
4. Personality traits and qualities determined by this technique effectively help to distinguish behavioral tendencies formed on the basis of temperamental characteristics and manifested as behavioral features inherent in the characteristics of the polarity of factors 16PF.
4. The MMPI method is based on the study of personality traits and qualities, personal states that have the nature of consistently manifested behavioral characteristics. It turned out that these features, being initially identified in the behavioral complexes of persons with clinical deviations, have varying degrees of expression in the stable behavior of healthy people.
In psychoanalytic practice, such expression of behavioral characteristics is explained as the use in life of certain sets of primary and secondary unconscious defenses, formed as a result of certain failures in the process of early development of the mental structures of the individual.
With serious disruptions at a certain stage of development, a kind of “stuck” and “generalization” of the mental state occurs, which subsequently leads to neurotic or more severe psychotic clinical deviations. The consequence of such “stuckness” will be a behavioral complex called in clinical practice as “ psychopathic», « hysterical», « manic-depressive», « schizophrenic" and so on.
It is believed that the personality in the process of development was unable to form optimal systems of interaction at a certain stage and its further development occurred both through this underdevelopment and under its influence that distorts other stages.
S. Freud called the causes of neurosis the structural features of the psyche and fate, as a system of a kind of complex distorting external influence on the psyche at a certain stage of development.
Depending on the characteristics of the mental structure, stage of development and nature of the impact, clinical behavioral characteristics are already formed.
It turned out that even with healthy mental functioning, peculiar traces remain, similar to the nature of the formation of neuroses. Naturally, they differ in the strength of their impact and, most importantly, in their consequences for the form of life activity.
Characterological features can be explained as features formed on the basis of structural components of the psyche that have survived certain external influences in the process of ontogenesis (environment, systems of parental and educational influence, emerging mechanisms of object interaction, etc.) and have taken on the form of persistent behavioral systems acceptable to the individual interactions.
Acceptability can be expressed as a certain development of neurotic reactions characteristic of stages and forms of development, the violation of which in clinical forms leads to persistent and pronounced behavioral characteristics.
In clinical manifestations psychopathic behavior, the mechanism of personal interaction in the “child - parents” system is disrupted at the stage of formation of the leading mechanisms of socialization and the level of this violation causes significant social disadaptation and lack of adequacy in the processes of object interactions.
While maintaining adequacy and normal functioning, the peculiarities of the formation of socialization systems can only be expressed as similar manifestations psychopathic type of character with inclinations dominance, manipulation in social role systems, aggressive demonstrative behavior and other features characteristic of clinical manifestations of psychopathy.
In this case, the general psychopathic type character and the characterological inclinations and characteristics themselves will manifest themselves very stably in behavior, although they may be masked in systems of behavioral “mimicry” inherent in such characterological behavior.
Naturally, the level and forms of characterological inclinations and characteristics are very variable, and the MMPI technique is aimed at determining them.
Academic psychological schools tend to explain characterological typological differences by a complex combination of constitutional, individual and personal characteristics or traits, formed and developed under the influence of the environment or influence external to the individual, taking on a certain form and stably manifesting themselves in various systems of life.
In our case, the nature of characterological differences is not so important as its behavioral expression as a category of stability, development, form of relationships and interactions, experienced states and other features that affect the efficiency of production activities, measured and quantified in this methodology.
MMPI rating scales
As with any technique, the MMPI technique has a number of rules, beyond which the test results become unreliable.
MMPI technique is the most protected from attempts by recipients, for one reason or another, to deliberately distort the results (present themselves in a different form).
The function of rating scales is, along with identifying the factor significance of the recipient’s answers in comparison with the average normative data (the procedure for converting “raw” scores into T-scores of factor scales), determining the level and nature of such distortions.
Rating scales or reliability scales, in addition to determining the reliability of the data obtained as a result of testing, determine the recipients’ attitudes towards the testing process, their attitude towards the methodology, towards the diagnostician, towards the results of the process itself.
Scale "?" :
Selected by the recipient if there is no certainty in the answer.
It is considered normal to have 30 raw points in the method, reflecting answers of this kind.
From 40 to 60 raw points on this scale indicates the manifestation of alertness, above 70 raw points indicates the unreliability of the testing data.
Unreliability by scale "?" reflects a reluctance or inability to delve into the essence of methodological issues. It may be a consequence of insufficient interest in the test results or manifest itself as a condescending attitude towards the diagnostician.
Such results can also be recorded when attempting to formally participate in the procedure, when, for one reason or another, direct refusals to participate are unacceptable, and recording reliable results is not part of the recipient’s plans.
In such cases, retesting and analyzing the answers together with the recipient most likely will not change the attitude towards the technique.
There have been repeated attempts to exclude scale "?" from the MMPI methodology, especially during forensic psychological examination procedures, when answering the questions posed to the expert required a mandatory determination of the recipient’s characterological characteristics.
And in this version of the methodology, in most cases there was a refusal to test, but through a random choice of answers, and the absence scale "?" significantly distorted the test results.
During diagnostic procedures in production activities, the unreliability of data on scale "?" is an independent diagnostic factor for analyzing the reasons that prompted such an attitude towards the technique.
The identification of formal participation in the procedure and the recipient’s reluctance to delve into the essence of the issues is significant in the system of building relations between employees personnel services and the organization and is a compelling reason to analyze and reconsider these relationships.
L scale:
Includes statements that reveal the recipient's tendency to present himself in the most favorable light possible by demonstrating very strict adherence to social norms.
High performance in "L" scale(65 T and above), that is, more than 10 raw points, may indicate a deliberate desire to decorate oneself, to show oneself “in the best light,” denying the presence in one’s behavior of weaknesses inherent in any person.
In such cases, they try to hide the necessarily manifested ability to at least sometimes or at least a little get angry, be lazy, neglect diligence, severity of manners, truthfulness, accuracy in the most minimal extent and in the most forgivable situation.
At the same time, the personality profile turns out to be smoothed out, understated or recessed.
Most of all the highest indicators L scale affect the underestimation of the 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th scales. That is, components are isolated from behavior that are capable, to one degree or another, according to the recipient, of reducing the negative image components of the individual.
A similar picture of behavior can be demonstrated by individuals, professionally or for other reasons, who strictly follow conventional norms of behavior.
Usually, hiding “childish pranks” is a consequence of conscious social control and attempts to follow professionally significant forms of behavior. Although this is a personal tendency, it practically does little to distort the general structure of behavior.
It is worse if a system of behavioral norms takes root in the psyche to the point of displacement from consciousness of the very facts of a single violation of these norms, even in early youth.
This form of behavior will be accompanied not only by careful personal adherence to these norms, but also by persistent demands that everyone around them comply with such norms.
Such behavior in production activities can seriously complicate the working conditions of many employees, especially those directly subordinate to a manager with this form of behavior.
Promotion L scale within 60-65 T is often found in people of a primitive mental make-up with low adaptive capabilities.
Moderate increase L scale up to 60 T is observed in old age and is considered normal, as a reflection of age-related personality changes towards increased normative behavior.
In production activities, increase L scale can be observed in situations of motivational significance for the recipient of test results.
During professional selection, employee certification or competitive nomination for a position, the desire to follow norms and rules is considered by the recipient as preferable and can distort the image of the individual. To exclude such an effect, it seems advisable in the preliminary testing procedure to draw the recipient’s attention to the possibility of displaying such aspirations.
Improving results by L scale from 70 to 80 T-scores turn the personality profile into questionable in terms of reliability, exceeding 80 T-scores - into unreliable.
With high (doubtful) scale results and significant increases in the level of the profile on certain clinical scales, there remain possibilities for interpreting the data, but more as additional material to the results obtained using other methods.
With proper preliminary instruction and compliance with the rules of the technique, it is rarely possible to obtain reliable results after unreliable primary ones through joint analysis of questions and retesting with the recipient. This does not indicate inattention as a factor distorting test results, but rather the stability of such behavioral characteristics that this technique cannot cope with.
F scale:
High scores on this scale (T70 points and above) may cast doubt on the reliability of the test results.
The scale consists of statements regarding unusual thoughts, desires and sensations, and overt psychotic symptoms.
The choice of such statements can be determined by inattention, negligence in choosing answers, the desire to incriminate oneself, to stun the diagnostician with the uniqueness of the individual, the desire to emphasize the defects of one’s character, the tendency to dramatize existing circumstances and one’s attitude towards them, an attempt to portray another, fictitious person, and not one’s own characteristics.
Reduced performance due to fatigue or illness may also be reflected by high scores on this scale.
Some promotion may be the result of being overly diligent, self-critical, and outspoken.
In individuals who are more or less disharmonious and in a state of discomfort, indicators can be at the level of 65-75T, which reflects emotional instability.
High performance F scale, accompanied by an increase in the profile on the 4th, 6th, 8th and 9th scales, are found in individuals prone to affective reactions and with low conformity.
Indicators above 70T, as a rule, reflect a high level of emotional tension or are a sign of personal disintegration, which can be associated with both severe stress and neuropsychic disorders of a non-psychogenic nature.
With a reliable research result, a relatively high profile level on F scale may be observed in various types of non-conforming individuals, since such individuals will demonstrate reactions that are not typical for the normative group, and, accordingly, more often give answers taken into account on this scale.
Boost your profile by F scale can be observed in very young people during the period of personality formation in cases where the need for self-expression is realized through non-conformity in behavior and views.
Severe anxiety and personal need for help are also usually manifested in a relatively high level of results on the described scale.
Moderate increase by F scale in the absence of psychopathological symptoms, it usually reflects internal tension, dissatisfaction with the situation, and poorly organized activity.
Essentially, any behavioral and characterological nature that forms high performance indicators F scale has little compatibility with the possibilities for effective implementation of production activities.
In most cases, aggravation as a psychological need for sympathy and attention and the behavioral complex that accompanies it is considered as inappropriate for the effective implementation of activities.
However, it happens that such a behavioral system is characteristic of young people experiencing a state of some tension basalneeds (16 PF - factor Q4). Often, behavioral reactions of this kind are situational and when the tension is reduced, they cease to distort behavior, it “normalizes”, which is actually reflected in the indicators F scale and in complex - on behavior in general. This is worth paying attention to, especially in professional orientation events and when selecting young specialists.
The tendency to follow conventional norms and the absence of internal tension is reflected by a low result in F scale.
K scale:
The scale consists of statements that differentiate individuals who seek to mitigate or hide psychopathological phenomena from individuals who are overly open.
In the original version of the MMPI test, this scale was originally intended only to study the degree of caution of subjects in a testing situation and tendencies (V largely unconscious) deny existing unpleasant sensations, life difficulties and conflicts.
WITH the purpose of correcting this trend, the result obtained from K scale is added to five of the ten major clinical scales in a proportion corresponding to its effect on each of these scales.
However, K scale, in addition to its significance for assessing the test subject’s reaction to the testing situation and correcting results on a number of basic clinical scales, is also of significant interest for assessing certain characteristics of the subject’s personality.
Individuals with high scores K scale(65T and above) usually shape their behavior depending on social approval and are concerned about their social status. They tend to deny any difficulties in interpersonal relationships or in controlling their own behavior, strive to comply with accepted norms and refrain from criticizing others if their behavior fits within the framework of accepted norms.
Obviously non-conforming behavior, deviating from traditions and customs, and deviating from the conventional framework, often causes a pronounced negative reaction in them.
Due to the tendency to deny (largely at the perceptual level) information indicating interpersonal difficulties and conflicts, these individuals may not have an adequate understanding of how others perceive them.
The main trends in this behavior are persistent personal ideas about the importance of following norms and rules in systems of social interaction.
Such individuals are deeply convinced that the true criterion of compliance with a high professional status is the presence of a diploma and certificates of completion of courses in additional education systems, and not the level of development of abilities and knowledge and the ability to effectively apply them in activities (hence the frequent desire to improve and expand education and “collect » diplomas of completion of educational institutions).
In the system of interpersonal relations, in their opinion, all levels of interaction should be carried out exclusively within the framework of norms and rules.
One gets the impression that they have no nuances in their interaction systems. Any minor deviation is suppressed, or is perceived as a personal insult, which often leads them to a certain group isolation.
This is greatly facilitated by an active position in condemning and suppressing violations of norms and rules (to a greater extent, these trends are characteristic of women).
In this case, we have an example of unique behavioral characteristics, built on a system of following the norms and rules of social interaction, often literally and uniquely understood and staunchly independent of group influence.
Examples of such behavioral characteristics are relatively rare; their owners are perceived as bright, eccentric individuals, almost always significantly isolated from the group and not experiencing discomfort from this state.
There would be no point in focusing attention on such features if there were not a similar in nature, but more widespread and disguised behavioral tendency, which is of decisive importance for the effective implementation of activities.
We are talking about a personal tendency to understand and follow norms and rules, especially the forms and means of organizing and carrying out activities. Persons of this type are especially punctual and scrupulous in matters of normalizing “external” behavior, they are distinguished by “softness” of manners and a peculiar sophistication in clothing.
Their main features are that in their goal setting system and in the main issues of organization, at some moments there occurs a significant shift and a complete orientation towards the situation as “how it should be”, ignoring “how it really is” .
Boundless faith in the correctness of understanding and implementation of activities, lack of self-criticism and complete ignorance and suppression of external influence always lead to disastrous consequences for activities.
Thus, behavioral features that are harmless at first glance - a more thorough normalization of behavior - are transformed into significant originality in the personal understanding of norms and rules and, even further, into the originality of personal ideas about the correctness of the activity, which for the latter becomes a significant test.
This behavioral tendency may correlate well with the pole suspicion factor a L 16 PF, reflecting personal characteristics from a different angle of perception.
On this side, the leading behavioral qualities can be self-importance and lack of consideration for other people. Inattention to people can be based on various mental characteristics and have a wide range of manifestations.
In our case, it is specific and is not a consequence of personal ignorance or a desire to prove something, a manifestation of dominance or other similar tendencies. Simple non-perception, non-notice without any significant emotional coloring.
Trend « aggressive narcissist»follow your desires and your understanding of situations. The tendency is “childish”, that is, formed in early ontogenesis and thus built into a behavioral strategy, which does not allow one to rely on one’s own experience and knowledge, and, especially, on the opinions of other people.
Taking into account the above, when identifying similar trends in the diagnosis of production activities, especially considering that they are practically not amenable to corrective action, it is necessary to very carefully analyze and evaluate the nature that formed them.
With minor severity (moderate increase in profile by K scale) the described trends do not violate personal social adaptation, but even facilitate it, creating a feeling of harmony with the environment and an approving assessment of the rules accepted in this environment.
In this regard, individuals with a moderate increase in profile by K scale They give the impression of being reasonable, friendly, sociable people with a wide range of interests.
Extensive experience of interpersonal contacts and the absence of difficulties in their implementation form in individuals of this type a more or less high level of enterprise and the ability to find the right line of behavior. Since such qualities improve social adaptation, a moderate increase in profile K scale can be considered as a prognostically favorable sign.
Individuals with very low profile levels K scale are well aware of their difficulties, tend to exaggerate rather than underestimate the degree of interpersonal conflicts, the severity of their symptoms and the degree of personal inadequacy.
They do not hide their weaknesses, difficulties and psychopathological disorders. The tendency to be critical of oneself and others leads to skepticism.
Dissatisfaction and a tendency to exaggerate the significance of conflicts make them easily vulnerable and create awkwardness in interpersonal relationships.
Index F-K. (Welsh index):
Since trends measured by scales F And TO, are largely oppositely directed, the difference in the primary result obtained on these scales ( Welsh index) is essential for determining the attitude of the subject at the time of the study and judging the reliability of the result obtained.
The average value of this index in MMPI technique amounts to 7 for men and 8 for women.
The intervals at which the result can be considered reliable (if none of the rating scales exceed 70 T-scores) are:
- for men from 18 before +4 ;
- for women from 23 before +7 .
If the difference FK ranges from +5 before +7 for men and from +8 before +10 for women, the result seems doubtful.
The greater the difference F-K, the more pronounced is the desire of the subject to emphasize the severity of his symptoms and life difficulties, to evoke sympathy and condolences.
High index level F-K may also indicate aggravation.
Index decline F-K reflects the desire to improve one’s self-image, mitigate one’s symptoms and emotionally charged problems, or deny their presence.
Low level Welsh index may indicate dissimulation of existing psychopathological abnormalities.
MMPI Basic Scales
General characteristics:
1st scale: (hypochondria or somatization of anxiety) overcontrol:
An increase within 70T is an indicator of tightness, overcontrol, and increased orientation toward normativity as a stable personality trait, manifested by excessive attention to deviations from the normal functioning of one’s body.
With maladaptation (i.e., with an increase in the indicator of this scale above 70·T), hypochondriacal traits are revealed.
Low indicators (50T and below) have the opposite meaning, i.e. reflect the absence of the listed personality characteristics and condition.
2nd scale: (anxiety and depressive tendencies) pessimism:
Reveals this quality along with dissatisfaction and a tendency to worry.
A leading rise on the 2nd scale is characteristic of a hyposthenic type of response, and indicators above 70·T reveal a depressive state.
3rd scale: (hysteria or repression of factors causing anxiety) emotiveness:
“Emotional lability” scale.
When its indicators increase within the normative range, it reflects high sensitivity to environmental influences and instability of the emotional state, worsening with higher scores (above 70 T) up to hysterical, hysterical or hysterical manifestations.
4th scale: (psychopathy or implementation of emotional tension in direct behavior) impulsivity:
Within an increase to 70T, it reflects the sthenic type of response.
Above 70 T - impulsive, poorly controlled behavior of psychopathic individuals of an excitable circle, as well as within the framework of a psychopath-like syndrome of residual organic or endogenous origin.
Reflects the degree of conformity of gender-role behavior and the level of sexual adaptation.
6th scale: (paranoidity or rigidity of affect):
Normally, it reflects a tendency towards pedantry, competition and getting stuck on negative experiences.
High scores reveal affective intensity of experiences, hostility, and a tendency to paranoid reactions.
Treats the same as 4th scale to a sthenic (with a significant increase to a hypersthenic) type of response.
MMPI scale 7: (psychasthenia or fixation of anxiety and restrictive behavior) anxiety:
Reveals increased fearfulness, constitutionally determined anxiety, uncertainty, conformity, suspiciousness.
Indicators above 70T reflect the problem of pronounced psychasthenic accentuation, the predominance of inhibited (hyposthenic) traits, and an anxious state within the framework of neurotic or neurosis-like disorders.
8th scale: (schizoid or autistic) individualistic:
It can be elevated in non-conforming individuals with pronounced independence of judgments and actions, non-standard thinking, which at high rates manifests itself as originality of interests, unpredictability of actions, irrational approach to solving problems, and separation from reality.
9th scale: (hypomania or anxiety denial) optimism:
Reveals the level of optimism and reflects the sthenic type of response.
Indicators below 50T are alarming in terms of a decrease in life-loving tendencies and general activity.
0th scale: (social introversion or social contacts):
Reflects the level of sociability and social involvement of the individual.
Focus primarily on the world of subjective experiences (increased to 70 T) up to isolation and autism (above 70 T).
Focus on the world of the real environment of an extroverted personality (indicators below 50 T) or an emotionally immature personality with weakened self-control (if indicators are below 40 T).
1st scale: (hypochondriasis or somatization of anxiety) overcontrol:
A scale with a leading peak (60-69 T) in a profile in which the remaining scales are at the level of 45-54 T, reveals the motivational orientation of the individual to meet normative criteria both in the social environment and in the sphere of physiological functions of one’s own body.
The main problem of this type of personality is suppression of spontaneity, inhibition of self-realization, control over aggressiveness, hypersocial orientation of interests, orientation to rules, instructions, inertia in decision making, avoidance of serious responsibility for fear of failure.
The style of thinking is inert, somewhat dogmatic, based on existing generally accepted points of view, deprived of freedom, independence and looseness.
In interpersonal relationships - high moral demands both towards oneself and towards others. Stinginess of emotional manifestations, caution, prudence.
The contradictory combination of restraint and irritability creates a mixed type of response, characteristic of individuals with the psychosomatic nature of maladaptive behavior.
This combination is manifested by constant tension, and the hypersociality of attitudes looks like a “facade”, behind which grumpiness, irritation, and edifying intonations are hidden.
With excessive emotional tension, difficult maladaptation is manifested by an increased focus on deviations from the norm, both in terms of interpersonal relationships, where people of this type are irritated by the irresponsibility and lack of morality of the actions of others, and in the sphere of well-being, where excessive attention to the work of internal organs can develop into hypochondriacality.
In the structure of neurotic disorders or within the framework of neurosis-like pathology, high rates of 1st scale(above 70 T) reveal hypochondriacal symptoms.
Hypochondriacity worsens and takes on the character of senestopathies with an accompanying peak in 8th scale.
Peak combination 1st and 2nd scales more typical of aging men, and it manifests itself not only hypochondriacality, but also such personal traits as dogmatism and hypocrisy intensify, thinking becomes more inert, and in interpersonal contacts caution, didacticism, and edifying tone become more pronounced.
1st MMPI scale in structure "neurotic triad" (1,2,3 scales) reveals a defense mechanism of the “flight into illness” type, while illness (explicit or imaginary) is, as it were, a screen masking the desire to shift responsibility for existing problems onto others and is considered as the only socially acceptable way to justify one’s passivity.
Climbing 1st scale accompanies, as a rule, the psychosomatic nature of a maladaptive reaction, and in the “sawtooth” type profile, high values 1st scale can reveal the main component in the structure of the “ulcerative personality type” and often reflect gastroenterological problems, gastric ulcers and duodenal ulcers at the psychological level.
Expressiveness of meanings 1st and 3rd scales is quite common, but is more common in women.
Psychological properties 3rd scale largely obscure and absorb characteristics 1st, if the scales are at the same level.
With indicators 1st scale MMPI prevailing over 3rd a passive attitude towards conflict, avoidance of solving problems, and self-centeredness, masked by a declaration of hypersocial attitudes, are revealed.
Essentially, this is a neurosis-forming factor of a lack of emotional warmth and attention in childhood under normal conditions and their increased demonstration during injuries and illnesses.
Peculiarities of the psyche and the specificity of manifestations of attention from others contribute to the formation and consolidation of the mechanism of manipulation through “going into illness.”
With personal immaturity, this mechanism is transferred into adulthood and is transformed on others practically unchanged and develops into a rigid, non-constructive behavioral style of reducing pronounced (neurotic) emotional tension by including (manipulating) others in concern for a “painful” state.
In the behavior of persons of this type, the unconscious desire for the status of a patient is a kind of justification for insignificant activity and an attempt to strengthen social protections and a certain guarantee of attention from others in one complex.
This behavior differs significantly from the behavior of individuals who formed most of the scale values as a result of correction - adding 0.5 of the indicator to the “raw” scores K scale.
In this case, concern about the physical condition and a peculiar attitude towards medications, medicinal herbs, infusions and other traditional and non-traditional methods of treatment (with T up to 70 points) reflects a behavioral feature as a form focused on health care and not accompanied by complaints and attempts to attract the attention of others .
Both of these types, each based on their nature, demonstrate extraordinary knowledge of pharmacology (while not being specialists in this field), techniques and methods of treatment, methods of fasting, training methods for maintaining and improving health.
If for the “hypochondriacal” type, knowledge of this kind is a kind of “professionalism” of being “in illness,” then for individuals “correctionally dependent” they have a different, dual property. They demonstrate a tendency to be treated effectively and thoroughly, comprehensively strengthening their health and reflect “love” and active participation in the treatment and promotion of the health of others by recommending the most effective remedies and methods, necessarily tested on themselves.
Such “love” for treating others can form the assumption of a kind of compensation for the lack of attention from others and a certain similarity in this between both types of behavior. This is far from true. Persons of the “correctionally dependent” type of behavior, although they demonstrate “involvement” in the treatment of others, do this rather to implement their well-adapted and socially approved egocentrism, than to attract attention and manipulate others. In this way they only realize the uniqueness of their “ greatness”, good nature and love for others through providing them with services to effectively improve their well-being.
An increase in the scale (above 50T), regardless of the nature that formed such an increase, is most often a prognostically unfavorable basis for the effective implementation of management activities.
Increasing the scale in conjunction with weak The type of temperament in most cases reflects behavior accompanied by diligence, a tendency to follow norms and rules, with low personal activity, significant perseverance, and a lack of need for a wide range of social contacts.
This behavioral complex is fully consistent with those types of activities, the conditions for the implementation of which provide opportunities for the implementation of such features and these features themselves contribute to effective activity.
Variations strong type of temperament and more often, mobile and inert, combined with high performance 1st scale The “hypochondriacal type” is reflected by such features as aggressive manipulation of the environment, low production activity with increased social activity.
In the context of production activities, such a combination most often becomes an active source of interpersonal problems, is practically not corrected and is characterized by poor controllability.
With the “correction dependent” type hypochondriacal character, specialists are often effective, especially in individual or personally isolated activities.
They are very persistent in achieving their goals; in their activities they often strive to find “their own” or express their personal identity. However, they undergo frequent and long-term treatment and constantly attend preventive measures and procedures.
2nd scale: (anxiety and depressive tendencies) pessimism:
The leading peak on the 2nd scale, which does not go beyond the norm, reveals the predominance of a passive personal position.
The leading motivational focus is avoiding failure.
Individuals of this type are characterized by a high level of awareness of existing problems through the prism of dissatisfaction and a pessimistic assessment of their prospects.
A tendency to think, inertia in decision making, a pronounced depth of experience, an analytical mind, skepticism, self-criticism, some lack of confidence in oneself and one’s capabilities.
They are capable of refusing to realize immediate needs for the sake of distant plans.
To avoid conflict with the social environment, egocentric tendencies are inhibited.
The neurosis-like effect with this type of behavior is concentrated in the affiliative area of needs, which acts as a leader in the structure of behavior.
The needs for understanding, love, and a friendly attitude towards oneself, due to the characteristics of behavior, are not realized to the degree necessary for the individual and, in a certain way, further aggravate these characteristics.
This process is reflected in a certain way and correlates with the behavioral characteristics demonstrated by representatives schizoid type of character , forming a pole timidity factor a N.
A communication imbalance with the continued internal activity of desires for broad and deep social contacts and the lack of external possibility of their implementation due to the dominant tendency to avoid failure forms a coherent personal explanatory concept.
It is based on high personal standards when choosing objects of interaction and failures are attributed to the reluctance to “exchange on trifles” in anticipation of deep and rich mutual feelings of love, respect, mutual understanding, etc.
The lack of positive experience of social interaction and persistent avoidance of failures leads in stressful situations to a tendency to stop reactions, that is, to block activity, or driven behavior, subordination to the leading personality.
Defense mechanisms include refusal of self-realization and strengthening of consciousness control.
Peak by 2nd scale MMPI, reaching the level of 70 T, along with neurosis-forming situations that influenced the system of formation of interpersonal relationships in early ontogenesis, may also reflect behavioral characteristics formed as a result of experiencing a sharp and significant disappointment for the individual after an experienced interpersonal failure or in connection with a disease, sharply disrupting the normal course of life and long-term plans.
This profile outlines a certain state, at least a depressive reaction within the framework of the adaptation syndrome.
However, this is only a quantitative aspect that reveals the characteristics of not only a psychogenically provoked state, but also provides for the predisposition of a given individual to such reactions in a state of stress.
Depression is the most common and common reaction to distress in most people.
However, with pronounced sthenic type of response, even in situations of severe stress, for example in situations of prolonged anxious anticipation of the outcome of a situation that is significant for the individual, can be demonstrated as defensive, states of bravado, carelessness, self-sufficiency, etc. as manifestations opposite to a depressive state.
It turns out that the depressive type of response is not at all a universal and strictly obligatory reaction to psychotrauma.
High scores on the 2nd MMPI scale can reveal in the recipient not only a low mood due to negative experiences, but also personal characteristics a tendency to acutely experience failures, to anxiety, an increased sense of guilt with a self-critical attitude towards one’s shortcomings, and lack of self-confidence.
These features are aggravated in a profile with pronounced peaks along 2nd, 7th and 0th scales and a significant decrease in 9th. This behavior is typical of persons with accentuation of the inhibited type, with anxious and suspicious traits.
In the eternal conflict between egocentric and altruistic tendencies, representatives of this group give preference to the latter with a refusal of self-realization, thereby equalizing the balance between these contradictory tendencies and reducing the risk of conflict with the environment.
If the increase is 1st scale means an unconscious, repressed refusal of self-actualization, then an increase in 2nd reveals conscious self-control when unfulfilled intentions due to external circumstances or internal reasons are reflected in a low mood as a result of a deficit or loss.
At the same time, individuals of this type can show sufficient activity, following the leader, as the most conforming and socially pliable group.
Moderate increase 2nd scale With the onset of adulthood, it is considered as a natural “acquired skepticism”, a wiser attitude towards life’s problems, as opposed to the carelessness and optimism of youth, manifested by relatively lower performance indicators. 2nd scale and high in 9th.
Simultaneous increase 2nd And 9th scale reflects a tendency to mood swings, cyclothymic personality variant or cyclothymia, which can be reflected as a correlation with the pole cyclothymia factor A 16 PF.
Profile with peaks by 2nd And 4 scales and a significant decrease by 9th should be alarming in terms of increased suicidal risk, since, in addition to the characteristics 2nd scale, a decrease in the level of love of life and optimism, determined by 9th scale and increased impulsivity, reflected 4th scale.
Although with such characteristics, suicide attempts are more used as blackmail of others and, with such motivation, are rarely planned as the final way out of the situation, such a balancing act between manipulation and suicidal tendencies can lead to serious consequences.
High performance in production activities 2nd scale contribute little to the effective implementation of management activities.
Communication imbalance does not prevent the effective implementation of activities in types not related to the mandatory manifestation of social activity.
Sometimes, individuals with such behavioral characteristics by their mere presence can very effectively stabilize a group and even act as a kind of standard for business interaction.
Such workers are very effective in analytical and a number of creative areas of activity without extensive social contacts, such as organizational and economic analysis, marketing, design and industrial design and a number of other activities where a serious, thoughtful attitude to the work performed is especially important.
3rd scale: (hysteria or repression of factors causing anxiety) emotiveness:
The 3rd scale is called the “ emotional lability».
Increasing the profile on this scale reveals the instability of emotions and the conflicting combination of multidirectional tendencies:
- a high level of personal aspirations is combined with the need to participate in the interests of the group;
- selfishness, with altruistic declarations;
- aggressiveness, with a desire to please others.
Persons with a presenter 3rd scale They are distinguished by the predominance of an artistic type of perception, a certain demonstrativeness, brightness of emotional manifestations with some superficiality of experiences, instability of self-esteem, which is significantly influenced by an influential environment.
Their behavior is accompanied by a conviction that their “I” is identical to the declared ideals, a certain “childishness,” and immature attitudes.
Easy adaptation to various social roles, artistic postures, facial expressions and gestures attracts the attention of others, which serves as a stimulating factor for them, exciting and flattering their vanity.
Profile with host 3rd scale(70 T and above) reveals accentuation by hysterical type, in which the above features are sharpened.
Signs of emotional immaturity are revealed that are more characteristic of a female type of behavior with a certain infantilism, affectation, and dependent tendencies.
Despite their pronounced egocentrism and tendency to feel sorry for themselves, such individuals strive to level out the conflict and attach great importance to the status of a family man.
Persons with high 3rd scale(above 75 T) is characterized by increased nervousness, tearfulness, excessive dramatization of ongoing events, and a tendency to narrow consciousness up to the point of fainting.
In situations of stress, people with high 3rd scale the profile is characterized by pronounced vegetative reactions.
One of the versions of the formation hysterical type behavior favors neurosis-forming the situation of violation of the sex-role mechanism in the processes of formation of the psyche in the early stages of ontogenesis.
In most cases neurosis-forming situation is formed in girls as a result of inadequate influence from dominant and domineering mothers in response to the child’s attempts and according to his ideas to behave in accordance with this role.
Excessive punishment in response to behavior that, in the child’s opinion, does not go beyond the permitted rules, distorts the mechanism of gender-role behavior, and all later mechanisms of social adaptation are formed under the influence of this distortion.
Mental development “gets stuck” in a situation of misunderstanding of the rules for choosing behavioral strategies.
The child’s psyche begins to carefully and in a certain way record behavioral techniques and situations that are especially noted by others as significant manifestations of exclusivity and leading to admiration.
Over time, such techniques, transforming, will turn into “templates” and will be used appropriately and inappropriately in situations of adult life.
Essentially hysterical type behavior is a complex of two mental tendencies.
One tendency is aimed at searching for socially approved and acceptable forms and methods of behavior that are not natural and normal for the psyche, because natural ones were categorically suppressed and are therefore unconsciously perceived as forbidden.
Another tendency is aimed at developing mechanisms for the realization of natural desires and needs within the framework of such forms, which is expressed as the use of established “templates” and forms a general strategy of behavior as “artificial”.
In adulthood, the personality continues to be weighed down by “childish” authoritarian prohibitions and the mechanisms of neurotic “stuckness” continue to control behavior.
Neurotic “stuckness” easily “transfers” the source of the formation of such prohibitions to the spouse and forms a special attitude towards marriage as a social state of the individual and towards behavioral aggressiveness characteristic of this type of behavior.
The basic basis for the formation hysterical type behavior are mainly of two temperamental types - weak, with the prevalence of excitation processes and strong, unbalanced type.
At weak type of temperament, behavioral characteristics under stress-forming factors are easily transformed into a system of using protective mechanisms to “escape” functional disorders.
The impossibility of conforming to “ideal” norms of behavior is explained as a functional limitation of forms of life activity.
An attempt to defend oneself leads to such forms of merging of the desired state of malaise and its real symptoms that the latter essentially reflect actual violations. An attempt to play the disease and conversion symptoms form a state in which the person playing the disease begins to believe in its reality.
An important role in this mechanism is played by aggression, which in this form takes the form of passive aggression and has manifestations in the form of attempts to create in others a significant feeling of guilt for causing such a serious physical illness.
When forming a hysterical type of behavior based on strong, unbalanced type of temperament, conversion symptoms and strategy for such behavior are not very realistic.
Increased basic personal activity does not contribute to passive withdrawal “into illness”; on the contrary, concentrating around the “core of neurosis”, it focuses on social mechanisms of compliance with the ideal image of a “good girl” who is liked by everyone.
Attempts to behave in accordance with ideal ideas, significant personal activity and the need for strong innervation as an optimal condition for life, serious problems in the mechanisms for realizing needs force such individuals to use a special set of secondary unconscious mental defenses.
This complex includes the practice of free sexualized relationships, behavior with an emphasis on challenging social norms and rules, the desire to please everyone and to use all available techniques and methods for this.
Such a complex is a kind of destructive desire to provoke, through behavior and actions, a neurosis-forming situation from distant childhood with an obsessive unconscious desire to experience it again and again.
A significant behavioral imbalance in this type of behavior appears to be the mechanism of transferring the source of the “core of neurosis” to a new object that is in no way connected with it.
Not experiencing empathic dependence in systems of personal interaction due to the immaturity of the empathic properties themselves, such persons skillfully play the full range and depth of personal involvement in interaction and convince themselves and experience the significance of their feelings.
The lack of empathy in these external manifestations of the desire for love and admiration from everyone around them turns these desires into “inexhaustible” from within and any individual manifestation of love and admiration becomes equally valuable and significant for them. Because of this, any personal behavioral “negativity” is carefully controlled and only what is likely to be liked remains in behavior.
When choosing an object and understanding that the relationship is strong enough, the transfer mechanism is activated. It seems that such a transfer of the neurosis-forming source to another object is the main thing in the most unconscious motivation for building serious relationships of interaction.
The psyche tries to “make” the primary external source of limiting the mechanisms for satisfying needs and which has long ago become internal and its own, again “make” external and “alien”, transferring the properties of the primary source to a suitable object. As soon as this is successful, the psyche begins to behave in relation to the object that replaces the primary source as the very source of limitations and begins to “fight” it with all available means, limited in childhood. Hence such a behavioral complex and such a special set of psychological defenses.
From the perspective of an object replacing the source of neurotic restrictions, the transformation of “ideal”, well-controlled relationships into a system of neurotic interaction with a full set of behavioral attributes and destructive tendencies corresponding to such interaction is unexpected and incomprehensible and contributes to the preservation of relationships only until the object is convinced that what is required of him is something he cannot give by definition.
The desire to explain the nature of the formation of the neurotic mechanism and the principles of its activation and functioning stems from general mental characteristics concentrated in the system of dependencies of neurotic and normal types of behavior.
The neurotic severity of behavioral characteristics, equated to the clinical level (severe neuroses, the level of borderline mental state and psychosis, as an extreme manifestation of maladjustment of behavior), is of little interest to non-specialists in the field of psychiatry and, even more so, has little relevance to aspects of production activity.
However, the ability to maintain persistent behavioral tendencies, mechanisms for implementing activity, elements of unconscious motivation, etc. in normal behavior. as a unique behavioral stable type, identical to the neurotic one, but not so intense and maladapted, it contributes to the study of neuroses as a kind of matrix of normal behavior.
The presence of such an ability to preserve and the “similarity” of normal behavior to neurotic behavior made it possible, on the basis of clinical deviations, to develop a number of diagnostic techniques, including MMPI, and at the level of quantitative indicators to determine the degree of expression of behavioral characteristics as stable and typical in relation to neurotic ones.
Such a neurotic feature as primitively described in our case hysterical type, in normal behavior can be reflected as a stable type of behavior to a certain extent (depending on the severity on the scale) corresponding hysterical and preserving its characteristic tendencies.
Any normal behavior is the result of a complex concentration of typical behavioral characteristics that, in clinical deviations, have a bright, hypertrophied expression, and in the norm, have only a tendency to manifest themselves, or slightly correct the behavior, giving it originality of character and personal characteristics.
A complex concentration of typical features is rarely found as equally expressed. In a behavioral system, one or two types will necessarily prevail over the rest, giving it stability and features inherent in their nature and shaping behavior within the framework of these features.
Actually, identifying these features and using them in systems for organizing effective activities is the main goal.
Different temperamental natures with hysterical type of character and the use of “one’s own” types of unconscious psychological defenses does not exclude from the behavioral complex the types of defenses characteristic of another temperamental type. They are simply used less frequently and less willingly.
At weak type of temperament and the main type of defense through “withdrawal into illness”, it is difficult to physically participate in extended systems of interaction, but it is possible to perfectly apply “game” role-playing skills for a narrow circle of spectators.
At strong, unbalanced temperamentally, passive clinical difficulties are unbearable due to the inability to realize activity and provide an optimal level of excitement of the nervous system, but fantasies on topics of accidents and suicidal tendencies are preferable and applicable.
The latter intricately combine components of self-pity, attempts to correct the existing state of affairs, pity of others and the presence of opportunities for the implementation of aggression.
Suicide games are most popular among mentally active people hysterical type. In addition to manipulating others, carried out at the highest artistic level (because they themselves believe in the possibility of such a way out), they make it possible, through the sensation and experience of the fear of death, to significantly reduce the level of personal anxiety and from this experience a kind of relief.
Combination in MMPI high 1st And 3rd scale with relatively low 2nd looks like Roman V and is called the “conversion five”. The properties inherent in the 3rd MMPI scale come to the fore, absorbing, to a large extent, the signs 1st scale. At the same time, the orientation towards social norms, which only mask the egocentric tendencies of the individual, remains relevant.
With a high “conversion five,” the transformation of neurotic anxiety into functional somatic disorders to a certain extent serves as a way to gain a comfortable social position.
The combination of high performance 3rd And 4th scale significantly enhances characteristics 3rd, increasing the likelihood of behavioral reactions according to hysterical a type with a tendency to “self-inflate” in conflict situations and a pronounced desire for emotional involvement.
Behavioral features hysterical type represent great opportunities for organizing effective production activities.
Stable, organized behavior, motivationally oriented towards a wide range of social contacts and effectively optimized and well equipped for this with personal resources, turns such specialists into unique ones in activities focused on external factors of production activity.
Adapted behavior of specialists with hysterical character type is a consequence of the ability to manage their activity and allows them to remain within the normative framework of the rules, leveling out all the negative manifestations characteristic of neurotic characteristics.
However, significant basic personal activity and a prevailing focus on social contacts to the detriment of normalization and regulation of production activities require specialized management tools and certain operating conditions in which such specialists can be especially effective and efficient.
4th scale: (psychopathy or implementation of emotional tension in direct behavior) impulsivity:
As a leader in a profile located within the normative range, this scale reveals an active personal position and high search activity.
The structure of motivational orientation is dominated by achievement attitudes, accompanied by confidence and speed in decision making.
With objective indicators indicating the presence of sufficiently high intelligence, persons with this characterological type can demonstrate an intuitive, heuristic style of thinking, which, without relying on accumulated experience and with haste in decision-making, can acquire a speculative character.
The behavioral complex may manifest itself impatience, risk taking, high level of aspirations, the stability of which has a pronounced dependence on momentary motivations and external influences, on the success of the actions taken.
Behavior is relaxed, accompanied by spontaneity in the expression of feelings and manners. Statements and actions often precede planned and consistent thoughtfulness of actions.
There may be a tendency to resist external pressure, a tendency to rely mainly on one’s own opinion, and even more on one’s own motives.
Behavior is colored by a pronounced lack of conformity, a desire for independence And independence. In a state of emotional capture - the predominance of emotions of anger or admiration, pride or contempt, i.e. pronounced, polar emotions, while control of the intellect does not always play a leading role.
In personally significant situations, conflict may appear.
Stress manifests an effective, sthenic type of behavior, determination, and masculinity.
Persons of this type do not tolerate monotony well, monotony makes them drowsy, and the stereotypical type of activity makes them bored.
One of the versions of the formation psychopathic type behavior is a persistent lack of attention, “warmth” of interaction and care in the early stages of ontogenesis.
In extreme cases, the inattention of parents (or persons replacing them) leads to the impossibility of forming a mechanism of reverse personal dependence, which plays an important role for the developing psyche in the future structures of social interaction.
In response to the unrealized socialized need for care and interaction, the psyche begins to develop and function in an autonomous, socially isolated mode. Such development can lead to a structural basic attitude, as an attitude with absent personal socialized obligations.
More broadly and conventionally, this relationship can be defined as the absence conscience.
If we consider the concept conscience as a system of internal personal attitude to the consequences of actions and actions, then in our case such an attitude was not formed, there was no one to form it and the psyche had to adapt in autonomous conditions to life without this important mental component.
Lacking conscience as an internal criterion for evaluating actions, the psyche develops focusing on external criteria. “Good” and “bad” begin to be recorded according to the consequences of external reactions. “Bad” becomes “bad” if it is noticed and reacted to. Everything that was not noticed and that was not reacted to (was not punished) is “good”.
Naturally, such a system of grading consequences forms such behavioral characteristics as cunning, dexterity, increases intuitive feeling dangers, forms and develops aggressiveness as a preventive protection system and many other properties inherent psychopathic type of character.
The basic temperamental property for psychopathic type is strong, unbalanced type.
For weak temperament type lacks “energy”, and strong, balanced and mobile and inert types are quite stabilized in the manifestation of activity and less in need of attention during the periods of formation of socialized complexes of object interaction.
Temperamental characteristics color behavior and give it a number of properties concentrated in the area of personal activity.
The psychophysiology of the response itself is no different from the standard parameters of temperamental characteristics, and it is the socialized components of the psyche that orient it accordingly.
In the process of life, three main tasks are constantly solved, around which the main personal orientation is formed.
First - implementation of personal activity and ensuring optimal innervation of mental functioning.
Second - ensuring the highest possible social status as a position reflecting the exclusivity of the individual.
Third - the desire to manipulate and control and manipulation itself as a reflection of the ability to do this without a significant orientation to the result.
In the desire to manipulate others, the desire and ability to control is concentrated, as well as a reflection of exclusivity, and a kind of object transfer, characteristic of all neurosis-forming complexes, is realized.
Similar behavioral tendencies correlate well and are manifested in the pole dominance factor a E and the pole insight factor a N and reflect in behavioral originality the mechanism of fusion and implementation of these three personal tasks.
High performance in MMPI scale 4(above 70 T) reveal a hyperthymic (excitable) variant of accentuation, characterized by increased impulsivity. One of the features of this behavior is difficult self-control.
At the same time, against the backdrop of good intelligence, such individuals have the ability to have a non-standard approach to solving problems and moments of creative insight. A person is not dominated by the dogmas of the traditional approach and insufficient reliance on experience is compensated by the mechanism of original creative perception and processing of current information.
A pronounced tendency towards a creative approach when solving problems is especially characteristic of individuals with a high level of intelligence and a profile with peaks in 4th And 8th scale and low values for 2nd or 9th.
With such behavioral characteristics, the originality of thinking may be accompanied by the originality of personal experiences, impulsiveness of behavioral reactions and a general system of non-conforming behavior, which requires increased attention to determining the compliance of views and behavior in general with generally accepted norms.
High peak by 4th scale(above 75 T) reveals psychopathic traits of the excitable type, pronounced impulsiveness, conflict, enhancing the characteristics with concomitant increases in other scales of the sthenic register - 6th, 9th, and, giving them behavioral traits, high performance 3rd And 8 scales.
With a combination of high 4th And 2nd scale, the properties of the latter weaken the aggressiveness, non-conformity and impulsiveness of indicators 4th scale, since there is a higher level of consciousness control over behavior.
Two equally high peaks 2nd And 4 scales the profile reveals an internal conflict rooted in an initially contradictory type of response.
The behavioral structure combines multidirectional tendencies - high search activity and the dynamism of excitation processes and pronounced inertia and mental instability.
In behavior, this is manifested by the presence of a contradictory combination of a high level of aspirations with self-doubt, high activity with rapid exhaustion, which is characteristic of a neurasthenic type of experience.
Under unfavorable social conditions, such features can serve as a basis for alcoholism, as well as for the development of certain psychosomatic disorders.
Peaks by 4th And 6th MMPI scales reflect an explosive (explosive) type of reaction.
The height of the peaks in the range of 70-75 T reflects the accentuation of this type; higher rates are characteristic of the profile of a psychopathic personality of an excitable type with a tendency to explosive aggressive reactions.
If the personal characteristics inherent in this profile and manifested by a pronounced sense of competition, leadership traits, aggressiveness and stubbornness, are channeled into socially acceptable activities, then the owner of these properties can remain sufficiently adapted mainly due to the social niche that is optimal for him, within which such qualities and properties are preferred and acceptable.
In situations of authoritarian-imperative pressure, any forms of opposition that hurt the self-esteem and prestige of the individual, aggressive reactions from others, persons with this type of profile easily lose the adaptive state mode and give an explosive reaction, the degree of controllability of which is determined by the indicators of scales reflecting inhibited traits.
Features of adaptive behavior in production activities psychopathic character types can and do find very effective types and methods of application.
The main problem when working with individuals of this type is the motivational-target system of group interaction.
Personal qualities and properties that form the orientation initially isolate such specialists from systems of common goals for the group. However, if you provide them with the opportunity to independently form group goals and, at the same time, the success of the activity will be adequately reflected in their status position, then such conditions will significantly neutralize behavioral features that are negative for the activity.
When building optimal interaction based on the correspondence of personal and group goals, when optimizing operating conditions and fulfilling a number of minor and completely feasible conditions, it is possible to significantly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of activities by attracting employees with such behavioral characteristics.
5th scale: (severity of male or female character traits):
5, the MMPI scale is interpreted differently depending on the gender of the subject.
Increased performance 5 scale in any profile mean a deviation from the typical role behavior for a given gender and a complication of sexual adaptation.
Otherwise, the interpretation is polar, depending on whether the profile is female or male to be deciphered.
In profile men promotion by 5 scale reveals passivity personal position (if other scales do not contradict this), humanistic direction of interests, sentimentality, refinement of tastes, artistic and aesthetic their focus, the need for friendly, harmonious relationships, sensitivity, vulnerability.
In interpersonal relationships, a tendency to smooth out conflicts and restrain aggressive or antisocial tendencies is revealed even in those profiles where there is an increased 5th scale combined with equally elevated scales sthenic register 4th, 6th or 9th.
An increase is quite common 5th scale in the normative profile of adolescents and young men. This is mainly a consequence of a certain lack of differentiation of gender-role behavior and softness, unformed character.
This phenomenon can cause certain difficulties in professional selection processes. With maturity indicators 5th scale tend to decrease.
During the aging period, disruption of sexual adaptation is reflected in an increase in the profile of 5th scale. Similar disturbances may be reflected in some chronic diseases accompanied by decreased libido.
Profile with peaks by 5th And 8th scale and low values for 4th, characterizes narcissistic type personalities with a penchant for demagoguery, narcissism, aesthetic reasoning, and mannerisms.
This behavior is typical of “cold” individualists, sensitive to the dissonance of their “I” with the environment and, because of this, have a weakness only for those who adore them.
These behavioral characteristics correlate well with the personality traits reflected by the pole suspicion factor a L 16 PF and significantly specify the behavioral type.
In the profile reflecting the sthenic type of response, there are relatively low indicators 5th scale(50 T and below) reveal a typically male style of gender-role behavior, rigidity of character, and lack of sentimentality.
U women high scores on the MMPI scale 5 reflect traits masculinity, independence, desire for emancipation, independence in decision making.
In a sthenic type profile, an increase 5th scale enhances the traits of cruelty, and in the hypersthenic profile - antisocial tendencies.
With simultaneously increased 5th and low 3 scales reveals the absence usually inherent in women flirtatiousness, gentleness in communication, diplomacy in interpersonal contacts. At the same time, masculine characteristics of behavior are quite clearly manifested.
Features of gender-role behavior of women with high (70 T and above) 5th scale the profile acquires the features of a masculine style.
In behavior, tendencies of a pragmatic attitude towards social contacts with a lack of inclination towards constancy and emotional attachment prevail.
These trends intensify with a profile with peaks along 4th, 5th And 9th scale and low values for 0 scale.
Low performance 5th scale in a woman's profile reflect a traditionally female style of gender-role behavior - the desire to be taken care of and find support in a husband, gentleness, sentimentality, love for children, commitment to family interests.
Combination of low scores 5th scale with elevated 3rd And 8th characteristic of women with a pronounced aesthetic orientation, with a rich imagination, emotionality and impressionability. Usually this combination is accompanied by a tendency to quickly get used to different role positions and artistic images, manifested by rich body plasticity and expressive facial expressions and intonation.
For tendencies determined by this factor there is no unambiguous basic mental basis.
It can be assumed, that weak the type of temperament can contribute to the formation of “smoothness” of male traits in the male profile and variations strong temperament can contribute to the formation of “masculinity” in a woman’s profile.
In this case, energetically active men of non-traditional gender role orientation and active “traditional” women completely drop out of the behavioral system.
There are many reasons that deform gender-role behavior and they can be concentrated both in the area of neurosis-forming factors of early ontogenesis and in the area of the formation of later socialized behavioral structures, for example, during the period of pubertal formation of gender identity, which immediately precedes and is the basis for inter-gender interaction.
For production activity, these reasons are the least significant of the entire set of reasons that deviate behavior because they practically do not provide freedom of maneuver in building effective models of production activity.
Any variations in deviations and male and female behavior do not provide tangible advantages in increasing the efficiency of production activities.
Increased female “masculinity” is easily replaced by even average male “masculinity,” and male “femininity” is caricaturedly demonstrative and socially rejected by both sexes.
Production activity is more or less gender indifferent and, because of this, gender role incongruence negatively affects the system of interpersonal relationships and is a prognostically unfavorable sign.
6th scale: (paranoidity or rigidity of affect):
The 6th MMPI scale with a single peak in the profile that does not fall outside the normal range reflects stability of interests, perseverance in defending one’s own opinion, sthenic attitudes, activity of a position, intensifying when counteracted by external forces.
Persons of this type tend to practicality, sober outlook on life, the desire to rely on one’s own experience, a synthetic mindset with a pronounced desire for systemic constructions and specifics, for the exact sciences and fields of knowledge.
Persons with a presenter 6th scale in profile show a love of accuracy, loyalty to their principles, straightforwardness and perseverance in upholding them.
The ingenuity and rationality of the mind can be combined with its insufficient flexibility and difficulties in switching in a suddenly changing situation.
They are impressed by accuracy and specificity, irritated by amorphousness, uncertainty of tasks, carelessness and sloppiness of the people around them.
Manifested in interpersonal contacts a sense of rivalry, competitiveness, desire for a prestigious role in the reference group.
High emotional involvement with the dominant egoistic idea, the ability to “infect” others with one’s passion and a pronounced tendency to plan action are the foundation for the formation of leadership traits, especially with good intelligence and high professionalism.
In short, these types of people affective, touchy, stubborn, hardworking, inventive, sincere and naive. They may be characterized by harshness, malice and rigidity of thinking.
Rigidity of affect in people of this type is associated mainly with egoistic motives, and behavioral characteristics are usually a response to the actions of others, perceived affectively as infringing on the personality, and on this basis, rigid personal attitudes are built.
The formation of such attitudes often occurs on the basis of erroneous perception or incorrect interpretation of situations of interpersonal interaction. Such situations are presented as internally logical and even based on real facts of attempts at personal infringement.
Rigid affect associated with egoistic motives causes rancor. It is also associated with a long-term experience of one’s own successes, and this experience includes pride in one’s worth, increased self-love and dissatisfaction with the lack or insufficiency of recognition from others.
Persons of this type are significantly concerned about their prestige and are distinguished by increased sensitivity in relation to real or imaginary injustices.
The combination of sensitivity with a tendency to self-affirmation gives rise to suspicion, a critical, hostile or contemptuous attitude towards others, stubbornness, and often aggressiveness.
Individuals of this type are ambitious and are guided by a firm intention to be better and smarter than others, and in group activities they invariably strive for leadership.
They are incapable of mental “repression” and therefore, in order to satisfy ambition and “mental optimization” of life, they constantly need real achievements that confirm their prestige and significance.
This tendency can create high motivation and greater productivity in areas and activities where the level of achievement is determined and depends on the level of motivation, perseverance and is sufficiently standardized.
Even a moderate increase in performance 6th scale usually indicates affective rigidity, a tendency to suspicion, a tendency to reflect on the actions of others that seem incompetent or dishonest, especially in observing the norms and rules of activity.
The basic basis of this type of behavior is the most profound, little studied and, therefore, not entirely obvious and unambiguous system of objective interaction in its influence on the psyche, which is formed at the very early stages of ontogenesis.
In the process of mental development, mechanisms of objective interaction are formed. A peculiar process of studying object properties and their intermediary significance between the individual and objects (parents) takes place.
The system of object interaction itself begins to develop and become more complex through objects in the form of toys, dishes, clothes, etc.
This process is very stable both due to the underdevelopment of socialized mental structures and due to the relatively low significance of objective functions for this process. However, peculiar deviations that form behavioral characteristics can also occur in it.
They are expressed in a more objective intermediary meaning for the psyche. That is, in normal functioning, the psyche, having gone through the stage of intermediary object development, moves to another stage, normally using objects exclusively from the standpoint of their functionality.
In our case, originality is expressed as the process of endowing objects with certain object properties or, more precisely, as an incomplete separation of object and object properties.
The object, being an exclusively functional mediator in the process of object interaction, took over some of the object properties and itself turned into a unique object.
This kind of “stuckness” at the stage of objective interaction is always accompanied by three main behavioral properties, ranked according to the degree of formation.
The first is the unconscious desire to master an unlimited number of consumer goods and, as the highest stage, material (monetary) accumulation as an unconscious tendency of meaningless (unused) possession.
The second is a clear and special structural relationship to substantive interaction.
This attitude is expressed in an unconscious desire for order, cleanliness, neatness, the development of rituals for cleaning the home, determining a reasonable place for each item and strict adherence to the rules and procedures for its use, etc.
The third is the transfer and use of rules of object interaction into systems of socialized object interaction.
If the first two basic behavioral properties have relatively little influence on the overall structure of behavior and can be considered as a “hobby,” then the third is very significant and can serve as the basis for a wide behavioral diversity.
The third behavioral property corrects the manifestations of two important personal mental qualities - aggressiveness and volitional components.
Aggression and will in the behavioral manifestations of the characteristics of the mental structure are, to a certain extent, manifestations of the activity of rivalry as a state of interpersonal interaction and the very level of its effective manifestation.
In our case, the system of object interaction is objective and activity is realized indirectly through objective interaction without penetrating into the systems of direct interpersonal interaction. Therefore, it is difficult for people of this type to encounter situations of manifestation of open interpersonal aggression and they rarely participate and try to avoid situations that require extreme manifestations of significant volitional properties.
Both activity and will are concentrated within the framework of the functional properties of interpersonal interaction. The interaction system itself is built and implemented on the principles of functional interaction. Therefore, the structural basis of interaction is rationing and regulation. Both internal attitude and external manifestations reflect this normalization and form behavioral characteristics.
It is not surprising that people of this type are highly resistant to stressful situations. They are simply not affected by non-functional manifestations of interaction, they do not perceive and do not understand what is wanted from them outside the framework of norms and rules, but they are perfectly oriented within the framework of the rules and actively and persistently (manifestation of will) participate in bringing justice when they are violated.
The ability to live according to the rules is the only available system of interpersonal interaction for them. Violation of the rules confuses them and “forces” them to unconsciously “devalue” both the situations of such violations and the persons who form them.
The inability to avoid such situations (official production interaction, social and everyday life, forced group) provokes a maximum concentration of activity (aggression) and will to change such situations and bring them into line with understood norms and rules.
The consequences of such a struggle at the level of clinical behavioral maladaptation form a wide range of behavioral properties, from compulsive neuroses to paranoid constructs of extensive modification.
Both clinical maladaptation and normal manifestations of behavioral characteristics are reflected by the structure of the personality profile.
The combination of peaks on 6th And 1st scale characteristic of individuals whose concerns about their physical health develop on the basis of affective rigidity. At the same time, the number of unpleasant physical sensations is small, but the significance of somatic sensations and their influence on behavior is very high.
Peaks on the 6th and 2nd MMPI scales reflect the tendency to develop affectively rich delusional ideas in initially subdepressed individuals and the presence of a melancholy-angry construct.
With such characteristics, difficulties in the system of interpersonal relationships often manifest themselves, and suspicion and anger contribute to disruption of social adaptation.
The combination of peaks on 6th And 3 scales. In this case, the desire to focus on external assessment runs into perceptions of hostility from others.
As a result of the combination of these tendencies, suspicion and aggressiveness are suppressed during social interactions and even a positive attitude is declared both towards others and to interaction situations. However, sometimes, a few but persistent somatic complaints are used to put pressure on others.
This phenomenon is especially pronounced when combining the peak 6th scale And " conversion V"neurotic triad.
Peak combination 6th And 4 scales reflects a tendency towards antisocial behavior.
Such characteristics are characterized by neglect of moral and ethical norms, customs and rules.
The higher MMPI scale 6 towards 4th, the more often antisocial manifestations are replaced by persistent hostility towards others.
Such individuals are characterized by sullenness or dysphoric-angry affect, a tendency to persistent objections and outbursts of aggression.
Open manifestations of intolerance, hostility, suspicion and other characteristics reflected 6th scale will be more pronounced as the values decrease 5th scale for men and when increasing them in women.
The specialization of such modifications is mainly determined by temperamental characteristics and situational factors.
Temperamental properties form the level of activity and “color” behavioral properties; situations provoke and trigger maladaptive mechanisms.
In our case, behavioral modifications of maladaptive forms and their diversity are the least interesting, since they are exclusively in the zone of psychiatric knowledge and are categorically unacceptable for any type of production activity.
In fact, the personal characteristics of well-adapted individuals of this type and the specifics of their formation and manifestation provide a huge amount of analytical material that does not contribute to the unambiguous conclusions in model activity forecasts.
Persons of this behavioral type demonstrate a significant set of properties that are positive for activity.
The main ones are diligence and the desire to follow norms and rules, the prevailing trend of status growth.
Despite the fact that their tendency for status growth is a consequence of a personal egoistic orientation, entirely focused on occupying a psychologically comfortable position in the system of normalized activities (pronounced careerism), it is quite often realized in high official appointments, especially in administrative and economic systems. , promoting bureaucratic mechanisms for organizing activities.
One gets the impression that such organizations are purposefully staffed with specialists and managers whose mental make-up is to further formalize and normalize, to “dehumanize” activities that are already formalized and normalized to the limit.
If for administrative and economic management activities the personal characteristics of the type in question may look positive, then for most types of production activities, especially management, they are not very acceptable.
Specialists of this behavioral type can be very effective in areas of activity, the conditions for the implementation of which are normalized and regulated.
Applied economics and accounting, almost all types of “functional” industries - everything that requires punctuality, perseverance, scrupulous adherence to norms and rules, attention to detail from a specialist and, moreover, does not require direct and intense personal interactions.
Especially the presence of the latter condition can greatly contribute to a significant “improvement” of character.
Carrying out interaction on the principles of “objectivity” - through numbers, norms and rules, not only harmonizes external behavioral manifestations, but also internally contributes to good mental stabilization through an optimal understanding of the rules of activity.
Such stabilization to a certain extent contributes to a decrease in status trends. There is no meaningful basis for achievement motivation. There is no point in striving to change the status position in order to optimize an already stable and optimal (arranged as a system of interaction) position.
Naturally, this is possible only if internal personal and external, real status criteria coincide. This is facilitated by a high level of material reward, which makes it possible, by accumulating material (monetary) resources, to realize the main unconscious tendency - the “hobby” of accumulation.
In order for a specialist of this behavioral type to function effectively in production activities, it is necessary to significantly stimulate him financially, limit direct personal interaction, normalize and regulate the conditions for carrying out activities, isolate him from making strategically determining decisions, limit status trends, exclude him from situations of official competition, etc.
From the foregoing it is clear that production activities can offer individuals of this type a very limited scope for applying their efforts.
This behavioral type would not need close attention if its representatives did not have a number of pronounced and superficially very promising features for activity.
Almost fanatical determination, consistency and independence from group influence, strict adherence to norms and rules personally and demands from others, desire for status growth and personal recognition, professional improvement, impeccable appearance, etc. - a portrait of an almost ideal leader.
Failure to recognize this behavioral type and involve such specialists in carrying out activities without restrictions can lead to serious negative consequences for both the specialist and the activity.
Persons of this behavioral type are difficult to recognize. Leading peak by MMPI scale 6 often accompanied by a low profile, reflecting a tendency to hide the depth of existing personal problems. This is due to the increased sense of caution and mistrust characteristic of such individuals.
Profiles with a “recessed” profile should be especially wary 6th scale. Indicators below 50 T are implausible and are a consequence of hypercompensatory
attitudes of aggressive individuals, reflecting their excessive tendency to emphasize their peacemaking relations.
7th scale: (psychasthenia or fixation of anxiety and restrictive behavior) anxiety:
7th scale refers to indicators of a hyposthenic, inhibited type of mental response.
Profile enhancement reveals the predominance of a passive-passive position, lack of self-confidence and the stability of the situation, high sensitivity and susceptibility to environmental influences, increased sensitivity to danger.
The behavior of individuals of this type is dominated by the motivation of avoiding failure, sensitivity, orientation toward congruent relationships with others, and dependence on the opinion of the majority.
Individuals of this type are different a developed sense of responsibility, conscientiousness, commitment, modesty, increased anxiety regarding small everyday problems, anxiety for the fate of loved ones.
They are characterized by a peculiar empathy - a feeling of compassion and empathy, increased nuance of feelings, pronounced dependence on the object of attachment.
Thinking is somewhat inert. The uniqueness of goal control with elements of “fluctuating” attention is expressed in a tendency to double-check what has been done and an increased sense of duty.
Noted pronounced intuitiveness, tendency to doubt, reflexivity, critical self-observation with a tendency to low self-esteem.
Moderate increase in values 7th scale at men accompanied by behavioral characteristics such as shyness, sentimentality, peacefulness, strong individuality, often with a feeling of dissatisfaction.
U women - is often a sign of a neurotic reaction and is expressed as increased sensitivity, conscientiousness, pickiness and pedantry in work, developed intuitiveness.
The general trend for men and women is indecisiveness with lack of self-confidence.
The peak on the 7th MMPI scale is typical for individuals with pronounced anxious and suspicious traits with a tendency to self-flagellation, “chewing” various problems and painful introspection.
Often attention is focused on one's bad habits, relationship difficulties, and manifestations of authority.
Persons of this type are very concerned with issues of morality and are the most anxious of the representatives of all characterological types.
A mental feature of this type of behavior is a low ability to repress negative signals and increased attention to them. They strive to keep even insignificant facts in the spotlight, to take into account and anticipate even unlikely possibilities, and are in a constant state of anxiety.
Persons of this type are unlikely to identify what is really important and significant in the totality of facts, and to abstract from unimportant details.
In activity, such behavior is expressed as a leading tendency to avoid failure and is formed by the fear of the possibility of incurring danger by doing the wrong thing or failing as a result of a mistake.
This fear underlies restrictive behavior, which manifests itself in the refusal of activities in cases where success does not seem guaranteed.
The tendency to avoid failure translates into a tendency to develop a system of rules that eliminates the need to make decisions in each individual case, which can give the impression of rigidity, stubbornness and formality. This system of rules is a kind of fight against obsessive anxiety, internal mental tension and low noise immunity.
Situations with an unpredictable outcome, a rapid change of significant, disordered and unplanned factors are stressful for people of this type of behavior.
The basic basis of such behavioral characteristics is excessive parental strictness or “rigidity” of attitude during the formation of “empathic socialization” in the developing mental structure.
The inadequacy of a single mother, expressed in her attitude towards the child as an obstacle to building personal relationships and (or) a constant reminder with her presence of the experienced family failure, forces the child’s psyche to adapt in a certain way.
The consequences of such adaptation are different for boys and girls. It is likely that gender mental differences already at an early stage of ontogenesis suggest in boys less dependence on the mother as an object in the process of forming socialized behavioral structures.
Therefore, a “hard” attitude during the period of socialization, or, more accurately, the consequences of such influence are expressed in the male type of such behavior only as sentimentality and peacefulness and are accompanied by a great and peculiar “attachment” to the mother in adulthood, which peculiarly “colors” behavior and causes difficulties in relationships with the other sex, but practically does not maladapt behavior in general and very rarely leads to neurotic deviations.
For girls, “empathic socialization” is an important and significant process in the formation of personal socialization, in which the mother is not only an object of sexual identification, but also a “guide” in behavioral strategies.
A “hard” attitude in this process forms a model of an unattainable “ideal self”, which is constantly set as an example and attempts to correspond to this model form systems of maladaptive behavior leading to neurotic deviations.
The peculiarity of this behavior is the low threshold for stress formation. This is also facilitated by temperamental characteristics in the form weak type of nervous system and an accessible strategy of unconscious protection from external “object” pressure.
Although the combination of such features forms behavioral modifications, all their diversity is concentrated in defensive techniques.
The combination of peaks on 7th And 1st scale indicates easily arising concerns about the state of one’s physical health as a consequence of a high level of anxiety and the desire to avoid possible dangers.
Anxious fears about the state of one's physical health are often combined with more or less vague unpleasant physical sensations.
With a high tendency to form fixed obsessive fears, somatic sensations are relatively constant and few in number.
Typically, such a behavioral system is reflected by increased values 2nd scale, and the level 9th depends on a pessimistic assessment of the situation and the level of personal activity.
This personality profile is usually accompanied by high values F scale and low K scale, which reflects the degree of “basic” anxiety and unconscious need for help.
The combination of peaks on 2nd And 7th scales The MMPI typically indicates that low self-esteem and a pessimistic outlook are characteristic of depressive type(isolated peak 2nd scale) in this case are more pronounced and stable and are combined with constant internal tension, anxiety or fears.
High values 7th scale and a more or less pronounced decrease in indicators 9th may reflect a personal gloomy overtones of life situations and future prospects, a feeling of one’s own insufficiency, which may be accompanied by a decrease in activity productivity, initiative and creates a general feeling of depression.
Peak combination 7th And 2nd scale and raising your profile to MMPI scale 3 may reflect a combination of anxiety and phobic disorders with a tendency to vividly and colorfully demonstrate one’s condition with the desire to evoke the patronizing attitude of others through emphasized helplessness.
Isolated peaks 7th And 3rd scale reflect a relatively rare and clearly disharmonious behavioral type. It combines elements of polar personal structures - a penchant for punctuality, thoroughness, accuracy, a desire for thoroughness, some heaviness and understated social spontaneity are paradoxically combined with demonstrativeness, self-centeredness, and the desire to be in the center of attention.
Such behavioral characteristics are accompanied by frequent reactions of anxiety, since while maintaining a high need for attention, recognition and general demonstrative behavior, individuals of this type are much more critical than purely demonstrative individuals and react very painfully to noticed negative signals.
The combination of high values 7th And 4 MMPI scales at relatively reduced rates 2nd scale reflect the behavioral characteristics of carefully following social norms and controlling aggressive tendencies.
Such personal characteristics make it possible to hide overt asocial tendencies and internal rejection of moral and ethical standards. However, aggressive tendencies are still implemented through techniques and methods of causing feelings of anxiety and guilt in others.
Peak combination 7th scale and an increase in the severity of male character traits (indicators 5th scale) reflect an increase in the tendency to rigid behavior.
With an increase in the severity of female traits, an increase in diverse fears and difficulties in making independent decisions is reflected.
Combination of high values 7th And 6 scales, especially with increasing values and 2nd scale often indicates a tendency towards delusional or delusional formation with a high level of anxiety. Typically, this profile structure indicates the relative ease of occurrence of pathological conditions.
In production activities, specialists of this behavioral type can be effective if their personal characteristics are taken into account.
Along with negative qualities for activity - a discrepancy between self-esteem and inflated ideal personal ideas, a reduced threshold for stress formation and, as a result, blocking of activity or driven activity following the majority or leader, general restrictive behavior and excessive intellectual processing, there are also a number of positive qualities.
Easy tolerance of monotony, good motivation through incentives and measures to increase self-esteem, thoroughness in the implementation of norms and rules contribute to efficiency in a number of activities based on stable stereotypes of job operations.
The most common personality type to experience a significant increase in profile 7th scale - psychasthenic.
This type of person is different self-doubt, indecision, a tendency to carefully double-check one’s actions and work done, very obligatory and responsible, with a dependent position, oriented towards the opinion of the group, with a highly developed sense of duty and adherence to generally accepted norms, prone to altruistic manifestations, conforming, reacting with increased guilt and self-flagellation for the slightest failures and mistakes.
Trying at all costs to avoid a conflict that they experience extremely painfully, psychasthenics act at the maximum level of their capabilities in order to earn approval from others, and most importantly - what is most difficult - their own approval.
With an excessively self-critical attitude towards themselves, they are characterized by an unconscious desire for an unattainable personal ideal. In this regard, they are in a state of constant tension and dissatisfaction, manifested in obsessions, excessive restrictive actions, rituals necessary for self-soothing.
Peculiarities psychasthenic reactions are most common among normally adapted individuals and practically do not distort the system of socialized interaction.
Even clinical maladjustment relatively rarely goes beyond acceptable forms of interaction and is expressed only by a number of phobias (fear of heights, closed or open spaces, diseases, etc.), or absessive and compulsive neuroses, which often present few difficulties for others. Therefore, maladapted forms psychasthenic type do not particularly interfere with the implementation of production activities if its conditions are properly organized, and a number of personal characteristics allow it to be carried out very effectively.
A big advantage of this type of behavior for activity is “group dependence”. The “painful” experience of conflict situations by owners of this type turns them into a kind of “barrier” in systems of intragroup interaction, which significantly contributes to the reduction of interpersonal tension and the establishment of productive systems of industrial interaction.
8th scale: (schizoid or autistic) individualistic:
8th scale - “individualism scale” in MMPI. Increased, in a profile with normative indicators on other scales, it reveals isolated-contemplative personal position, analytical way of thinking.
With this personality type, the tendency to think prevails over feelings and effective activity.
A holistic style of perception is formed - the ability to recreate a complete image based on minimal information.
With good intelligence, individuals of this type are distinguished by creative orientation, originality of statements and judgments, as well as interests and hobbies.
A certain selectivity in contacts, a certain subjectivity in assessing people and phenomena in the surrounding life, independence of views, a certain attraction to abstraction, a high need to actualize one’s individuality.
Personalities of this type find it more difficult to adapt to everyday forms of life and prosaic aspects of everyday life. Their individuality is so pronounced that it is virtually useless to predict their statements and behavior by comparing them with familiar stereotypes. They have an insufficiently formed rational platform for everyday life; they are more focused on their subjectivity and intuition.
Even minor frustrations can lead to anxiety and the expression of negative emotions. In this case, compensation for the condition is achieved through autization and distancing, that is, through “withdrawal” into the “inner world” and maintaining a “mental distance” between oneself and the environment.
In clinically pronounced cases, behavior can take on the form and characteristics defined as schizoid syndrome.
The term " schizoid syndrome" is conventionally used to denote that characteristic set of manifestations, which includes emotional coldness and inadequacy of emotions, originality of perception and judgment, which is expressed in strange or unusual thoughts and actions, selectivity or formality of contacts.
For individuals with a profile peak at 8th scale characterized by an orientation mainly towards internal criteria, a decrease in the ability to intuitively understand others, to play their roles, that is, the inability to put oneself in the place of one or another of the people around and, in connection with this, insufficient adequacy of the emotional response.
For individuals of this type, it becomes difficult, and in extreme cases impossible, to objectively assess themselves “from the outside” in the system of interpersonal interaction.
The behavior of such individuals may seem devoid of natural emotional coloring, peculiar, eccentric or arrogant. At the same time, they are characterized by dissatisfaction with the situation and vulnerability, which are weakened by autism, which acts as a psychological defense mechanism.
Already with a moderately pronounced profile peak on the 8th MMPI scale, the originality of perception and logic may be accompanied by difficulties in communication with others.
These difficulties manifest themselves in both non-verbal and verbal contacts.
In nonverbal contacts, communication difficulties are associated with insufficiently adequate facial expressions or motor maladjustment.
In verbal contacts, difficulties are manifested in the fact that although the statements of persons of this type are logical and grammatically constructed correctly, they can create the impression of ambiguity or insufficient intelligibility to others.
The tendency to vague and vague formulations is largely due to the fact that obtaining a clear idea of a well-structured social situation, the invasion of outlined social stimuli into the inner world of individuals of the type in question can act as a source of anxiety, tension, and long-term negative emotions.
Violation of social communication can lead to a lack of a clear idea of how to behave in a given situation, and what exactly others expect.
The originality of thinking may be due, in particular, to the loss of the ability to control the intelligibility and acceptance of one’s judgments as a result of the already noted violation of social communication. At the same time, many of these individuals exhibit great ability to construct communications that use symbols that obey an initially given rigid system of rules, for example, the rules for operating mathematical symbols.
The difficulty of everyday contacts leads to an even greater increase in isolation, since situations requiring such contacts generate or intensify the feeling of internal tension.
Distance and alienation lead to even greater difficulties in a real assessment of the situation and the overall picture of the world and increase feelings of alienation and incomprehension, inability to become a valid member of the group to which they formally belong.
The desire to eliminate one’s isolation and inability to overcome communication difficulties gives rise to ambivalence in relationships with people, associated with the expectation of attention from others and the fear of coldness on their part.
As a result, either excessive friendliness or unjustified hostility is manifested towards others, and excessively intense contacts can be replaced by sudden breaks.
The insufficiency and “originality” of social contacts causes anxiety about the significance of one’s personality, serves as the basis for autistic fantasizing and the formation of affectively rich ideas or groups of ideas.
The peculiar system of autistic perception significantly limits and filters external negative signals, distorting the systems of socialized interaction. One gets the impression of “empathic coldness” and a general inability to form emotionally rich relationships.
However, events and relationships happen that can cause an emotional response. In such cases, empathic sensitivity and personal vulnerability are unexpected for others.
Individuals of this behavioral type can have a wide range of social contacts, characterized by formality and lack of adequate emotional content and occurring without sufficient consideration of the reactions of the environment.
The main feature of the behavioral type under consideration is the maladaptation of the foundations of socialized interaction.
If in all other cases the basis of maladaptive behavior lies in the mechanisms of a peculiar interaction with an already formed and significant object for the psyche (parents), then in this case the most likely source of the formation of such behavior can be considered violations of a peculiar, deepest, primary, in some ways even before personal interaction process.
If we abstract to the level of object interaction (biological), it becomes clear that during this period it is the process of satisfying needs (food, warmth, care) that in a certain way shapes the future system of object interaction.
Insufficient satisfaction of needs for the psyche (perhaps both conditions and personal relationships are important in this process) disadapts the psyche in the construction of systems of object interaction.
The only possible response of the developing psyche to insufficient satisfaction of interaction needs is their limitation - autism.
These restrictions are transferred to the system of object interaction, confusing the very important object distinctive complex “friend - foe”.
Such object non-distinction takes root in the process of mental development and forms the process of “withdrawal” into a personal “cocoon”.
Such “freedom” from socialization contributes to the development of systems of extra-object interaction (communication through symbols) and abstract (extra-object) operating, not tied to systems of socialized needs and a unique attitude towards stress-generating situations and many other behavioral peculiarities.
If the personality traits reflected in the peak of the profile on 8th scale are combined with unpleasant physical sensations (often peculiar) and ideas related to the state of physical health, then an increase in the profile and on 1st scale.
Moreover, if the profile peak is at 8th MMPI scale significantly higher than the peak at 1st and, especially if at the same time there is an increase in the profile by 6th scale with a simultaneous low profile level at 3rd And 7th scales, then the formation of affectively rich and difficult to correct concepts related to the state of physical health, overvalued and even delusional formations is likely.
If the profile peak is slightly exceeded by 8th scale This type of profile most often indicates a rigid pattern of behavior focused on caring for physical well-being. Such care is used as a means to rationally explain alienation and isolation from others by the presence of somatically caused difficulties.
It should be noted that the more pronounced the peak on 8th scale, the more pretentious and unusual the descriptions of somatic sensations acquire.
If the feeling of insufficient connection with the environment, an unsatisfied need for contacts is expressed in an increase in anxiety or depression, the profile peaks at 8th scale combined with a peak at 2nd.
An ambivalent attitude towards others gives rise, along with the desire for contacts, to gloomy distrust, and a frequent increase in profile on the 4th MMPI scale reflects socialization difficulties associated with an insufficient ability to perceive the customs, rules and norms that guide the majority of people around them in their behavior .
On the rating scales, a profile peak is noted at F scale,associated mainly with low,conventionality. This profile configuration is quite typical for schizoid individuals who are concerned about their isolation and experience difficulties in social adaptation.
If demonstrative tendencies due to a high level of repression appear in individuals who feel alienated, misunderstood and not included in the social environment, then a combination of peaks on the 3rd and 8th MMPI scales is usually noted.
This profile indicates deep disharmony, since it reflects a paradoxical combination of focusing on current behavior, on external evaluation, on the approval of others with a tendency to build one’s behavior based on internal criteria, with difficulties in interpersonal communication.
Being concerned about the place of their personality in society and its significance, these individuals often form the circle of their acquaintances and contacts in such a way as to create a unique environment in which their significance is unconditionally recognized.
Along with building a unique environment, individuals with the described type of profile can resolve the question of their place in society and the significance of their personality by identifying with some form of activity, the high significance of which they proclaim. At the same time, they prefer situations in which this identification, as well as competence in the chosen field of activity, cannot be questioned (individual activity, narrow specialization, etc.).
Such a combination, with a fairly pronounced rise in the profile, almost always indicates a painful state of one nature or another, or at least the ease of decompensation.
If social adaptation is disrupted as a result of difficulties in interpersonal connections, this is usually reflected in the personality profile by a combination of peaks on 8th And 4 scales.
In clinical cases, this combination, sometimes with an additional peak at 6th scale, occurs quite often.
Individuals with this type of profile are characterized not by aggressive antisocial behavior, but by antisocial actions committed as a result of misunderstandings, inability to adapt to certain conditions, inability to clearly understand the social norm and as a result of a unique approach to the situation.
The inability to properly organize and control their contacts and originality of thinking may determine the connection of these individuals with deviant groups. This connection is one of the most common reasons for their antisocial behavior.
This type of profile is typical for adolescents and young men with a pronounced tendency to treat others with distrust, to perceive them as a source of potential danger or, in any case, as strangers.
A constant feeling of threat can push them to a preemptive attack.
If such a behavior pattern persists into adulthood, it contributes to an increase in isolation and alienation and an increase in social adaptation disorders.
In cases where disruption of interpersonal connections and increasing autization are accompanied by the formation of an affectively charged idea or group of ideas, the personality profile is characterized by a combination of peaks on 6th And 8 scales.
Pronounced elevations in profile on these scales, especially in the absence of elevations on the scales neurotic triad, indicate a tendency to form difficult-to-correct concepts associated with the idea of the presence of threatening or dangerous actions of others.
In these cases, a pronounced selectivity of perception is characteristic, in which predominantly information is perceived that reinforces the already formed concept.
If such a selection of information is so pronounced that it leads to a loss of contact with reality, and interpersonal relationships are organized on the basis of uncorrectable concepts, then a person with the described type of profile replaces real society with a pseudo-society, which is a set of his own projections. This is evident in the clinic. delusional syndromes.
If the tendency to focus on internal criteria and communication difficulties is combined with severe anxiety, then the personality profile may be characterized by an isolated and more or less uniform rise (“ plateau") on 7th And 8 MMPI scales.
This type of profile reflects a feeling of specialness or uniqueness of one’s personality and anxiety about the lack of recognition of such an individual by the environment.
Such feelings (not necessarily unconscious) lead to depressive tendencies, which may not be reflected by increased values. 2nd scale.
Depressive symptoms are often combined with irritability and anxiety or a feeling of increased fatigue and apathy.
This type is more often characteristic of adolescents. In adulthood, such manifestations are a consequence of a certain degree of infantilism.
Attracting specialists to production activities schizoid type adapted behavior and their inclusion in group activities is accompanied by a number of organizational issues and creates consequences that initially require close attention.
The prevalence of “functionality” or “creativity” in an activity is a strategic issue and is formed by the goals of the activity and adjusted by the conditions of its implementation.
Persons schizoid type are " professional", born analysts, " specialists» mediated through interaction symbols, since they are practically the only representatives of maladaptive behavior using intellectualization as the leading unconscious mechanism of psychological defense.
Operating with cause-and-effect relationships is not work for them, reflecting indirect personal needs, but in fact is a primary need for social functioning.
Initially disrupted mechanisms of personal-object interaction provoke and motivate them to closely study and analyze systems of interpersonal interaction, analyze motivations and needs, and painstakingly study those around them.
Being outside these systems of interaction and excellent analytical capabilities allow them to have a good understanding of interpersonal problems, however, communication maladaptation and the uniqueness of interactions do not allow them to effectively implement these features.
The same mechanisms, that is, a certain personal isolation, provoke them to study and analyze global cause-and-effect relationships and aspects of world functioning, and it is quite possible that the same mechanisms underlie genius.
It turns out that the impossibility of optimal inclusion in the system of interpersonal interactions forms a number of abilities leading to the “generation” of ideas, which the “generator” himself is practically unable to use properly.
The use of such specialists in the form of creative analysts in their activities gives a huge effect and significantly pays off all the costs associated with the conditions for organizing their activities.
These conditions are relatively simple. Persons of this behavioral type need a free, creative style of activity not limited by formal and regime frameworks.
Any management of their activities will cause opposition.
The best option is partnership cooperation at the level of ideas, since any practical implementation with their participation can have such an intricate form that all ideological advantages are easily lost.
A special condition is the creation of “industrial isolation”.
The tendency to create a “personal environment”, high activity, egocentrism, bright individuality and intellectual development of such individuals, under conditions of free activity, can be realized in the formation of employees “ club of interests", lying far beyond the scope of production activities, which cannot contribute to its effectiveness.
In fact, competent suppression of such attempts and constant provision of materials for reflection and a “front” for making efforts is sufficient guidance for such specialists who, having almost exorbitant personal motivation, do not need more managerial interaction and control. And how to take advantage of the results of their work will depend on the abilities and capabilities of the activity leaders.
9th scale: (hypomania or anxiety denial) optimism:
The leading peak on the 9th MMPI scale of the normatively corresponding profile reflects active personal position, high level of love of life, self-confidence, positive self-esteem, high motivation to achieve a certain originality.
Such activity and motivation are focused more on motor mobility and speech productivity rather than on specific and practical goals.
Such behavioral characteristics are often accompanied by a general high spirits.
In response to opposition, an angry reaction easily flares up and just as easily fades away.
Success causes a certain exaltation, an emotion of pride.
Everyday difficulties are perceived as easily surmountable, otherwise the significance of a difficult state or position is easily devalued.
In persons of this behavioral type there is no inclination to seriously delve into complex problems, carelessness prevails, a joyful perception of the entire surrounding world and one’s existence, brightness of hopes, confidence in the future, confidence in one’s happiness.
Increased MMPI scale 9 reflects accentuation of the hyperthymic or exalted type and reveals inflated personal self-esteem, ease of decision-making, lack of particular discernment in contacts.
Such features are accompanied unceremonious behavior, a condescending attitude towards one’s mistakes and shortcomings.
Easily occurring emotional outbursts end in quick release. Often there is inconstancy in affection, excessive laughter, falling in love, in a word, characteristics that are completely natural for adolescence, but which are significantly infantile for an adult.
In cases where the main way to eliminate frustrating stimuli is the denial of any difficulties, anxiety, one’s own and others’ guilt (impunitive reactions), then the personality profile is usually characterized by a peak at 9th scale.
The tendency to deny anxiety is usually expressed by the absence of spontaneous mention of any difficulties that may cause it, by an expression of disdain for the difficulties that are mentioned from the outside, by declared optimism.
Individuals with moderate profile increases by 9th scale are characterized optimism, sociability, ability to be highly active, ease of communication.
Individuals of this type are characterized by “emotional brightness”, the ability to experience pleasure in life, realistic, imaginative thinking and lack of adherence to a rigid scheme.
They easily become the “soul of society”, adapt well to changes and even strive for them, and do not experience difficulties when it is necessary to rebuild their life pattern.
In a situation of stress, the person with the leader 9th scale in the profile, they show excessive, but always purposeful activity, and at the same time they can imitate a person who is authoritative for them.
The basis of such behavioral characteristics is not the system of personal-object interaction that distorts mental development, but the socialized environment itself, which acts as a limiter of unconscious mental activity.
The energy of this behavioral type is the basic temperamental activity corresponding strong, unbalanced type of nervous system.
In this case, increased basic mental activity, which initially requires optimal external innervation, already at the early stages of development encounters problems that form behavioral originality.
Increased personal activity forms search diversity, which leads, in the process of interaction with the outside world, to repeatedly experienced states of fear. Fear of the unknown outside world and personal activity, intertwined, form a conglomerate of external activity, which is a reflection of unconscious personal aspirations to constantly experience new impressions.
This feature of mental development is transformed into adult behavioral tendencies, adapts during the development process and takes its final form in behavioral features that have a wide range of manifestations, since there is no object-based restriction on the expression of activity.
More precisely, with personal-object maladaptation, personal activity is concentrated in a certain way on the mechanism of maladjustment and in a certain way constantly “revolves” around it. In our case, there is no such attachment; the entire diversity of the external environment performs this function and diversifies behavioral characteristics and relatively rarely leads to maladjustment at the clinical level.
Increased self-esteem and high activity, reflected by an increase in profile on 9th scale with a simultaneous reduction in profile by 2nd And 7th scales can find expression in the desire to lead others or to rise above others through competition.
In the first case, the peak at 9th scale and a decrease by 2nd And 7th scale combined with an increase in profile by K scale, reflecting the desire to deny one’s own weaknesses and emotional problems, the desire to comply with conventional norms and intolerance of violations of these norms by others.
Persons of this type cannot tolerate uncertainty and hesitation, strive to be as informed as possible, and willingly take on leadership, displaying great energy and organizational abilities.
Their leadership is usually perceived by others as a natural phenomenon, since they command respect due to their energy, awareness and high performance.
For people of this type, situations in which their desire for leadership is blocked or in which, in their opinion, there is insufficient information, are sources of mental stress.
If with the same type of profile on the main scales there is a decrease in the profile by K scale, usually reflecting a tendency to critically evaluate others and be suspicious of their motives, then activity and high self-esteem are realized in the desire to rise above others through competition, to demonstrate one’s strength and (or) to emphasize the weakness of other people.
In men, this tendency can be realized by demonstrating the opportunities provided by physical superiority; in women, it can manifest itself in the desire to emphasize their external attractiveness.
Individuals of this type experience a sense of threat if they find themselves in a situation where they cannot arouse envy and demonstrate their superiority, and especially if this requires them to express or admit dependence.
If increased activity, high ambition, and self-esteem, reflected in an increased profile on 9th scale are combined with the inability to achieve the desired position and realize current aspirations, and the resulting anxiety is attributed to the somatic state, then in the profile there is a simultaneous increase in the values and 1st scale.
Individuals of this type usually consider themselves to be somatically ill and have a negative attitude towards attempts to interpret their complaints as a consequence of situational or emotional difficulties.
Their behavior is characterized either by tension and an active desire for somatic therapy, or by demonstrative optimism and the desire to emphasize their resilience in the face of a serious illness. The latter option is especially likely if "neurotic triad" expressed "conversion V".
Boost your profile by 9th scale may reflect a high level of motivation and activity shaped by a strong sense of threat.
In this case, there is a paradoxical combination of profile rises by 2nd And 9th scale. Such a profile may reflect a combination of a sense of self-worth and high personal potential with anxiety about the recognition of these qualities by others.
Concern with problems of this kind is typical for adolescents and young men during the period of personality formation, and in adulthood indicates traits of infantility.
The combination of increased self-esteem, the ability to ignore difficulties, high but poorly organized activity with a high ability to repress negative signals, demonstrativeness, emotional immaturity and selfishness is reflected by high values 9th And 3rd scale.
Often this combination is characteristic of artistic personalities, whose enthusiasm, ability for prolonged effort and efficiency increase in the presence of a large audience.
Peaks on 9th And 4 scales reflect an insufficient ability to internally perceive social norms.
Persons with this type of profile experience a constant attraction to experiences, to an external exciting situation. If this drive is not satisfied, they easily develop a feeling of boredom, which is discharged in dangerous, sometimes destructive actions that seem senseless and devoid of foundation to an outside observer.
Their disregard for existing rules and customs, protest against moral and ethical norms is actively implemented, often without any correction of their behavior in connection with a situation that poses a threat to themselves.
Persons of this type can commit offenses, and their social danger increases if the described line of behavior is carried out consistently and rigidly, which is usually accompanied by the appearance of a peak and 6th scale.
The presence of additional peaks on 7th scale And scales "neurotic triads" reflects less likely antisocial behavior depending on the severity of these peaks. In this case, antisocial attitudes are realized in socially acceptable ways.
The combination of peaks on 9th And 6th MMPI scales indicates a certain consistency and purposefulness of organized behavior around a certain personal concept.
In this case, affective rigidity and a feeling of hostility from others complicate the system of interpersonal interaction.
Individuals of this type usually strive to assert their superiority and use others to achieve their goals, which they consider useful and necessary for everyone.
In clinical maladjustment, such features are accompanied by the emergence of overvalued or paranoid formations against the background of hypomanic affect.
High activity, a constant desire for action, combined with anxiety, can be expressed in profile rises to 7th And 9th scale.
High activity makes it easy to commit certain, often insufficiently thought-out actions, and high anxiety leads to subsequent careful analysis of one’s actions, to constant doubts about the correctness of what has already been done.
Such individuals easily develop feelings of guilt and regret in connection with a past situation, but this does not change their behavior in the future. Under extreme conditions, this can lead to chaotic behavior.
If autism, focus on internal criteria, difficulties in interpersonal contacts are combined with increased activity, ease of switching attention and optimism, then in the profile this is usually reflected in an increase in indicators 8th And 9th scale.
A significant increase on these scales may indicate a lack of ability for consistent actions and logical constructions due to the fact that the results of such actions and conclusions cause anxiety.
Lack of fixation on anything, refusal of clear formulas or avoidance of complete formulations in this case has a defensive nature.
The main problem for individuals of the behavioral type under consideration is the constant “loading” of the psyche with the optimal level of innervation, a unique implementation of the search tendency.
This tendency is well realized in socialized systems of interaction, in changing the forms and places of activity.
Socialization of interaction ensures communication and allows the desire to dominate to be realized, for example, through high competence in areas of counseling, the desire to be visible, etc.
When changing the forms and places of activity, “saturation” of monotony is avoided, the desire for “novelty” and unique search aspirations for the “best option” of activity are realized.
Providing such operating conditions in a complex guarantees the most productive and effective results for such specialists.
The best environment for their activity is conditions that require frequent switching of attention.
Constant and varied mental “employment” is most optimal for such specialists.
At the same time, situations associated with monotonous activities that require care, painstaking, long-term fixation of attention are stressful for them and can cause mental adaptation disorders.
0 scale: social introversion or social contacts:
This scale, as well as the attitude towards behavioral characteristics itself, is based on identifying extroverted or introverted personal properties and qualities are more controversial than informative.
Attempts to identify stable behavioral characteristics in the characteristics of thinking, affect and the degree of intensity of social contacts may be of some practical value as secondary reflected typological personal characteristics in the sphere of socialized interaction and cannot serve as a leading factor in determining the basic traits that shape behavior.
0 scale due to its functionality, aimed at determining the nature of socialized interaction, it correlates well with temperamental personal characteristics and a number of factors 16PF, predictively enriching the process of modeling production activities.
Increased 0 scale reflects the hyposthenic type of response and reveals passivity of the personal position and a greater focus of interests in the world of internal experiences.
This behavioral response is different inertia in decision making, secrecy, selectivity in contacts, desire to avoid conflicts.
In a situation of stress - inhibition, avoidance of contacts, escape from problems.
High performance 0 scale reflect not only isolation and taciturnity, but are often a sign of internal disharmony and a way of hiding the originality of one’s character and awkwardness in communication from others.
Sometimes such persons can give the impression of being quite sociable, but this comes at the cost of significant personal stress.
Difficulties in interpersonal interaction form isolation, unsociability, a desire for activities not related to communication and anxiety reactions in cases where forced contacts are carried out regardless of the will of the subject.
Such features can transform into significant autism, characteristic of schizoid type response.
Reducing the profile level by 0 scale reflects the desire for interpersonal contacts and interest in people.
Persons with this type of profile sociable, emotionally responsive, syn-tons, they have well-developed communication skills.
They willingly take on social responsibilities, have a large number of interpersonal contacts in various areas and experience great satisfaction from these contacts.
If the profile is on 0 scale sharply reduced, this usually indicates the presence of such a large number of contacts that their implementation is inevitably accompanied by the fleeting and superficial nature of communication.
Degree "social extraversion" represents a secondary characteristic of typical personal characteristics and can be specified from them.
Most pronounced extraversion is determined by the spontaneity of behavior, that is, the ability to take active actions not caused by direct external stimuli - a quality that is highly correlated with both temperamental characteristics and characterological types.
An increase in spontaneity of behavior in interpersonal contacts reflects an increasing need for social connections, communication with new people, liveliness of an emotional response, the ability to endure inevitable friction without reactions of anxiety and depression, that is, social extraversion increases.
Such features, along with a reduced profile by 0 scale, are reflected by its increase in 9th And K scale, and often on 3rd scale.
Reducing the profile level by 0 scale may be associated with a tendency to self-affirmation, increasing one’s importance in the eyes of others, and dominance. In this case, along with a decrease in the profile by 0 scale Usually there is an increase in 6th.
The profile level is often increased by 9th scale but, unlike the previously considered type, there are low indicators for K scale.
Persons with this profile character are different independence, perseverance in achieving goals, a tendency to lead others (especially subordinates) and are critical of received instructions and dominant authorities. The principles that guide them may be quite strong, but are usually not conventionally determined, but are formed on the basis of personal experience.
With a decrease in social spontaneity, desires arise to prefer a narrow circle of close people to wide contacts. At the same time, difficulties arise in establishing new contacts with anxiety reactions during interpersonal friction, and in this regard, social introversion increases.
This behavior, in addition to raising your profile on 0 scale correspond to his rises to 2nd And 7th scales.
Social extraversion can also manifest itself as a desire to fulfill duties associated with an awareness of a sense of duty. In this case, there may be a “willing” assumption of social responsibility associated with the implementation of wide contacts.
Due to the relatively low social spontaneity, such contacts will be difficult and serve as a source of anxious reactions or emotional tension.
Individuals with such characteristics may be difficult to communicate with due to their tendency to be guided in their behavior by a rigid code of norms and a tendency to moralize. At the same time, others can note their reliability.
Social extraversion, determined by such personal characteristics, is usually reflected in the personality profile by a decrease in values by 0 scale and promotion by 7th.
If the desire to make social contacts is not based on an internalized norm and a sense of duty, a withdrawal from social contacts is observed whenever one’s own need does not prompt this.
In this case, increasing the profile by 0 scale combined with its reduction by 7th.
If the increase social extraversion is associated with an orientation towards external assessment, with a constant need for support from the group, then a decrease in profile by 0 scale usually combined with an increase in it by 3rd.
A decreased need for support from the group and increased autism lead to an increased profile on 0 scale, reducing it by 3rd and often promotion by 8th.
It should be noted that the pronounced increase in profile by 0 scale may also indicate autism and about the unique approach to interpersonal relationships characteristic of schizoid individuals, even in the absence of a peak on 8th scale.
Peak profile at 8th scale when it decreases by 0th also reflects the originality of the approach to interpersonal relationships, which in this case are expressed in extensive, but poorly organized and devoid of adequate emotional contacts.
At profile peaks at 1st And 0 scales we can talk about a limitation in the sphere of communication due to a feeling of somatic distress.
Level reduction 0 scale at profile peak 1st usually indicates a combination of a tendency to present somatic complaints with a pessimistic assessment of prospects and the need to familiarize with such an assessment as wide a circle of people as possible.
Profile level 0 scale at its peak 2nd generally reflects the degree of severity "call reactions" and seeking help.
Lower profile 0 scale reflects the severity of anxiety disorders, an increase - actual depressive tendencies.
Peak combination 4th And 0 scales indicates a limitation of the circle of social contacts and a decrease in the likelihood of antisocial behavior, which is more realistic with a decrease in indicators 0 scale.
0 scale, indirectly reflecting the behavioral characteristics of the system of socialized interaction, has more auxiliary significance for the processes of modeling production activities.
© Sergey Krutov, 2008
© Published with the kind permission of the author
Page 3 of 3
Interpretation of the SMIL (MMPI) test.
The range of indicators ranging from 30 to 70 T determines the normal range. However, experience has shown that the distribution of quantitative indicators in this test is uneven and the so-called “Gaussian curve”, which reflects the patterns of this distribution, is “wrong” in nature. This is manifested by the lack of symmetry of increases and decreases in profile peaks in the normal corridor. In the presence of signs of sharpened personality traits and other deviations from the norm, we much more often observe an increase in test scores. A decrease in profile, as a rule, is quantitatively less pronounced and is more often associated with the test person’s setting to hypernormal responses in the so-called “recessed” profiles (see below). The entire data calculation procedure requires accuracy, precision and attention.
The spread of the SMIL profile indicators starts from 50 T - the “ideal-normative” average profile, corresponding to the theoretical averaged norm. In a narrow corridor of the norm - within 46 - 55 T - profile fluctuations are difficult to interpret, since they do not reveal sufficiently pronounced individual personality properties and are characteristic of a completely balanced personality (if the reliability scales do not show a pronounced attitude towards lying - a high scale "L" - or lack of frankness - high "K" scale). In a wide norm corridor (from 30 to 70 T) in the norm profile, each tendency is opposed by an “anti-tendency” that is opposite in direction, and feelings and behavior are subject to the control of consciousness (or emotions are so moderate that minimal control over them is quite sufficient). Increases ranging from 56 to 66 T reveal those leading trends that determine the characterological characteristics of the individual. Higher indicators of different basic scales (67-75 T) highlight those accentuated features that at times complicate a person’s socio-psychological adaptation. Indicators above 75 T indicate impaired adaptation and a deviation of the individual’s state from normal. These may be psychopathic character traits, a state of stress caused by an extreme situation, neurotic disorders and, finally, psychopathology, the presence of which can only be judged by a pathopsychologist or psychiatrist based on the totality of data from psychodiagnostic, experimental psychological and clinical research.
The analysis of the results obtained is based not on studying the meaning of the subject’s answers, but on a statistical procedure for calculating data, during which the quantitative dispersion of different answer options is revealed in relation, on the one hand, to the average normative average, and on the other, to the pathological sharpness of the psychological factor, which represents one or another individual-personal tendency. Most of the statements sound so that the subject, when answering, does not always understand how this characterizes him, which significantly complicates the desire to “improve” or “worse” the results of the examination. At first glance, the technique allows us to outline the subjective internal picture of the “I” of the person being examined. In reality, thanks to the partly projective sound of many statements, the experiment also reveals those psychological aspects that are not realized by a person or are only partially amenable to the control of consciousness. Therefore, only with statistically unreliable data is the personality profile distorted so much that it makes no sense to interpret it. Within the framework of reliable data, even in the presence of trends that partially influence the strengthening or smoothing of the profile pattern, the interpretation reflects a picture of the personality that is close to the true one. At the same time, a very differentiated gradation of the degree of expression of different personal characteristics in their complex combination is possible, when not only high indicators are taken into account, but also their relationship with low indicators.
At the same time, a deviation from the average normative indicators, more than twice the mean square error, reveals an excessive degree of expression of a particular personality trait, taking it beyond a fairly wide (from 30 to 70 standard T points) corridor of normative variation. Such data, as already mentioned, do not necessarily indicate pathology.
A difficult life situation, traumatic events, physical illness - all this can cause a state of temporary maladjustment. Therefore, the interpretation of the data obtained must be carried out in accordance with all the information available about the subject, not to mention the fact that for an adequate idea of the subject it does not hurt to look at him. “Blind” interpretation can only be used for research purposes, when the reliability of the methodology is checked, as well as in large-scale surveys, when not the personality of an individual person is interpreted, but some generalized trends of large groups.
The person being tested may claim certain information about the test results. Sometimes such an interview carries psychotherapeutic or recommendatory content. If this happens, then the experimental psychologist or consultant is obliged first of all to respect the interests of the person being examined and never interpret the survey data to his detriment, since the role of the psychologist in society mainly comes down to protecting the person in every sense of the word. If this rule is violated, people will lose confidence in the psychologist and further psychological research will become impossible. The rest follows from this: the interpretation of the data obtained should be carried out from the standpoint of a psychotherapeutic, gentle approach. Each individual personal property usually carries both positive and negative information. Therefore, it is always possible to start an interview by highlighting positive characteristics, and then, against this background, highlight those characteristics and personality traits that create certain difficulties and negatively affect a person’s fate. But this should be done carefully and precisely in the style that is optimal for a given individual: you should pay attention to those recommendations for a correctional approach that are given below, depending on the characteristics of the profile.
Results.
Types of SMIL profiles
The profile is called “linear” if all its indicators are between 45 and 55 T. This profile is most often found in individuals classified as concordant norms, i.e. in harmonious personalities.
The “recessed” profile differs from the linear one in that the indicators of most scales are below 45 T, and a number of others are no higher than 50 T. This profile is most often the result of an attitude towards the testing procedure and is accompanied by high indicators of the L and K reliability scales at low F .
The “borderline” profile reaches 70 - 75 T with its highest points, and the rest of the scales for the most part are not lower than 54 T.
A profile is called “peaked” when, along with the majority of scales that are at the same level, one, two or three are located significantly higher than the others (by 15 - 20 T or more). Depending on the number of such contrasting “peaks,” the profile is called one-, two-, or three-phase. If the rise is significantly expressed on one or two scales spaced from each other, but on others it is little expressed or absent at all, then the profile is characterized as “widely scattered” (for example, 1st and 8th). If the profile peaks exceed 80T, then it is a “high” profile. If the majority (at least 7) of the profile scales are significantly elevated and there are no scales whose indicators are below 55 T (except, in extreme cases, one), then such a profile is called “floating”. The criteria for identifying signs of a floating profile are as follows: F is between 65 and 90 T, each of the scales - 1, 2, 3, 7 and 8 - is above 70, the rest are 56 T and above. This profile indicates severe stress and personality maladjustment.
The “convex” profile is raised in the center and has a gentle slope at the edges.
The “deep” profile is raised on the first and last scales with a relative decrease in the central part.
A profile with many peaks accompanied by accompanying unsharp decreases (7-10 T) of adjacent, contrasting scales is called a “sawtooth”. The slope of the profile shows which part of the profile is located higher.
A “neurotic” or profile with a negative slope is a profile with a rise on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd scales (scales of the neurotic triad); it may be accompanied by a second peak on the 7th and 8th scales. A positive slope is manifested by an increase in the 4th, 6th, 8th and 9th scales, which reflect a high risk of behavioral reactions and were not sufficiently justifiably called psychotic tetrad scales (they are more legitimately called behavioral tetrad scales). Increasing the profile on two adjacent scales produces a double peak. Thus, double peaks 21 (two-one) and 78 (seven-eight) are often found.
A number of profile features were noted, reflecting a certain attitude of the subject towards testing. With a pronounced tendency to avoid frankness and to bring answers as close as possible to the norm, a recessed profile is obtained. During aggravation, i.e. a clear exaggeration of the severity of existing problems and one’s condition, a highly positioned jagged profile is formed. If a subject, trying to understand how the technique works and influence the results, answers “wrong” to almost all statements, then the profile turns out flat, (smoothed) on the 4th, 6th and 8th scales, but inflated on 1 1st and 3rd scales. Conversely, if the majority of statements are answered “true,” then a profile with high peaks on the F, 6, and 8 scales is obtained.
Validity scales
One of the very important advantages of the methodology is the presence in its structure of rating scales, or, as they are more often called, reliability scales, which determine the reliability of the data obtained and the attitude of the subjects regarding the examination procedure. This is the “lie” scale - L, the “reliability” scale - F and the “correction” scale - K. In addition, there is a scale indicated by a question mark - “?”. Scale "?" records the number of statements to which the subject could not give a definite answer; in this case, the scale indicator “?” significant if it exceeds 26 raw points, because the number 26 corresponds to the number of statements removed from the calculation, accompanied in the booklet by the remark - “The number of this statement should be circled.” If the scale indicator is “?” above 70 raw points, the test data is unreliable. The total figure is within 36 - 40 s.b. acceptable; results from 41 to 60 s.b. indicate the expressed wariness and lack of frankness of the subject.
Correct presentation of the technique and a preliminary conversation between the psychologist and the subject significantly reduces mistrust and secrecy, which are reflected in the increase in insignificant answers. The "L" scale includes those statements that reveal the subject's tendency to present himself in the most favorable light possible, demonstrating very strict adherence to social norms. High scores on the “L” scale (70 T and above), i.e. more than 10 s.b., indicate a deliberate desire to embellish oneself, “to show oneself in the best light,” denying the presence in one’s behavior of weaknesses inherent in any person - the ability to be angry at least sometimes or even a little, to be lazy, to neglect diligence, strictness of manners, truthfulness , neatness in the most minimal sizes and in the most forgivable situation. In this case, the profile appears smoothed, lowered or recessed. Most of all, high indicators of the L scale affect the underestimation of the 4th, 6th, 7th and 8th scales. An increase in the L scale within the range of 60 - 69 T is often found in people of a primitive mental make-up with insufficient self-understanding and low adaptive capabilities. In individuals with a high level of education and culture, profile distortions due to an increase in the L scale are rare. A moderate increase in L - up to 60 T is observed in old age normally as a reflection of age-related personality changes towards increased normative behavior.
Low scores on the L scale (0 - 2 s.b.) indicate the absence of a tendency to embellish one’s character. The profile is unreliable if L is 70 T and higher. Retesting is required after an additional conversation with the subject.
Another scale that allows you to judge the reliability of the results obtained is the F reliability scale. High scores on this scale may cast doubt on the reliability of the examination if the F scores are above 80 T (for this scale, the upper limit of the norm is 10 T higher than for other scales). The reasons may be different: excessive anxiety at the time of the examination, which affected the performance and correct understanding of statements; negligence in recording responses; the desire to slander oneself, to stun the psychologist with the uniqueness of one’s personality, to emphasize the defects of one’s character; a tendency to dramatize existing circumstances and one’s attitude towards them; an attempt to portray another, fictitious person; decreased performance due to fatigue or illness. Some increase in F may be the result of excessive diligence with pronounced self-criticism and frankness. In individuals who are more or less disharmonious and in a state of discomfort, F may be at the level of 65 - 75T, which reflects emotional instability. High F, accompanied by an increase in the profile on the 4th, 6th, 8th and 9th scales, is found in individuals prone to affective reactions and with low conformity. However, indicators above 80 T, as a rule, reflect a high level of emotional tension, which can be associated with both severe stress and neuropsychic disorders of a different nature. In practice, there are often profiles that, despite the high F (up to 90 T), according to objective observation and the results of other methods, still reflect the real-life experiences of the subject. In the context of the totality of available data, they may be considered as information worthy of serious consideration, but when statistically processing and deriving average results of the study group, these profiles should not be included.
Indicators of the K correction scale are moderately increased (55 - 60 T) with a person’s natural defensive reaction to an attempt to invade the world of his innermost experiences, i.e. with good control over emotions. A significant increase (above 65 T) indicates a lack of frankness, a desire to hide character defects and the presence of any problems and conflicts. High K indices positively correlate with the presence of defensive reactions of the repression type. A profile with a high K (66 T and above) is often accompanied by an increased indicator on the 3rd scale and recessed 4th, 7th and 8th. Such a profile indicates that the subject did not want to talk about himself openly and demonstrates only his sociability and desire to make a pleasant impression. Due to the fact that the K scale registers intentionally hidden or unconsciously repressed psychological problems (emotional tension, antisocial tendencies and non-conformity of attitudes), a certain part of the indicator of this scale (as already described in more detail above) is added to the raw scores of some of the scales most dependent on it : 0.5 - to the 1st scale, 0.4 - to the 4th, 0.2 - to the 9th and 1.0 K each (the entire value of K as a whole) - to the 7th and 8th scales.
Low scores on the K scale are usually observed with elevated and high F and reflect frankness and self-criticism. Reduced K is typical for people with low intelligence, but can also be associated with a decrease in self-control with excessive emotional tension and personal disintegration. A good guideline for assessing the reliability of the profile and identifying the subject’s attitude towards the testing procedure, in addition to the specified criteria, is the “F-K” factor, i.e. the difference between the raw results of these scales. On average, its value in harmonious individuals ranges from +6 to -6. If the difference F-K = +7... +11, then during the examination the subject has a vaguely expressed tendency to emphasize existing problems, to dramatize his difficulties, to aggravate his state. If F-K = from -7 to -11, then a negative attitude towards testing, closedness, and lack of frankness is revealed.
The value (F-K) in raw points exceeding ± 11 in one direction or another casts doubt on the reliability of the data obtained, which at least should be considered through the prism of the identified installation
Profile coding (according to Welsh and Hathaway).
In addition to the graphical representation of the profile in everyday practical work and when presenting material in publications, it is convenient to describe profiles in encoded form, which requires knowledge of the coding rules. The Welsh coding method most accurately reflects the profile features. In this case, all basic scales are written according to their serial number in such a sequence that the highest scale is in first place, then the rest as they decrease. To show their place on the graph in accordance with the T-score scale, you need to put the following signs:
Separate the numbers of scales located at the level of 120T and above with the sign “!! ",
- scales following them, but located below 120, but above 110T, are separated from the rest with a “!” sign,
- scales located in the profile below 110, but above 100 T with the sign “**”,
- scales located below 100, but above 90 T - “*”,
- scales located below 90, but above 80 T - “ ” “,
- scales located below 80, but above 70 T - “ ’ “,
- scales located below 70, but above 60 T - “ - “,
- scales located below 60, but above 50 T - “ / “,
- scales located below 50, but above 40 T - “: “,
- scales located below 40, but above 30 T - with the “#” sign.
The same principle of notation for confidence scales. For example, a profile 2*3 4”187'0 - 6/5:9FK/L encoded in this way means that the leading peak on the 2nd scale is located above 90T, the 3rd and 4th scales are located above 80T and are at the same level (this is indicated by the line under the designations of these scales in the code), the 1st, 8th and 7th scales are located above 70T, of which the 1st is the highest located, then 8- me and 7th; 0th scale - above 60T, 6th above 50T, 5th - above 40T, 9th - above 30T, F is above K and L and is located above 60T /but up to 70T/, K is above 50T, and L - below 50T, but above 40T.
The Hathaway coding method is much more concise and simpler. Scales located in the 45-55T zone are not recorded at all, instead a dash “-” is placed; scales located above 70T are separated by an apostrophe “`”, followed by scales located in the zone 55-69T and above; then, after the “/” sign, the scales located below 45T are written down; indicators of reliability scales are given in raw points sequentially, respectively L:F:K separated by a colon, while an “X” is placed in front of a number of reliability scales if the profile is unreliable for at least one of them.
Thus, the profile described above, encoded according to Welsh in the form 2*34”187’-6/5:9FК/L when encoded according to Hathaway looks like this: 234187’0 - /59Х5:17:13
Coding is useful for briefly describing a profile, as well as for more clearly and quickly dividing material into typologically or clinically similar groups. Coding helps to identify the most common characteristics and patterns in the group being studied.
Interpretation based on the main scales of the SMPI test (MMPI) and their combinations.
Profile analysis can go in different ways. The most primitive approach usually comes down to a sequential interpretation of each scale, i.e. "from left to right". Such an interpretation is fraught with contradictions and does not create a holistic image of the personality and its problems, even if contrasting depressions are taken into account. At the same time, the following problem can be perplexing: for example, one of the highly located scales reveals high achievement motivation and a spontaneous, sthenic style of interpersonal interaction, while the other, opposite in value, is located significantly (at least 6T) lower, but in in absolute terms, it is significantly increased in relation to the average normative data. In this case, some interpreters highlight the content of the first of the scales, leveling the meaning of the second, while others interpret first one, then the other. In the first version, the profile remains undeciphered and the interpretation is incomplete. The second option gives conflicting information, as if two different people are being described. Therefore, when interpreting, a holistic approach must be followed, assessing the overall configuration of the profile in the context of the relationship of confidence scales with the height of not only leading peaks, but also contrasting depressions, both absolute and relative. From this point of view, the “top-down” interpretation deserves attention, considering the scales according to the degree of their significance, based on the “height” of the indicators. For this interpretation, it is quite enough to focus on the profile code; however, such an interpretation sounds more like an assessment of the accentuated character traits and the degree of adaptation of the person being examined, leaving in the shadows the nuances of characterological interpretation, since the complex relationships of scales that find themselves in the “corridor of the norm” fall out of the interpretation, although this information is of great importance for understanding compensatory mechanisms and hidden reserves of personality.
Next, we will touch upon those substantive and quantitative characteristics of individual scales and their complex relationships with other profile scales. As mentioned above, each of the main profile scales reveals certain personality traits if this scale is the only prevailing peak in the profile, located within the normative range. Higher indicators reveal a reaction to an unfavorable situation or a state of maladaptation - depending on the height of the profile, but in both cases we are talking about leading individual personal tendencies.
The scales are generally divided into four groups: 1. “Strong” register scales, revealing sthenic personality traits; these are the 4th, 6th and 9th scales.2. Scales of the “weak” register, reflecting hyposthenic traits - 2nd, 7th and 0th scale.3. Scales of “mixed” type of response - 1st and 3rd scales.4. The 5th and 8th scales stand apart, of which the increased 5th in men and decreased in women softens the sthenic characteristics, and the increased 8th in both of them enhances individualism.
More on this later, when discussing the holistic interpretation of the profile.
Next, we will consider the meanings of the basic scales in their sequence, paying special attention to the fate-realizing tendencies implicit in them.
1st scale
The 1st scale, according to the leading, core feature embedded in it, is designated as the “over-control” scale. Being the leading peak (60-69T) in a profile in which the remaining scales are at the level of 45-55 T, it reveals a motivational focus on meeting normative criteria both in the social environment and in the sphere of physiological functions of one’s body. The main problem of this type of personality is the suppression of spontaneity (i.e., ease, spontaneity of reactions), inhibition of active self-realization, control of aggressiveness, hypersocial orientation of interests, orientation to rules, instructions, directions; inertia in decision making, over-responsibility, combined with a tendency to avoid serious responsibility for fear of failure. The style of thinking is inert, dogmatic, relying on existing common points of view, rules and instructions. This cognitive style is devoid of freedom, independence and looseness. The basis for knowledge of the surrounding world for people of this type are ready-made generally accepted clichés. In interpersonal relationships - high demands on both oneself and others in terms of compliance with the moral criteria of society. Stinginess of emotional manifestations, caution, prudence. The emotional sphere is distinguished by a contradictory clash of restraint and irritability, which creates a mixed type of reaction characteristic of persons with a psychosomatic predisposition, i.e. with a tendency to transform emotional tension into painful reactions of the whole organism or individual organs (gastrointestinal tract, autonomic nervous system, cardiovascular activity). The hypersociality of attitudes looks like a “facade” trying to hide the grumpiness, irritability, and edifying intonations of an individual who does not give himself the freedom to fulfill his desires, attributing them to human weaknesses, while condemning others who allow themselves to realize their own desires contrary to the permitted normative rules. The characterological prototype of this personality variant in literature is Chekhov’s Belikov (“Man in a Case”), who was distinguished, on the one hand, by conformity and diligence, on the other, by hypocrisy and “boringness.” His favorite expression - “No matter what happens” - gives a figurative idea of the essence of this person. He takes particular pleasure in proclaiming well-known truths: “The Volga flows into the Caspian Sea”, “An island is a piece of land surrounded on all sides by water.” He is dogmatically committed to established principles and does not trust the vicissitudes of the weather: he wears dark glasses and galoshes, takes with him “just in case” an umbrella and a hat to cover his ears, providing options for both sunny, rainy or windy weather. Belikov could not bear the test of life and died of grief when he fell in love with a woman who could easily violate the style of behavior that was considered generally accepted in a small town full of prejudices. For an individual with a SMIL profile, in which the 1st scale is above 65 T, it significantly prevails over others and determines the accentuation of character according to the type of sensitive-anxious (suspicious) personality, the fate of which in its main aspects is based on the choice of a profession that allows one to realize a dogmatic way of thinking , adherence to instructions and firm rules, loneliness as a tribute to increased demands on others, a highly moral (or pseudo-moral) lifestyle with a pronounced tendency to suppress pressing needs. Representing a mixed type of response, scale 1 reveals a predisposition to the psychosomatic variant of maladjustment. Increased data on the 1st scale indicates an individual’s propensity for professional activities in which such qualities as diligence, the ability to obey the established order and follow certain instructions and directives, the ability to restrain the inherent weaknesses of a person, and resist temptations are appropriate and necessary. This is an office type of employee, a conscientious official, this is also a security service, labor protection, personnel service in the army. Such features are also found among clergy, missionary helpers (as opposed to missionary leaders or fans), and also as one of the features in the personality structure of a teacher, formed under the influence of social orders over many previous decades in our country. With excessive emotional tension (scale indicator above 75 T), difficult adaptation is manifested by an increased focus on deviations from the norm, both in terms of interpersonal relationships, where people in this circle are irritated by the irresponsibility and insufficient morality of the actions of others in their opinion, and in the sphere of well-being, where excessive attention to the functions of one’s own body can develop into hypochondriasis. An illustration of the fact that it is certain basic individual personal characteristics that underlie the formation of hypochondriacal manifestations is the following example: everyone who has come into contact with the lifestyle of athletes knows that both coaches and doctors force them to be attentive to their well-being, weight, sleep, routine nutrition. However, the profiles of athletes usually have a low 1st scale, since their attention to their own health is associated with the attitudes of coaches and doctors, and is not a natural quality. In the structure of neurotic disorders or within the framework of neurosis-like pathology, high scores on scale 1 (above 70 T) reveal hypochondriacal symptoms. The combination of scales 1 and 2 is typical for aging men and is alarming in terms of predisposition to gastroenterological diseases. In particular, this profile indicates the possibility of developing a stomach ulcer. At the same time, not only hypochondriasis is manifested, but also such personal traits as dogmatism, hypocrisy are strengthened, thinking becomes more inert, caution, didacticism, and edifying tone are more pronounced in interpersonal contacts.
The 1st scale in the structure of the neurotic triad 213’ reveals a defense mechanism of the “flight into illness” type, while illness (explicit or imaginary) is a screen that masks the desire to shift responsibility for existing problems onto others as the only socially acceptable way to justify one’s passivity.
In the profiles of patients in therapeutic clinics and outpatient clinics, high scores on scale 1 reveal signs of hospitalism (the desire for long-term repeated hospital stays) and hypochondriacal personality development. The psychotherapeutic flexibility of individuals of this type, due to the inertia of their attitudes, is extremely low: they are constantly looking for help, but are rarely satisfied, continuing their search for a miraculous healer. Moving from one doctor to another, they carefully preserve old prescriptions and treatment regimens, carry with them a detailed list of all their ailments, and study the available medical literature. Normally, profile code 12 (read one or two) is more common in older men, and profile type 13 (one to three) is quite common among women over 50 years of age.
When interpreting the profile, it should be borne in mind that the psychological properties of the 3rd scale largely overshadow and absorb the characteristics of the 1st if the scales are at the same level; this is even more evident if the 3rd scale is higher than the 1st. Therefore, instead of emotional restraint and emphasized modesty in behavior when drawing a 12'-/ profile, the interpretation of a 13'-/ profile will indicate the presence of such properties as emotional lability and demonstrativeness.
When indicators of the 1st scale prevail over the 3rd, a passive attitude towards conflict, avoidance of solving problems, and self-centeredness, masked by a declaration of hypersocial attitudes, are revealed. As a rule, these are people who suffered in childhood from a lack of emotional warmth from loved ones and only during periods associated with any illness were they surrounded by attention, which contributed to the consolidation of the mechanism of protection from problems by “going into illness.” The presence of such a defense mechanism indicates emotional immaturity, which is especially obvious in the structure of experiences of a neurotic personality, when the compensating role of the defense mechanism develops into a stable non-constructive style of experience, reducing the level of free-floating anxiety, but leaving quite pronounced emotional tension.
In the behavior of individuals of this type, the fight against illness is essentially transformed into a fight for the right to be considered sick, since the status of a sick person for them (usually unconsciously) represents something like an alibi in relation to the feeling of guilt for insufficient social activity. Hence the often arising “rental” attitude towards one’s illness, i.e. the desire to be more socially protected and supported as a chronically ill person by various public institutions (medical, trade union, social security) or family members. The contingent of patients in psychiatric clinics with a leading 8th scale in the profile is characterized by pronounced hypochondriasis. At the same time, it is impossible to exclude senestopathy, that is, deceptions of perception associated with serious mental disorders. However, in terms of the style of interpersonal communication, patients of this kind are distinguished by greater sociability, adherence to generally accepted norms of behavior and stinginess of emotions. Thus, the 1st scale, both in normal conditions and in mental disorders, carries the core tendency of a sensitive-anxious hypersocial personality.
In general, in individuals of this type, in all their life’s vicissitudes, a fateful thread is visible, manifested by dissatisfaction with the imperfection of people and the moral laws by which they are guided, as well as their own duality: as between Scylla and Charybdis, the soul cannot simultaneously realize two polar needs: 1st - to remain within the framework of the hypersocial and moral demands placed on oneself and others, 2nd - to achieve success and respect (which is a universal human need). The most successful social role is that of a zealous enforcer of laws, a keeper of traditions, a guardian of morality, protecting others from risky actions.
2nd scale
2nd scale - “pessimistic” scale. It belongs to the group of scales of the hypothymic, hyposthenic circle, characteristic of a weak type of higher nervous activity. As a leading peak in a profile that does not go beyond the norm, it reveals the predominance of a passive personal position. The leading motivational focus is avoiding failure. Individuals of this type are characterized by the following features: a high level of awareness of existing problems through the prism of dissatisfaction and a pessimistic assessment of their prospects; a tendency to think, inertia in decision making, a pronounced depth of experience, an analytical mind, skepticism, self-criticism, some lack of confidence in oneself and one’s capabilities. Individuals whose profiles are accentuated on the 2nd scale (“melancholic” according to Gannushkin, inhibited according to Leonhard and Lichko, “sad people” according to Dikaya, “pessimistic” according to the typology of the author of the manual) are capable of refusing to realize immediate needs for the sake of distant plans. In order to avoid conflict with the social environment, egocentric tendencies are inhibited due to increased control of consciousness. The style of interpersonal behavior is manifested by features of dependence, which are most noticeable in contacts with an authoritative person and with the object of affection; at the same time, distance and a painfully acute sense of self-esteem can be heard at the same time (especially when combining peaks on the 2nd and 4th profile scales). Affiliative need, i.e. the need for understanding, love, and a friendly attitude towards oneself is one of the leading needs, never fully saturated and at the same time, primarily frustrated, which largely determines the zone of psychotraumatic influence. The style of thinking is verbal: the perception, processing and reproduction of information is based on the word, a semantic basis, and meaningful analysis. This cognitive style is formed later in comparison with the visual-figurative and intuitive types of perception and is the most complex cognitive style. Being emotional idealists, individuals in this circle represent Szondi's unreal irrational personality type. Under stress, there is a tendency to stop reactions, i.e. to blocking activity, or driven behavior, subordination to the leading personality. The defense mechanism is refusal of self-realization and strengthening of consciousness control. Correction of behavior under stress should be aimed at increasing self-esteem and self-confidence and manifest itself as encouragement and support. In professional terms, there is a need for such types of activities that are closer to the “office” style of work in the humanitarian or general theoretical (with sufficiently high intelligence) direction, where a serious, thoughtful attitude to the work performed is especially important. A peak on the 2nd scale, reaching a level of 70 -75 T, reveals accentuation of the hypothymic (hyposthenic) type. High scores on the 2nd scale may be associated with a situation of severe disappointment after an experienced failure or in connection with a disease that disrupts the normal course of life and long-term plans of a person. This profile outlines a certain state, at least a depressive reaction within the framework of the adaptation syndrome. However, this is only a quantitative aspect that reveals the characteristics of not only a psychogenically provoked state, but also provides for the predisposition of a given individual to such reactions in a situation of stress. Depression is the most common anthropotypical (i.e., inherent in man and humanity) reaction to distress. However, with a pronounced sthenic (or hypersthenic) type of reaction (the leading scales in the profile are 9th and 4th), even in a situation of severe stress, such as, for example, a forensic investigative situation with a very pessimistic perspective, we noted absence of depression as such. On the contrary, anxious anticipation of the outcome of the situation and social deprivation caused protest reactions with exaltation, bravado, and active self-affirmation in individuals of the hyperthymic type.
Experience shows that the depressive type of reaction is not at all a universal and strictly obligatory reaction to psychotrauma and develops only on the basis of a certain predisposition. Therefore, a rise in the profile on the 2nd scale above 70 T reveals in the subject not only a low mood due to negative experiences, but also certain personal characteristics: a tendency to acutely experience failures, to worry, to an increased sense of guilt with a self-critical attitude towards one’s shortcomings, with self-doubt.
These features are aggravated in the 270"-/9 type profile, characteristic of persons with an accentuation of the inhibited type, with anxious and suspicious features. In the eternal conflict between egocentric and altruistic tendencies, representatives of this group of people give preference to the latter. By refusing self-realization, the confrontation of these contradictory tendencies is excluded and the risk of a conflict with the environment is reduced. If an increase on the 1st scale means an unconscious, repressed refusal of self-actualization, then an increase on the 2nd reveals conscious self-control, when unrealized intentions - due to external circumstances or internal reasons - are reflected in a low mood as the result of a deficiency or loss. At the same time, individuals in this circle can show sufficient activity, following the leader, as the most conforming and socially pliable group. A moderate increase in the 2nd scale with the onset of adulthood is considered as a natural “acquired skepticism”, a wiser attitude to life’s problems, as opposed to the carelessness and optimism of youth, which is characterized by relatively lower scores on the 2nd and high scores on the 9th (the “optimism” scale).
A simultaneous increase in the 2nd and 9th scales reflects a tendency to mood swings, a cyclothymic personality variant or cyclothymia. A profile like 24"-/9 should be alarming in terms of increased suicidal risk (S-risk), since in addition to the characteristics of the 2nd scale there is a decrease in the level of love of life and optimism (determined by the 9th scale) and increased impulsivity (4th scale) .
Individuals with a moderate rise on the 2nd scale as a dominant peak are fertile ground for both individual and group psychotherapy.
Of all the typological options, persons with the 2nd scale predominant in the SMIL profile are distinguished by the greatest vulnerability in relation to life’s adversities, the desire to comprehend and “slow down” their own immediate impulses, to avoid confrontation with the cruel laws of real life due to a pessimistic assessment of their capabilities in life. countering the sterile attitudes of others. The pattern (structure, drawing) of a given personality is such that the fate-realizing tendency bears the imprint of a certain passivity, and circumstances can dominate the character. Apparently, therefore, this type is characterized by fatalism, i.e. the tendency to rely on how everything “works out by itself,” “where the curve will take you,” and “how lucky you are,” rather than trying to influence fate yourself. These are passion-bearers: without realizing it themselves, they revel in the role of the victim, meekly bearing his cross. (Type “2” should be distinguished from senile passivity acquired over the years). By refusing to fulfill immediate egoistic needs, type “2” individuals hope to thereby solve distant problems and form a base of spiritual values. Unfulfilled needs are sublimated and manifested by general humanistic tendencies. Personal aspects of life are determined by their desire to preserve the family; persons of this circle get married, focusing on the similarity of characters or agreeing to a dependent position; show pronounced responsibility for children and react painfully to separation from loved ones. Among individuals of this type there are more monogamous people. If there is a social niche corresponding to their personal inclinations, they successfully realize their abilities, while showing emphasized responsibility. Even in a criminal environment, they are able to perform only the most honest and driven roles (treasurer or “on lookout”). They say about such people that they “have the fear of God in their souls”; They are more likely than others to be capable of altruistic manifestations. This does not mean that they do not have selfish aspirations, but the fear of inconsistency with their own idea of the ideal “I” and low resistance to stress form a pronounced “Super-Ego”. However, this is just the shell of a snail hiding in its shell. If at the same time there is a low level of intellectual capabilities, then the personality is little noticeable. However, such people also have “their own genre in their soul,” it is only hidden from prying eyes. If these are people with high intelligence, then, without wasting their time on everyday trifles, they gravitate towards serious generalizations. The social role of such individuals is the formation of humane ideas and liberal tendencies in the quiet of their offices (which is often used for their own purposes by staid pragmatists). Among them are those philosophers who are either approached or punished by those in power, depending on whether these ideas are beneficial or dangerous for them. They themselves do not enter into power of their own free will, but the aura of “holiness” flatters them.
3rd scale
The 3rd scale is called the “emotional lability” scale. An increase in profile on this scale reveals the instability of emotions and a conflicting combination of multidirectional tendencies: a high level of aspirations is combined with the need to participate in the interests of the group, selfishness - with altruistic declarations, aggressiveness - with the desire to please others. Persons with the leading 3rd scale are distinguished by a certain demonstrativeness, brightness of emotional manifestations with some superficiality of experiences, instability of self-esteem, which is significantly influenced by a significant environment; They are distinguished by a conviction in the identity of their “I” to the declared ideals, a certain “childishness”, immaturity of attitudes and judgments. The type of perception, processing and reproduction of information is visual-figurative, sensory, artistic. Personalities of this type think in holistic images that have shape, color and emotional overtones. This is the most direct type of thinking characteristic of the early period of development; it is where a child begins to comprehend the world around him. Remaining a basic characteristic, emotional lability manifests itself as a leading tendency, giving the type of thinking a visual-figurative, sensual style.
The predominance of emotions over rationality with a pronounced realistic life platform allows us to attribute this personality variant to the irrational realistic type according to Szondi. There is a pronounced ability to easily adapt to various social roles. Artistic postures, facial expressions and gestures attract the attention of others, which serves as a stimulating factor that excites and flatters their vanity. The 3rd scale correlates with the hy factor according to Szondi, in which hy+ and hy- represent multidirectional qualities - exhibitionism and shyness. Persons with the leading 3rd scale have tropism (attraction) to types of professional activities in which the need for communication and the experience of vivid feelings is satisfied. Personalities of this type need the opportunity to demonstrate themselves; increased emotivity, a pronounced tendency to transform, demonstrative traits, the need for involvement in the general mood of others creates favorable soil for self-determination in the field of artistic activity, where these properties are quite appropriate, in pedagogy or in the field of social activity, where these qualities can be a good addition to provided that there is sufficiently high intelligence and a mature civic platform. These personal characteristics can also find application in working conditions in the service sector, in amateur performances, as well as as a variant of a professional manager in production, in administrative work or in the officer personnel service, since these people are able to both obey and command, easily passing from one social role to another. Sensitivity to external effects and the need for immediate social encouragement in individuals of this type can be successfully used as leverage when trying to control their behavior by a manager, taking into account the importance for them of the opinion of the reference group. A profile with a leading 3rd scale (70 T and above) reveals an accentuation of the hysteroid type, in which the above features are sharpened. Signs of emotional immaturity are revealed that are more characteristic of a female type of behavior with a certain infantilism, affectation, and dependent tendencies. Despite their pronounced egocentrism and tendency to feel sorry for themselves, these individuals strive to level out the conflict and attach great importance to family status.
Individuals with a high 3rd scale (above 75 T) are characterized by increased nervousness, tearfulness, excessive dramatization of ongoing events, and a tendency to narrow consciousness, even to the point of fainting. In a situation of stress, individuals with a high 3rd scale in their profile are characterized by pronounced vegetative reactions. Defense mechanisms manifest themselves in two ways: 1) displacement from consciousness of that negative information that is conflict-provoking or damages the reputation of the individual, the subjective image of one’s own “I”; 2) psychological anxiety is transformed at the organismal (biological) level into functional disorders. These mechanisms, complementing each other, create the ground for psychosomatic disorders, that is, physical diseases that develop in close connection with negative emotional experiences. Finally, the 3rd option for relieving increased anxiety is to respond externally, dramatize experiences, and demonstrate demonstrative emotional reactions.
Separately, clinical manifestations of hysterical neurosis should be highlighted. They are reflected in the SMIL profile in the form of the so-called conversion five (meaning the Roman numeral V). The profile is characterized by a combination of high 1st and 3rd with a relatively low 2nd. The term “conversion” in this case means the translation of emotional tension into somatic (physical) disorders. In response to an unfavorable situation that violates the integrity and congruence of the “I” image, the individual experiences disturbances in the motor sphere, speech activity, auditory or visual sensitivity. Moreover, these disorders bear the imprint of conditional “desirability” due to the subjective impossibility of resolving the conflict in a constructive way. The properties inherent in the 3rd scale come to the fore, absorbing to a large extent the characteristics of the 1st scale. An example of conversion symptoms can be false mutism (muteness that developed in a situation of interpersonal conflict), astasia-abasia (loss of balance leading to the inability to stand and move on one’s feet), not associated with organic damage to the cerebellar structures of the brain, writer’s cramp leading to loss of disability due to cramps of the fingers and not accompanied by neurological pathology. Due to the absence of a visible, physiologically diagnosable pathology, hysteria was once dubbed the “great pretender.” However, in reality, patients with hysteria suffer from these disorders. Repression from consciousness of internal conflict associated with the contradictory structure of motivation occurs unconsciously as a neurotic defense against stress. This is an involuntary mechanism, beyond the control of consciousness. The conditional desirability of developing disorders does not mean that they have true utility.
Absorption by the 3rd scale of characteristics of the 1st does not cancel the orientation towards social norms, which only mask the egocentric tendencies of the individual, and the transformation of neurotic anxiety into functional somatic disorders to a certain extent serves as a way of gaining a comfortable social position or avoiding responsibility.
The combination of high scores on the 3rd and 4th scales significantly enhances the characteristics of the 3rd, increasing the likelihood of hysterical type behavioral reactions with a tendency to “self-inflate” in conflict situations and with a pronounced desire for emotional involvement. Correcting these reactions is extremely difficult, since despite seeming suggestibility, these individuals are rather “self-suggestible,” i.e. malleable only in relation to what they believe in, what they are subjectively convinced of. Psychological correction often leads to a situation in which either “the tail will be pulled out, but the head will get stuck,” or vice versa. In this regard, the hysterical variant of maladjustment lends itself best to various options of art therapy, that is, direct influence on emotions through art therapy (psychodrama, music therapy, drawing, modeling). In clinically complex cases, hypnosis is most effective, which can only be performed by a doctor. This is due to the fact that hypnosis, influencing the sphere of the subconscious, affects the functions of the rhomboid fossa of the medulla oblongata - the main “conductor” of the most important physiological processes: heart rate, blood pressure level, etc.
Low scores on the 3rd scale (below 50 T) indicate greater emotional stability, reduced sensitivity to environmental influences with a relatively low responsiveness to problems of the social microclimate. This is manifested in an individual’s behavior by a less flexible style of interpersonal interaction, a lack of the necessary “diplomacy” and consonance with the sentiments of the reference group. It would be advisable to return to combinations of this scale with other SMIL scales as you become more familiar with the characteristics of the remaining scales.
The fate-fulfilling characteristics of a person with the leading 3rd scale in the profile are multidirectional, but each of them is strong. These people burn themselves out with their conflicting emotions, seeking to succeed mainly through the help of others, but attributing credit only to themselves. They fill their family life and personal relationships with drama, problems with children become more complicated as they grow and mature, and at work, excess emotions can manifest themselves negatively. Thanks to their pronounced flexibility and sensitivity to the moods of their environment, as well as due to their noticeable vanity, they move up the social ladder in leaps and bounds, reacting painfully to failures and boastfully celebrating the slightest successes. Both the character itself and the fate of such people are diverse, contradictory for an unambiguous assessment, motley with events, contacts and hobbies. Their social role is to stir things up, disturb the peace, energetically call somewhere, but not really lead to any specific goal. In the social arena, more often they are “those who follow the leader,” companions and heralds of the “hero.” Traits of the 3rd scale can accompany the portrait of a public leader as an addition to other characteristics. In politics, these are eloquent populists who easily change their line of behavior out of vanity and their own instability. Cardiovascular problems and general health concerns take up a lot of their attention and time. The problem of “to be or to seem” is solved primarily in favor of the latter by a person of this type.
4th scale
4th scale - “impulsivity”. As a leader in a profile located within the normative range, it reveals an active personal position, high search activity, in the structure of motivational orientation - the predominance of achievement motivation, confidence and speed in decision making. The motive for achieving success here is closely related to the will to realize strong desires, which are not always subject to the control of reason. The less mature the personality before us, the less the norms of behavior instilled in upbringing dominate a person, the greater the risk of spontaneous activity aimed at realizing momentary impulses, contrary to common sense and the interests of the surrounding society. With objective indicators indicating the presence of a sufficiently high intelligence, this emotional pattern reveals an intuitive, heuristic style of thinking. However, with undeveloped or low intelligence, a high 4th scale is typical for people who are emotionally immature, hastily make decisions and act spontaneously, without relying on accumulated experience; thinking can acquire a speculative (not reasoned, not supported by facts) character. Therefore, final conclusions on this factor can be made only based on a combination of different characteristics and taking into account the level of intelligence. People in this circle are characterized by impatience, a penchant for risk, an unstable, often inflated level of aspirations, the level of which has a pronounced dependence on momentary motives and external influences, on success and failure. Behavior is relaxed, spontaneity in the manifestation of feelings, in speech production and in manners. Statements and actions often precede planned and consistent thoughtfulness of actions. The tendency to resist external pressure, the tendency to rely mainly on one’s own opinion, and even more on momentary impulses. A noticeably expressed desire to follow one’s own primitive desires, self-indulgence. Lack of conformity, desire for independence. In a state of emotional capture - the predominance of emotions of anger or admiration, pride or contempt, i.e. pronounced, polar emotions, while control of the intellect does not always play a leading role. In personally significant situations, quickly fading outbreaks of conflict may appear. Interest in activities with pronounced activity (from a young age - physical, over the years - social or antisocial), love for high speeds, and in connection with this - for moving equipment, the desire to choose a job that allows one to avoid subordination, as well as to find use for dominant traits character. Dominance in this context does not necessarily mean leadership ability. Here we are talking mainly about low subordination and emphasized independence, in contrast to leadership, which involves a penchant for organizational functions, the ability to infect others with your ideas and lead them, integrating their actions in accordance with your plans (see interpretation of the 6th scale in combination with 4th). Under stress, individuals with a prevailing 4th scale display an effective, sthenic type of behavior, determination, and masculinity. Persons of this type do not tolerate monotony well, monotony makes them drowsy, and the stereotypical type of activity makes them bored. Imperative methods of influence in relation to these people and an authoritarian tone can encounter noticeable opposition, especially if the leader trying to manipulate the individual does not enjoy the proper authority and does not evoke emotions of respect, admiration or fear in this individual. Defense mechanism - displacement from consciousness of information that is unpleasant or lowers a person’s self-esteem; in contrast to the 3rd scale, repression is more often and more vividly accompanied by a reaction at the behavioral level with critical statements, protest reactions and aggressiveness, which significantly reduces the likelihood of the occurrence of a psychosomatic variant of maladjustment. The mechanism of restraining negative emotions under the strong influence of “rationality,” that is, under the control of consciousness, the role of which is enhanced in socially significant situations, leads in people of this circle to psychosomatic disorders, mainly associated with the cardiovascular activity of the body. This type of response is usually reflected in the profile by a rise on the 2nd scale with a high 4th.
A profile in which the 4th and 6th scales are moderately elevated is characteristic of a personality of a rational realistic type, which is hampered in the implementation of intentions by increased impulsiveness and nonconformism. If the peak on the 4th scale is combined with an increased 3rd, then this is rather an irrational realistic person whose pragmatism is higher than with an isolated peak on the 3rd scale, but low learning experience reduces the effectiveness of the efforts expended. High scores on the 4th scale (above 70T) reveal a hyperthymic (excitable) variant of accentuation, characterized by increased impulsivity. The properties listed above, revealed by an elevated 4th scale in a normal profile, are grotesquely sharpened here and are manifested by difficult self-control. Against the background of good intelligence, such individuals have the ability to take an unconventional approach to solving problems, to moments of creative insight, especially when a person is not dominated by normative dogmas and various kinds of restrictions. Insufficient reliance on experience is compensated by pronounced intuitiveness and speed of reactions. A pronounced tendency towards a creative approach as emotional and personal conditions that are realized with sufficiently high intelligence occurs especially often with a profile of the type “489 - /0 or 48”2 - /17. However, non-conformity manifests itself not only in the peculiarities of thinking, but also in the style of experience, in the tendency to impulsive behavioral reactions, therefore the interpretation of such a profile should be carried out with particular caution. The degree of compliance of the views and behavior of the subject with generally accepted norms, his hierarchy of values, and moral level depend to a large extent on the social environment and the success of the educational measures taken in relation to this individual. Therefore, based only on the data of the SMIL methodology, we cannot categorically state which way the non-conformity of a given individual is realized. It can manifest itself as radicalism and innovation if we have a person who is knowledgeable, erudite, but at the same time striving to overcome generally accepted routine views on a particular phenomenon. Psychophysiologist K.K. Monakhov once expressed the following thought: “In science, at the first moment, any innovation is perceived as hooliganism. Therefore, any pioneer, about to express any new idea for the first time, feels as if he is going to be a bully.” This is very correctly noted. The profile of such individuals is most often distinguished by a fairly high (up to 80 T) 4th scale in combination with an elevated 8th. At the same time, a primitive, needy, immature personality with unjustifiably high ambitions, an individual who has nothing interesting in his soul, a lazy person, unable (or unwilling) to comprehend at least the basics of a general education course, trying to attract the attention of others through negative manifestations, violates the generally accepted style of behavior and neglects the moral principles of his environment. And then his behavior is no longer in quotation marks, but actually looks like hooliganism. The profile of persons in this circle contains high indicators not only of the 4th, but also of the 9th scale, with low values of the 2nd and 7th.
A high peak on the 4th scale (above 75 T) reveals psychopathic traits of the excitable type, pronounced impulsiveness, and conflict. High indicators of the 4th scale enhance the characteristics of concomitant increases in other scales of the sthenic register - 6th, 9th and give features of a behavioral pattern (emphasized independence, conflict) to the indicators of the 3rd and 8th scales. When a high 4th scale is combined with an elevated (or high) 2nd scale, the 2nd scale indicators weaken the aggressiveness, non-conformity and impulsiveness of the 4th scale, since a higher level of consciousness control over behavior is noted here.
Two equally high peaks 2 and 4 reveal an internal conflict rooted in an initially contradictory type of response, which combines multidirectional tendencies - high search activity and the dynamism of excitation processes (4th) and pronounced inertia and instability (2nd). Psychologically, this is manifested by the presence of a contradictory combination of a high level of aspirations with self-doubt, high activity with rapid exhaustion, which is characteristic of the neurasthenic pattern of maladjustment. Under unfavorable social conditions, such a predisposition can serve as a basis for alcoholism or drug addiction, as well as for the development of certain psychosomatic disorders. This profile pattern to a certain extent reflects the traits of “type A” described by Jenkinson, who believes that this emotional-personal pattern represents the basis for the development of cardiovascular failure and a predisposition for early myocardial infarction.
The combination of the 4th scale with the 6th at high rates reveals an explosive (hot-tempered) type of reaction. The height of the peaks in the range of 70-75 T reflects the accentuation of the character according to the explosive type. Higher rates are characteristic of the psychopathic personality profile of the excitable circle with a tendency to impulsive aggressive reactions. If the personal characteristics inherent in a given profile and manifested by a pronounced sense of competition, leadership traits, aggressiveness and stubbornness, are channeled (directed) into the mainstream of socially acceptable activities (for example, sports), then the bearer of these properties can remain sufficiently adapted mainly due to what is optimal for him social niche. In a situation of authoritarian-imperative pressure and other forms of opposition that hurt the self-esteem and prestige of the individual, as well as in aggressive reactions from others, persons with this type of profile easily go beyond the adapted state and give an explosive (explosive) reaction, the degree of controllability of which is determined by indicators scales reflecting inhibited traits (2nd, 7th and 0th scales).
Low scores on the 4th scale indicate a decrease in achievement motivation, a lack of spontaneity, spontaneity of behavior, good self-control, unexpressed ambition, a lack of leadership traits and a desire for independence, adherence to generally accepted norms of behavior, and conformism. In everyday life they often say about such people: “No zest.” If such a decline in the profile on the 4th scale reflects a temporary decrease in the individual’s opposition to the environment, then this may be due to the fact that this individual finds himself in a situation where his “self” is blocked. For example, a person who has just received a new assignment experiences some self-doubt (an incompetence complex) and temporarily changes the strategy of behavior aimed at achieving a goal to a “trench”, wait-and-see policy.
In the clinic of mental illnesses, a high (above 90 T) 4th scale is present in an unreliable, high-lying floating profile along with a high 9th in manic, hebephrenic and heboid syndrome, as well as in a psychopathic picture of the disease. A significant increase in the 4th scale (above 75 T) may be a sign of increasing social maladjustment at the onset of schizophrenia. Often, clinicians mistake confusion and anxiety associated with loss of self-identity and criticality for neurotic anxiety. Timely psychodiagnostic research could well have saved psychiatrists from such a mistake, showing in time the inadequacy of the personality changed by the onset of the disease and the inappropriateness of assessing the condition as a neurotic breakdown. A sharp discrepancy between the indicators of the SMIL profile, reflecting the internal picture of the patient’s condition, and the impressions lying on the surface in such cases is pathognomonic, that is, characteristic of gross mental pathology. That is why it is not recommended to use this technique in acute mental disorders, in cases of non-criticality and reduced intelligence in patients who are unable to adequately describe their experiences and characteristics of the condition. This once again confirms the fact that the SMIL test is more a personal method than a clinical one.
In addition, psychodiagnostic studies using the SMIL test confirm the correctness of the holistic personality concept, in which the leading individual typological tendencies act as a prognostically significant factor that pre-determines the path of maladjustment (locus minoris rezistencia) and the formation of the leading clinical syndrome. This was clearly evident in the study of severe forms of psychogenic disorders. Traditionally, reactive states that develop in situations that are objectively difficult for the individual have been considered by psychiatrists within the framework of reactive depression. The author of this manual discovered reactive states that arose in response to the threat of capital punishment (execution) being applied to them after a crime they had committed. However, the reactive state manifested itself as exaltation, bravado, self-confidence in one’s rightness with active opposition to environmental influence, without a shadow of repentance or regret. According to a psychodiagnostic study, this condition manifested itself as a continuation of the basic leading tendencies of the personality: hyperthymic, impulsive, aggressive, and extroverted. This state was designated as a hyperthymic, exalted type of reactive state. Later, psychiatrists independently came to this conclusion (B.V. Shostakovich, Ya.E. Svirinovsky, Z.S. Gusakova, N.K. Kharitonova), who gave this nosological group the name “pseudomanic reactive states. Further joint research allowed us to come to the following conclusion: within the framework of reactive states provoked by powerful and objectively severe psychotrauma, in addition to the majority of patients exhibiting typical depressive symptoms, from 7 to 11% of people with other, “pseudomanic” symptoms are identified. The premorbid hyperthymic features inherent in these individuals, like grass through asphalt, make their way to the surface and form the basis of clinical manifestations despite the extremely difficult situation and the absence of any prospects to justify an optimistic attitude.
We will return to the role of the 4th scale in the profile in the process of getting acquainted with the interpretation of other scales. It should be borne in mind that its increase always significantly enhances the sthenic and non-conforming tendencies inherent in other scales.
In general, individuals for whom the 4th scale determines the leading tendency are capable of not only actively realizing their own destiny, but also influencing the destinies of other people. However, this property is strongly dependent on how mature and independent of the individual’s momentary mood is the individual’s goal-setting. The passionate desire for self-realization in emotionally immature and intellectually undeveloped people of this type is so dissociated with real possibilities that sometimes it leaves these individuals no other path to self-affirmation other than the antisocial one, starting with a “struggle” with their own parents and school, ending with serious illegal acts. With sufficiently high intelligence, such people are able to achieve more than any other typological options. These are those independent-minded individuals who are able to dare, encroaching on established dogmas and old traditions - whether in the field of knowledge or in social foundations. A “rebellious spirit” can only be destructive (if the foreground is the desire to deny at all costs the usefulness of the existing order and the protrusion of one’s “I”), but it can also be creative if it is a mature personality, a qualified specialist, an intelligent politician. Type “4” is a hostage to its difficult-to-control spontaneity of feelings - be it love, art, scientific or political activity. This tendency inevitably draws a person, like an uncontrollable horse - a rider, either to the heights of triumph, or to the abyss of fall. (I can’t help but remember Vladimir Vysotsky: “A little slower, horses! A little slower!”). At times, the passion of nature, beyond the control of reason, leads a person to the edge of the abyss, and he is unable to do anything to oppose this passion. It often happens that it is precisely such passionate individuals who turn out to be the creators of history, carrying the crowd along with them with the light of their own burning heart. This heroism is not always romantic; it can also be a manifestation of a person’s self-centered intoxication with his special role. In their personal lives, they can appear both as noble romantic knights and as addicted flighty people. They are characterized by an eternal search for novelty, they are unlikely to sin with altruism, but they also take credit for this as a manifestation of sincerity and the absence of hypocrisy. Most often they have remarriages, change jobs several times, like to drink, scold the authorities, conflict with their superiors, remain childish until old age, are not always practical, often inconsistent, but at the same time they are sometimes charming. On this “soil” a personality pattern of a genius, hero, innovator, revolutionary, or a hooligan, anti-hero, extremist can be formed with equal success, but in any case - something far from the average, philistine type of personality.
The need to be proud of oneself and to gain the admiration of others is an urgent need for individuals of this type, otherwise emotions are transformed into anger, contempt and protest. If the life credo of the individual-personal type “2” is based on the philosophical basis of Hegel (self-denial, fatalism, dominance of the ideal over reality), then the philosophical basis of type “4” is Nietzschean (resistance to fate, dominance of the human will).
5th scale
The 5th scale - the “masculinity-femininity” scale - is interpreted differently depending on the gender of the subject. Elevated scores on the 5th scale in any profile mean a deviation from typical role behavior for a given gender and a complication of interpersonal adaptation. Otherwise, the interpretation is polar, depending on whether the profile is female or male to be deciphered. The attention of students working with the methodology should be focused on the fact that the raw indicators of the 5th scale in the male version of the profile sheet are distributed in the same way as on other scales - from bottom to top (from 0 to 50 T), while in the female version of the profile sheet on the sheet they start at the top, going down to maximum values. Here, beginners often make the mistake of marking above 30 raw points, if the indicator on the 5th scale, when calculating using the key of significant answers of a female test subject, is equal to, for example, 34 s.b., while this value is located in the column of raw points of the 5th scale of the female profile sheet below the mark 30 s.b. In the profile of men, an increase on the 5th scale reveals a passive personal position (if other scales do not contradict this), a humanistic orientation of interests, sentimentality, sophistication of taste, artistic and aesthetic orientation, the need for friendly harmonious relationships, sensitivity, vulnerability. This is an irrational, unrealistic personality, characterized by emotional warmth and infantilism (the same for women with a recessed 5th scale). In interpersonal relationships, a tendency to smooth out conflicts and restrain aggressive or antisocial tendencies is revealed even in those profiles where an elevated 5th scale is combined with equally elevated scales of the sthenic register (4th, 6th or 9th). The developers of the MMPI test, when creating the 5th scale, conceived it as an indicator of same-sex relationships. However, in reality, this scale does not always allow one to draw such conclusions. On the contrary, at its core it is an indicator of femininity in character, habits, and interests. Same-sex tendencies represent an irresistible attraction to people of the same sex. But this attraction is not always realized, and, being conscious, it is often suppressed and manifests itself in a sublimated form as an attraction transformed into another type of activity, that is, into socialized activity. One should not confuse true same-sex relationships, which arise on the basis of physiological disharmony, and unnatural attraction, which manifests itself and is consolidated in conditions when the first erotic experiences arise in adolescents due to close contacts in same-sex boarding schools, while living in various kinds of camps, in barracks and also in prison. Even among normally oriented adults (especially among men), long-term intergender deprivation sometimes leads to a perverted satisfaction of libidinal needs with male prisoners, more often with weaker ones, since they cannot resist. Home education is of great importance for the normal orientation of the undifferentiated orientation characteristic of childhood. Adults, parents who sleep in the same bed with their children. There is a high risk of developing an unhealthy attraction in the child. In the future, this can serve as the basis for serious problems that not every psychoanalyst can cope with.
High scores on the 5th scale, for example, in the combination 8546"13-/270, may be a sign of perverted intersexual orientation, but such conclusions are made only with additional clinical and biographical data available. The well-known feminization of the male population of modern society and the pronounced masculinization of the female half of humanity is reflected in the profiles of the methodology by raising the SMIL profile on the 5th scale, however, this tendency sharply intensifies only where there is a certain biological basis for this phenomenon or a specific social environment. The elevated 5th scale in the normative profile of adolescents and young men is found quite often, reflecting only the undifferentiation of gender-role behavior and softness, unformed character, which makes them malleable material in the hands of an authoritarian-type leader and misleading during professional selection, when the choice is purely masculine. The young man’s profession is mainly of a hypercompensatory nature.
With maturity, indicators of the 5th scale tend to decrease. During the aging period, disruption of intersexual adaptation is again reflected in an increase in the profile on the 5th scale; the same is observed in some chronic diseases accompanied by a decrease in libido, which was, in particular, noted in the study of patients with chronic tuberculosis. In a profile reflecting a sthenic type of response, relatively low scores on the 5th scale (50 and below) reveal a typically male style of gender-role behavior, rigidity of character, lack of sentimentality, and a tendency toward polygamy (profile type 49"-/54 or 94"6-/ 75). The narcissistic personality type with a penchant for demagoguery, narcissism, aesthetic reasoning, and mannerisms characteristic of cold individualists is revealed by the profile 58"4-/. These are persons who have a weakness only for those people who adore them, while they are extremely sensitive to dissonance of their "I" with the environment, which causes them to want to distance themselves from such an environment. In women, high scores on the 5th scale reflect the traits of masculinity, independence, the desire for emancipation, for independence in decision making. In the profile of the sthenic type ("4569 -/270) an increase in the 5th scale enhances the traits of cruelty, and in the hypersthenic profile (4569"-/270) - antisocial tendencies. With a simultaneous increase in the 5th and a low 3rd scale, the absence of the coquettishness and gentleness in communication usually inherent in women is revealed , diplomacy in interpersonal contacts, behavioral features characteristic of men are noted.
A high 5th scale (above 70 T) is especially common among athletes involved in sports activities that are physically exhausting and affect the normal development of the body according to the female type. There is a delay in the formation of the hormonal cycle and the development of secondary sexual characteristics, dysplasticity of the figure, etc. is noted. Peculiarities of gender-role behavior of women with a high (70 T and above) 5th scale, together with an even higher 4th, acquire the features of a masculine style - with pronounced libido concerns , a pragmatic attitude towards contacts based on purely physiological attraction, with a tendency to frequently change sexual partners, with a lack of inclination towards deep, emotional attachment, towards constancy: profile type 945"-/027.
A single peak on the 5th scale in both men and women with a linear, that is, normal profile, without noticeable increases on other scales, is often found in very peculiar people, incomprehensible to those around them. In such individuals, before the examination, the psychologist sometimes expects that the 8th scale will be elevated in the profile. This profile reveals difficulties in interpersonal communication that extend beyond those of the opposite sex. There is reason to believe that this personality pattern is most likely associated with unclear gender self-identification. Perhaps this is a same-sex relationship
On the contrary, low scores on the 5th scale (below 50T) in the female profile reflect an orthodox feminine style of gender-role behavior: the desire to be taken care of and find support in a husband, gentleness, sentimentality, love for children, commitment to family interests, inexperience and modesty in matters of intergender relations .
In a profile reflecting a high level of neuroticism (high 1st, 2nd and 3rd scales), preoccupation with poor health and astheno-depressive background mood (high 1st, 2nd and 3rd scales), low scores on the 5th scale (40 T and below) in women may indicate frigidity. Relatively high scores on the 5th scale with even higher peaks on the 8th and 1st scales in the clinic are found in people with a morbid focus on the intergender sphere with a pronounced originality of hypochondriacal experiences, often accompanied by senestopathies, that is, disturbances in perception in the sphere tactile and other sensory somatic sensations.
The combination of low 5th with elevated 3rd and 8th is characteristic of women with a pronounced aesthetic orientation, with a rich imagination, with excessive emotionality and impressionability, a tendency to quickly get used to different life roles and artistic images, with rich body plasticity, with expressiveness facial expressions and intonations, which, apparently, is the leading factor for individuals of this type when choosing the profession of an actress (or actor, which corresponds to the same profile, but with a high 5th scale for men).
Experience shows that film and theater actors who are prone to pronounced transformation usually have a profile of the type 35"842-/0 (M) and 31"894-/5 (F). Those of them whose pronounced individuality is “exploited” without any special variations, more often have a profile type 4""9385-/0 (M) and 431""968-/25 (F).
The presence of a slightly elevated 5th in any male profile (as well as a lowered one in a female profile) indicates greater humanism, gentleness and less aggressiveness. The sensitivity of these individuals places increased demands on the environment, narrows the zone of comfort in life; a gentle social niche and a protective approach are especially important for them.
Strange as it may seem, personnel service in military organizations is often chosen by young men of this type not only due to compensatory tendencies, but perhaps also because the clarity and well-functioning institutions of military service create in them a feeling of greater protection from the vicissitudes of fate (of course , in peacetime), greater stability of social status and material base. At the same time, a significant role seems to be played by their humanistic orientation and congruence, which appeals to those involved in professional selection in such organizations.
The 5th scale, which is leading in the profile, influences a person’s fate mainly due to difficult intergender adaptation, which leads to the sublimation of primitive sensory needs into socialized activity, unless we are talking about pathology. If the attraction gets out of control and is recognized by a person as inevitable and inevitable, then it is realized in an inadequate direction, and the person’s fate is subject to serious upheavals, since this method of self-realization is condemned by society or meets with misunderstanding. In social and cultural life, the most active personalities of type “5” are the organizers of the social movement for minorities, “hippies,” suffragettes, creators of model houses, special shows and theatrical performances in which women’s roles are played by men.
6th scale
The 6th scale (the “rigidity” scale), being the only peak in the profile that does not go beyond the normal range, reveals stability of interests, perseverance in defending one’s own opinion, sthenic attitudes, activity of the position, which increases when counteracted by external forces, practicality, sobriety of views for life, the desire to rely on one’s own experience, a synthetic mindset with a pronounced tropism for systemic constructions, for areas of specific knowledge, for the exact sciences. Persons with a leading 6th scale in their profile show a love of accuracy, loyalty to their principles, straightforwardness and perseverance in upholding them. The ingenuity and rationality of the mind is combined with its insufficient flexibility and difficulties in switching in a suddenly changing situation. People in this circle are impressed by accuracy and specificity; they are irritated by amorphousness, uncertainty of goals, carelessness and carelessness of the people around them. This is a realistic, rational personality type, characterized by stenishness and inflexibility of attitudes. To a certain extent, they give the impression of being resistant to stress, which is largely due to their homonomy (not subject to environmental influences) and the stiffness of nervous processes with the difficulty of switching from a normal state to another, new one (from rest to action). However, in this case there is a gradual accumulation of potential activity, which later manifests itself in an explosion of affect and an aggressive coloration of activity. People in this circle are characterized by two types of defense mechanisms, that is, mechanisms that relieve internal tension when it is impossible to realize an urgent need: 1) rationalization with devaluation of the object of frustrated need (the “Fox and Grapes” option, that is, if what is desired is unattainable, then its value in the eyes of the individual decreases sharply) or 2) an external reaction of an externally blaming type, when a person gives vent to his anger, showing it in one form or another. This type of response is associated with a defense mechanism of the “projection” type: the individual attributes to others the distrust and hostility that is inherent in himself, and punishes for this. Stress that affects the subjectively significant values of an individual with a high 6th scale within the normative range or accentuated traits of the explosive type, identified in the SMIL profile with a high (above 70 T) 6th scale, are those factors that lie in based on a strong aggressive response. In interpersonal contacts, individuals with a high level of the 6th scale exhibit a pronounced sense of rivalry, competitiveness, and a desire to defend a prestigious role in the reference group. High emotional involvement with the dominant idea, the ability to “infect” others with one’s passion and a pronounced tendency to plan actions are the foundation for the formation of leadership traits, especially with good intelligence and high professionalism. Personalities of this type are often found among mathematicians, economists, technical engineers, accountants, business executives and in other types of professional activities where accuracy, calculation, and a systematic approach are especially required. A pronounced sense of competition and endurance to stress contributes to the success of such people in the sports field. Subjective structuring of the phenomena of the surrounding world, reflected in the individual style of painting or sculpture, is characteristic of artists, and this is confirmed by the fact that their profiles usually show a high peak on the 6th scale. And when among them you meet people with a high profile, in which the 6th and 8th scales are above 90T, and the 2nd scale is “recessed” (i.e. below 50T), then, looking at their peculiar and uncontrollable any correction in the style of one’s entire life, one involuntarily comes to the assumption that art for people of this type is the protective niche that saves them from madness. They are willful, unpredictable and persistent in their creative self-affirmation; periodically coming into conflict with their close circle and with official circles, they are doomed to a difficult fate. This is illustrated by the biographies of Rodin, Cezanne, Vangogh, Michel Angelo Buonarotti. A profile with a peak on the 6th scale (70 T and above) is characteristic of accentuated personalities (epileptoid accentuation, “stuck” according to Leonhard). A more pronounced increase (profile type 64""8-/1320) is typical for explosive psychopathic personalities, excitable ones (49""6-/270), paranoid psychopaths with litigious-queerulant tendencies (68""94"-/), i.e. e. tireless complainers, anonymous people and plaintiffs, conflicting in the field of truth-seeking.Personal disharmony and maladaptive states, manifested by the presence of high indicators on the 6th scale in the profile, are characterized by a pronounced affective capture by the dominant idea, usually relating to a conflict interpersonal situation. This can be experiences associated with an overvalued attitude towards the object that caused the conflict situation, with a feeling of jealousy or rivalry, with a tendency to build a rigid and subjective logical scheme that cannot be corrected from the outside. Antisocial explosive-aggressive reactions are possible, which are interpreted by the individual as defensive, forced actions in a response to the hostility and ill will of those who caused these reactions. The most striking embodiment of this kind of experience is the delusional concept of a mentally ill person. However, such profiles also occur within the framework of situationally determined personality development when there is a leading tendency in the emotional-dynamic predisposition pattern in the form of a rigidity factor that contributes to the consolidation (cumulation) of negative experience. It is difficult to differentiate the paranoid type of personality development that takes a long time to form in a really existing unfavorable situation from delusions of persecution within the framework of schizophrenia. The differential diagnostic criterion in such complex cases is the study of the individual’s mental functions, in particular, the assessment of the level of generalization and its uniformity. In general, the intellect in both cases can remain intact for a long time, and the argumentation can remain clear and convincing.
Paranoid forms of behavior manifest themselves as an externally blaming type of reaction due to the specific nature of the protective mechanism of projection and rationalization inherent in individuals in this circle, which, even with a disease such as schizophrenia, at first protect the inner “I” from destruction, reducing the painful intensity of affect. In the clinic of schizophrenia, one often has to observe what happens to patients in the first days of the painful onset. If the schizophrenic process invades the personality structure, premorbidly distinguished by rigid attitudes, externally blaming tendencies and a tendency towards rational systematization, accompanied by disturbances of perception, naturally this introduces a feeling of chaos into the previously quite harmonious picture of his own “I” and the surrounding world. In this regard, a state of confusion and confusion develops, tension of affective experiences arises, forming restless behavior with increased unfocused activity. However, as soon as the compensatory mechanisms characteristic of this type of personality come into play, the patient develops a dominant idea - painful, absurd, since it is based on false premises, but helping the patient to find relative peace; behavior becomes more orderly and, in its own way, more purposeful (“I understand everything! It’s just a medical experiment, they are influencing me through the walls with special rays,” says the patient, demonstrating much more calmness than it was before he “understood everything” ). Consequently, the tendency towards projection and systematization inherent in the psyche of this patient is triggered and random facts and false information are “strung” (brought into a certain order) onto the “skewer” of rigid thinking, which is associated with disturbances of perception. In this way, a delusional concept is formed, in which the patient’s condition is characterized by less pronounced emotional tension than it was before the structuring of the delirium. Mania with delusions of grandeur with simultaneously manifesting tendencies towards hostility and persecution of others in the profile is reflected by peaks on the 6th and 9th scales. The line between the arrogance of a youth who has no life experience or the euphoria of a drunk, on the one hand, and mental illness, manifested by inadequately inflated self-esteem and disordered speech and motor activity, on the other, can be drawn based on the height of the profile and with the help of additional experimental psychological research. In the clinical form of mania, peaks on the 9th scale reach 100-110 T, the accompanying peak on the 6th is less pronounced (80-90 T) and is accompanied by fairly high (65-75) indicators of the remaining scales, including 8- th scale), that is, the profile turns out to be floating and unreliable on the F scale.
In the profiles of patients with neurotic and psychosomatic disorders, an increase in the 6th scale reflects the presence of increased irritability, feelings of resentment and is indirectly associated with a tendency to allergic reactions and arterial hypertension, if the profile as a whole reveals suppressed hostility. This kind of empirical findings once again emphasizes the close connection between the method and somatic and psychological factors. In this case, both at the biological and psychological levels, there is a general tendency to sthenic opposition to the invasion of something foreign, alien both to the spiritual world of one’s “I” and to the physiological world of one’s body. Pathological jealousy is most often identified by a profile in which the indicators of the 6th scale are above 80 T. This type of experience is manifested by uncorrectable attitudes and emotionally charged reactions that are difficult to differentiate from delusion: a serious, investigator-like study of the situation is required to understand how ridiculous the statements are jealous, or, on the contrary, how grounded they are in everyday life. In this regard, special importance is attached to repeated (dynamic) studies. Mental functions remain formally intact. A temporary rise on the 6th scale often appears in the profile of individuals in a pre-divorce situation.
In profiles of contingent norms, persons with a leading peak on the 6th scale often give a low profile, without revealing the depth of the existing problems. This is due to an increased sense of wariness and mistrust of these individuals. Profiles with a recessed 6th scale should be especially wary. It should be emphasized that indicators on the 6th scale below 50 T are implausible. If a high 6th is evidence of hostility, a moderately elevated level is evidence of resentment, and being at the average normative level is a sign of peacefulness, then low scores reflect an excessive tendency to emphasize one’s peacemaking tendencies, which is most often found with a hypercompensatory attitude in individuals of an aggressive nature.
In a criminal environment, high scores on the 6th scale are characteristic of persons capable of mercenary crimes, and in combination with a high score on the 8th scale, they reflect hostile-aggressive tendencies. Profile 65’-/7 is the most typical for individuals accentuated by the epileptoid type, in whom sentimentality and sweetness are combined with a tendency to outbursts of hostility.
Correcting the behavior of individuals with a high 6th scale in their profile is a very difficult task. The strategy of interaction with a person of this type should be aimed at ensuring that the opinion of the corrective person (psychologist, teacher, manager, doctor) not explicitly, but indirectly, becomes the conviction of the individual himself; at the same time, he must remain with the illusion that this conviction has always been there or that it comes from the individual himself, and the psychologist only identified and confirmed its correctness. In addition, the form of “advice” should be quite specific and appealing to the individual’s experience. Key words: “As you already said...”. “You yourself think so...”, “As follows from your experience...”, “According to your principles...”, “In the same way as you always act...”, etc. The most effective technique for correcting the behavior or state of individuals typologically classified as “rigid” is the so-called rational psychotherapy, which uses the capabilities of the protective mechanism characteristic of individuals in this circle, such as rationalization. The most convincing are the arguments proving that angry reactions and actions dictated by a hostile attitude are harmful to the individual and worsen his health; techniques that devalue the significance of a frustrated need are effective.
The fate of individuals with a decisive role of the 6th scale in their profile is always difficult. These are people who, as it were, “cause fire upon themselves.” Biased and not indifferent to the phenomena of life around them, they stubbornly defend their opinion as the only correct one. Obsessed with this or that idea, they are able to overcome many obstacles to its implementation. They contrast the turmoil and confusion of the world around them with their subjective idea of organization and order. This is exactly the type of personality when the systematic implementation of plans proves that, despite the opposition of the environment, a person can be the creator of his own destiny. If the circumstances turn out to be stronger, then individuals of this type do not compromise and show opposition or hostility in various ways. Among them there are often militant fighters for the truth - as they imagine it, and, no matter how far it may be from the truth, they are capable of taking harmful actions (both for others and for themselves), when the losses may be disproportionate greater than the idea being defended is worth. Deprived of flexibility and agility, type “6” individuals easily make enemies for themselves, but if there are no enemies, then they are able to invent them and fight them, non-existent ones, since they do not trust anyone and are easily inflamed with hostility. Jealous in love, they are also jealous of others' success, which serves as the basis for the formation of a strong spirit of competition. Without forgiving offenses, people of this type can realize their revenge a long time later and in a very cruel way.
Their aggressive reaction is always excessive in relation to the cause of the conflict. Let's say you insulted a person by calling him a fool. An individual of type “2” will say: “It’s sad, but this is probably true.”; type “3” will take you to a corner and whisper: “Quiet down, please: there’s absolutely no point in letting others know about this”; type “4” will reflect the blow with an instant reaction: “You are a fool!”; type “5” will babble sadly: “Well, why is it so rude, you could affectionately say - a fool,” and type “6” will become furious and come at you with his fists: “Oh, I’m a fool?!! So I’ll kill you!” Personalities of this type, with good professional experience, prove themselves to be the most effective organizers, for the time being they give the impression of being stress-resistant, and only in a situation that touches their power-hungry traits can they become maladapted in the most brutal way, while showing externally blaming reactions, hot temper and aggressiveness. In marriage they have conflicts, but at the same time they show thriftiness and devotion to the family. At work they show reformist zeal, accuracy and practicality, strive to command others and conflict with their superiors. In the sphere of public activity - whistleblowers of corruption, truth-seekers, organizers of opposition movements. Personalities of this type have left their mark in history as adherents of church dogmas (religious fans, representatives of the Jesuit Order), as reformer politicians or famous military leaders (for example, Napoleon).
7th scale
The 7th scale is the “anxiety” scale, refers to the indicators of the hyposthenic, inhibited circle. An increase in the profile on the 7th scale with a normative spread reveals the predominance of a passive-passive position, lack of self-confidence and the stability of the situation, high sensitivity and susceptibility to environmental influences, increased sensitivity to danger. The prevailing motivation is to avoid failure, sensitivity, an orientation toward congruent relationships with others, and dependence on the opinion of the majority. The leading needs are getting rid of fears and uncertainty, avoiding confrontation. They need spiritual consonance (consonance) with others. Characteristically, people of this type are distinguished by a developed sense of responsibility, conscientiousness, commitment, modesty, increased anxiety regarding minor everyday problems, and concern for the fate of loved ones. They are characterized by empathy, i.e. a feeling of compassion and empathy, increased nuance of feelings, pronounced dependence on the object of affection and any strong personality. Perseverative thinking (with a tendency to repeat, to get stuck). Unstable, autochthonously fluctuating attention is compensated by a tendency to double-check what has been done and an increased sense of duty. Lack of clarity in the style of perception is corrected by the habit of repeated (clarifying) actions. There is marked sensitivity, a tendency to doubt, reflexivity, excessive self-criticism, low self-esteem, contrasting with an inflated ideal “I”. Reduced stress tolerance threshold. In a situation of stress - blocking or driven activity following the majority or leading personality. The defense mechanism is restrictive behavior and ritual (obsessive) actions, which transform in everyday life into superstition, devout religiosity, and commitment to the interests of the clan (family, reference group). When choosing a profession, focus on the sphere of humanistic interests: literature, medicine, biology, history, as well as on the performing style of work outside of extensive contacts and with a fairly stable stereotype of activity, where the need to avoid stress is satisfied. Monotony is easily tolerated. Encouragement and measures aimed at increasing an individual's self-esteem are the best way to intensify their activities on the part of management and educators, as well as when developing a psychotherapeutic approach in case of maladjustment.
The 7th scale reveals increased anxiety, and with indicators above 70 T, it is no longer a character trait that is determined, but a state, i.e. that degree of severity of anxiety that has not yet been transformed under the influence of defense mechanisms into a more specific state, and has remained primary, free-floating. With high scores on the 7th scale, anxiety is usually associated with long-term previous neuroticism. The exception is cases of congenital, constitutional psychasthenia or organically caused psychasthenic symptoms in the form of various phobias (fear of heights, enclosed spaces, fire, water, sharp objects, riding in public modes of transport, etc.). A relative increase in the 7th scale during stress (not exceeding 70 T, leveled out in repeated examinations) is closely related to increased anxiety as a stable trait in the structure of an individual’s personal characteristics.
The most common personality variant, in which there is a significant increase in the profile of the 7th scale, is psychasthenic, in the terminology of other authors - anxious and suspicious. Persons in this circle are characterized by self-doubt, indecision, and a tendency to carefully recheck their actions and work done; very obligatory and responsible, they are distinguished by a dependent position, orientation towards the opinion of the group, a highly developed sense of duty and adherence to generally accepted norms, a tendency towards altruistic manifestations, conformity, a tendency to react with an increased sense of guilt and self-flagellation to the slightest failures and mistakes. Trying at all costs to avoid conflict, which they experience extremely painfully, psychasthenics act at the maximum level of their capabilities in order to earn the approval of others, and most importantly - what is even more difficult - their own approval. With an excessively self-critical attitude towards themselves, such persons are characterized by a large gap between the real and ideal “I”, i.e. there is a striving for an unattainable ideal. In this regard, they are constantly in a state of tension and dissatisfaction, manifested in obsessions, excessive actions of a restrictive nature, rituals necessary for self-soothing (profile 72"80/). This group of personalities is often found among healthy people. Due to the pronounced hypersociality of attitudes and conformity of behavior they pose few difficulties for others, except perhaps for their indecision. They are much more difficult for themselves than for others. The accentuation, which manifests itself on the profile by increasing the 7th scale to 70 T and above, reveals a sharpening of anxious-suspicious, anankast and sensitive personality traits.
A double peak of 78 above 75 T is characteristic of a state of chronic social maladjustment and is a sign of a pronounced inferiority complex or a feeling of “otherness” in the environment.
The profile of the psychasthenic type is characterized by a combination of elevated 2nd and 7th scales with a concomitant increase in the 8th and 0th with a relatively low 9th: a profile type 27"80-/ or 278"-/9. The state of maladjustment, reflected in the profile by an increase in the 7th scale, is characterized by sleep disturbances, obsessive fears, feelings of confusion, anxiety, and a feeling of impending disaster. The combination of high scores on the 7th and 3rd scales is typical for fixed fears (fear of driving in transport, fear of moving away from home, fear of getting an incurable disease, fear of public speaking, etc.) Profile 2178""-/ is typical for the clinical picture of anxiety -depressive state with hypochondriacal inclusions. The combination of a high 7th with a 6th may indicate dysmorphic experiences, that is, a painful fixation on one’s ugliness, any external defects - real or imaginary. Profiles of the 86*7” type are often found among patients (rather, female patients) of cosmetic clinics, which cause a lot of trouble for cosmetic surgeons, since they are not able to be satisfied with any results of the operations performed and react extremely painfully to changes in their face, although they persistently insist on this before the operation sought.
In the structure of neurotic symptoms, a high peak on the 7th scale (80 T and above) reveals free-floating anxiety. Due to the fact that the 7th scale reveals anxiety both as a constant personality trait and as a situationally determined state of anxiety, concomitant increases in other profile scales indicate defense mechanisms, i.e. those tendencies that protect the personality from this state, the most uncertain and therefore painful, and contribute to the transformation of anxiety into another, qualitatively more defined emotion.
Each basic SMIL scale identifies one or another mechanism for transforming anxiety, one or another version of a defense mechanism.
An increase in the profile on the 1st scale reveals an increase in neurotic self-control and somatization of anxiety, i.e. biological method of protection;
The 2nd scale reflects the degree of awareness of psychological problems and refusal to realize one’s intentions, which is accompanied by a decrease in mood.
Low 2nd with elevated 1st and 3rd scales reflects the problem of repressed anxiety and a biological method of defense with the conversion (translation) of a psychological conflict into physiological disorders conditionally associated with a traumatic situation.
The 4th scale reveals a tendency to increase behavioral activity in situations of stress, and the mechanism of repressing anxiety here does not bear the imprint of a clear connection between psychosomatic disorders and a psychogenic factor. Instead of conversion symptoms in individuals of this circle, the response to frustration is an outward reaction or a clash of motives, manifested by spasmodic phenomena (coronary spasm, ischemic myocardial disease), i.e. cardiovascular disorders.
The 5th scale reflects the tendency towards the sublimation of intersexual needs into the type of activity that is substitute, replacing in relation to the direct realization of this need. This unconscious defense mechanism is realized when libido activity is frustrated, that is, it cannot be realized due to the existing social prohibition, internalized in the form of an intrapersonal “Taboo”.
An increase in the 6th scale indicates a tendency to rationalize the psychological conflict that caused anxiety, and the presence of an externally blaming reaction that relieves the individual of responsibility for the current conflict situation (projection mechanism). The fact that these mechanisms for protecting the individual from excessive anxiety are quite effective is evidenced by the tendency of profiles with the leading 6th scale to relatively low anxiety scores.
The combination 78” reveals the mechanism of intellectual processing and restrictive behavior aimed at avoiding failure and manifested by the phenomena of obsession (obsessive actions, thoughts, rituals, fears). This reveals the problem of low self-esteem, a sense of one’s own imperfection, an increased sense of guilt, self-abasement, and an inferiority complex.
An elevated 8th scale reveals an irrational type of reaction with withdrawal into the surreal world of fantasies and dreams.
The 9th scale corresponds to the defense mechanism of denying problems. This manifests itself as “blindness” to the really existing negative aspects of one’s behavior and the current situation, stubborn defense of one’s own high self-esteem and optimistic attitude.
An increase in the 0th scale is typical for passive avoidance of conflict, so-called escapism, i.e. escape from problems, withdrawal from social activity.
When discussing the anxiety scale, it is appropriate to try to answer the age-old question: is the state of anxiety or constitutional anxiety measured in this technique by the 7th scale? The first essential principle of differentiation is quantitative indicators that separate the spread of the normal corridor (45 - 70 T) from indicators reflecting the state of maladjustment (> 70 T). Another aspect is the nature of anxiety. If we are talking about a person who is constitutionally anxious, then even ordinary everyday difficulties can cause one or another degree of neurotic maladjustment, and then we have the right to talk about a neurotic predisposition, about a constantly present internal conflict that serves as the basis for neuroticization under the influence of minimal environmental influences. Thus, psychogeny only strengthens and sharpens a stable individual-personal tendency, the personal property of anxiety, which, under the influence of environmental conditions, is easily transformed into a state of anxiety. Under the influence of objectively severe psychotrauma, a state of anxiety with accompanying defensive reactions can result in neurotic symptoms of the clinical register. Reversible neurotic disorders, manifested by a rise in only the 2nd scale, are characteristic of fairly harmonious individuals who are prone to compensation by controlling self-awareness.
Long-term neuroses and neurotic developments, according to our observations, are the lot of individuals with a high degree of readiness to develop neurotic disorders, i.e. individuals with a neurotic predisposition, one of the main components of which is increased anxiety. The combination of a high 7th with a 4th reflects the problem of an internally contradictory, mixed type of response, in which multidirectional tendencies collide: motivation for achievement with motivation to avoid failure; tendency to be active and take decisive action with a tendency to block activity in stressful situations; increased sense of dignity and desire for dominance - with self-doubt and excessive self-criticism; the sthenic register of emotions of anger, admiration, pride and contempt - with the emotions of the asthenic register: fear, guilt, anxiety. All this, on the one hand, contributes to the mutual compensation of some traits by others, on the other hand, increases tension, since both the neurotic and behavioral path of response are blocked. Outwardly, the behavior of a person of this type may look balanced, but the internal conflict is channeled along a psychosomatic route or manifests itself as neurasthenic symptoms, rich in somatic complaints.
A profile with high (>90) peaks on the 2nd and 7th scales (most often with a concomitant increase in the 8th scale) with low 1st, 3rd, 9th and elevated 0th is characteristic of endogenous ( psychotic) anxious depression. Reactive (situationally provoked) depression in the SMIL profile is manifested by more moderate (70-85 T) peaks on the 2nd and 7th scales with concomitant increases in the 1st, 3rd and 4th scales, when the 9th scale does not below 40 T, and 0th - no higher than 65 T (if there is no setting for aggravation, i.e. emphasizing existing problems or simulation).
Low indicators of the 7th scale (below 45 T in a linear profile, and in a profile type 48"9-/ - with indicators of the 7th scale as one of the lowest points of the profile) indicate a lack of caution in actions and scrupulousness in matters of morality, to a rather naked egocentrism, a reduced ability to empathize, non-conformity of attitudes, a rude and harsh manner of behavior, a cynical view of life phenomena.
The fate-determining tendency in the structure of the type “7” personality is fear of the power of Evil, helplessness in the face of brutal cruelty. If type “2” can be attributed to people with “distressed thoughts,” then type “7” is “a person of a shocked conscience” (like G. Uspensky about the writer Garshin). Not relying on their own strength and human kindness, they, more than others - not so much with their minds as with their hearts - gravitate towards religion, finding support and consolation in it. At the same time, they are not at all so weak: due to their soft character and high sensitivity not only to their own, but also to the pain of others, persons of this type have great mental strength and the ability to endure (passion-bearers)... This is expressed in their responsibility, in caring for others, the ability to understand and feel sorry for those who are in trouble. Sondi says about this personal variant that these are people with a “sick conscience.” Due to their own defenselessness in the face of the pragmatic assertiveness of hyperthymic personalities (types “4”, “6”, “9”), they show compliance and do not pretend to a leading position. Remembering that a person can be harmonious only if there is positive self-esteem, it is easy to explain the constantly increased anxiety of persons of this type with unstable and low self-esteem. However, any person has a reason to evaluate himself as a person in positive characteristics. Self-affirmation of type “7” persons is realized through adherence to moral traditions and conformity of attitudes. The individuality of such individuals manifests itself more clearly in a situation of acceptance and support from the environment. Despite the apparent sacrifice and humility, people who are excessively fixated on their torment thus manifest their egocentrism, which can irritate those around them who are more shy and balanced. This leaves an imprint on relationships both at work and in the family (restless and insecure employee, anxious wife, overprotective mother). The social role of type “7” mainly comes down to conformism, the positive aspects of which are the protection of cultural and moral values accumulated by society and generally accepted forms of behavior, law-abidingness and passive resistance to aggressive tendencies of the environment.
8th scale
The 8th scale is the “individualism” scale. Increased in profile with normative indicators on other scales, it reveals a separate-contemplative personal position, an analytical mindset; the tendency to think prevails over feelings and effective activity. The abstract-analytical style of perception predominates, manifested in the ability to recreate a holistic image based on minimal information, paying special attention to subjectively significant aspects that are more related to the world of one’s own fantasies than to reality. With good intelligence, individuals of this type are distinguished by creative orientation, originality of statements and judgments, originality of interests and hobbies. There is a certain selectivity in contacts, a certain subjectivity in assessing people and phenomena in the surrounding life, independence of views, a tendency towards abstraction, i.e. to generalizations and information abstracted from specifics and everyday life. A pronounced need to actualize one’s individuality is revealed. It is more difficult for individuals in this circle to adapt to everyday forms of life and the prosaic aspects of everyday life. Their individuality is so pronounced that it is virtually useless to predict their statements and actions by comparing them with familiar stereotypes. They have an insufficiently formed realistic platform based on everyday experience; they are more focused on their subjectivity and intuition. Due to the fact that they are more rational than emotional, since they rely more on their judgments than on feelings, and, at the same time, are divorced from the reality of the world around them, they should be classified as rational, unrealistic individuals. What for the majority is a critical situation is often regarded differently by persons with a high 8th scale due to the uniqueness of their hierarchy of values. The situation, which they subjectively perceive as stress, causes a state of confusion. The protective mechanism that manifests itself during the transformation of anxiety is intellectual processing and withdrawal into the world of dreams and fantasies. They are characterized by a professional tropism for types of activities of a free, creative style; they strive to avoid any formal framework or restricted types of work. Persons who gravitate towards the search for novelty, who show interest in the field of psychology, psychiatry, theosophy, and scientific research are distinguished by the presence in the SMIL profile of an increased 8th scale with accompanying increases of the 7th, 2nd or 5th, if they are theorists and humanists. People who choose various kinds of romantic professions - sailors, geologists, archaeologists, travelers and other adventure lovers - are characterized by profiles in which a high 8th scale is combined with a high 4th or 9th. Persons of this type are characterized by an imperative need for freedom of subjective choice in decision-making, in the absence of time restrictions, which can complicate their work adaptation given the lack of tolerance among others and the absence of a differentiated individual-personal approach among managers. Unlike other types of personalities, their individualism is only aggravated by opposition from the environment, which is manifested by increased signs of maladaptation and, consequently, an increase in the peak on the 8th scale. The 84"9-/ profile is characteristic of accentuation of the expansive-schizoid type, characterized by emphasized nonconformism and the opposition of one's subjective attitudes, views and judgments to the environment, rigidity and egocentrism of attitudes. High peaks of a similar profile (48""9"-/27) reflect emotionally -personal pattern of a psychopathic personality of the expansive-schizoid circle, where the above characteristics reach an even higher level, which is evidence of pronounced social maladjustment with an antisocial orientation of interests and behavior, and uncritical assessment of one’s actions. With a simultaneous rise in the 6th scale (profile type 468""9-/21), the risk of aggressive behavior increases, and the success of any corrective measures decreases, since individuals of this type usually have an established belief about the injustice and hostility of those around them towards them , which is the foundation for justifying their aggressive actions in their own eyes, while the opinions of others are insignificant to them. Psychopathic personalities of this type are characterized by particularly brutal (uncontrollable) explosiveness, i.e. explosive nature of reactions. With accentuation (profile type 468"-/ or 864"-/ or "846-/), the features described above sound softer, and the violation of social adaptation is more dependent on environmental influences.
The emphasis on the “sensitive schizoid” type manifests itself in two ways: rigid, over-touchy, painfully proud, “stuck” on negative experiences, the type of reaction is characteristic of sthenic schizoid personalities (profile 86"47-/), and for soft, impressionable, vulnerable personalities, but In this case, with pronounced individualism in the choice of friends and areas of interest, profiles such as 85"70-/ or 83"52-/ are characteristic, reflecting, among other things, aesthetic orientation. (For women, the indicators of the 5th scale in the corresponding profiles are low: 8"70- /5 or 83"2-/5). Indicators of the 8th scale, located above 80 T, identify psychopathic variants of the schizoid type of reaction. The hyposthenic variant of schizoid accentuation, usually attributed to the circle of inhibited individuals, is revealed by a profile of type 872"0-/ or 2870"-/9. Such psychopathic traits as isolation, passivity, introversion, lack of communication, significant originality of judgments and actions, stiffness of gestures, postures, awkwardness in interpersonal contacts, detachment and emotional coldness, incomprehensibility of the motives of behavior for others, impracticality and isolation from reality life problems, a tendency towards mysticism - are reflected in higher rates of profiles similar or similar in pattern: 8""027"-/39 or 287""0"-/8.
It is difficult to judge a diagnosis based on the MMPI (SMIL) profile alone, since the profile mainly reflects the characteristics of the emotional state and personal characteristics (or personal deformation) of a person. However, high scores on the 8th scale as one of the 3 leading profile peaks in 60% of cases reveal schizophrenic or schizophrenia-like disorders: a tendency to emasculated reasoning (reasoning), masking intellectual incompetence, a decrease in the level of social adaptation and general productivity, confusion , separation from reality, sleep disturbances, derealization-depersonalization phenomena, disturbances of perception. These data, however, should be confirmed in the results of experimental psychological research in the form of uneven level of generalization, vagueness, vagueness of thinking based on unimportant, latent signs when generalizing and comparing concepts; in this case, a characteristic feature is a “departure” from the specific content of the stimulus material with a tendency towards the abstractness of associations, towards the symbolism of mediating images, a violation of the sequence of logical constructions up to their obvious absurdity.
The basis for determining nosology (i.e., the outlined framework of a psychiatric diagnosis) is a clinical analysis of the patient’s condition, taking into account both the etiopathogenetic factor and the patterns of development of the condition; Moreover, clinical-psychological research is the optimal and most objective approach to assessing the depth and structure of pathological manifestations, since these methods - clinical and psychological - in comparison with other methods of studying the human psyche, are phenomenologically the closest and most complementary.
A profile with leading 8th and 7th scales (above 70 T) reveals internal tension, anxiety, nervousness, a tendency to endless, often fruitless, thinking about any problems (“mental chewing gum”), isolation, a chronically existing feeling of mental discomfort , uncertainty, decreased overall productivity, guilt and inferiority complex; occurs in persons asthenicized by prolonged emotional overstrain or a chronic serious illness, as well as in persons of a premorbid (initially) asthenic and psychasthenic type, more often in combination with elevated 2nd and 0th, as well as low 9th. A high double peak of 78 (90 T and above) is characteristic of psychotic anxiety, and a peak of 87 reflects paranoid manifestations. Profile 81""-/ is alarming in that it reveals a focus on peculiar somatic complaints without emotional preoccupation, which is characteristic of the hypochondriacal form of schizophrenia. The combination 8""51"-/ is characteristic of persons with a painful attitude towards the problems of difficult intersexual adaptation, but with a tendency to think and reason about this without expressed anxiety.
Many profiles of patients with schizophrenia do not have a distinct peak of the 8th scale in their structure. Schizoaffective disorders can manifest themselves in peaks on scales 2 or 9, depending on whether the depressive or manic phase of the disease characterizes the patient’s condition at the moment. The psychopathic-like pattern of experiences, especially at the onset of the disease, looks like a floating profile with a high peak on the 4th scale. Hysteroform disorders are reflected in the SMIL profile as a “conversion five” with the highest scales in the profile being the 4th, 3rd, 6th and 8th scales (as well as with nuclear hysterical psychopathy). Simple, slightly progressive schizophrenia manifests itself in a profile very similar to a neurotic profile or to the profile of a psychasthenic personality (leading peaks 2780 at a low 9th). Thus, the accumulated experience confirms the fact that the structure of the clinical syndrome is to a greater extent determined by the basic characteristics of the personality, leading individual personal tendencies, than by other factors that caused the disease. By the way, the cause of schizophrenia has not yet been established and most scientists are inclined to consider it an endogenous mental disorder with genetic roots. And in this case, the role of the structure of leading trends in the formation of the clinical picture seems even more significant.
Low scores on the 8th scale (below 50 T) are found in people with little imagination, stereotyped thinking, sober and practical. The absence of an increase on the 8th scale indicates a predominance of common sense in this individual, a sober assessment of everyday situations, and a rational approach to solving problems.
For persons with an elevated 8th scale and good intelligence, the method of correcting insufficiently adaptive forms of behavior is not simple. Gifted, creatively oriented, but difficult in character, non-conforming individuals need to create a social niche in which the implementation of a differentiated approach would be possible and there would be no “formalization”. For others, with delinquent tendencies, e.g. prone to illegal acts, a timely reorientation of interests is necessary while maintaining a positive personal status, which represents a very complex social task: individuals of this type “settle” only in an environment where their individuality is taken into account. This is important for every person, but for this type of personality this factor takes on special significance.
The fate of the type “8” personality is most likely simply unpredictable and least of all depends on how the person himself plans to plan it. The individuality of a person of this type is especially unique. If other individual personality patterns have common features within the framework of their type of reaction, suggesting somewhat similar destinies, then this type of personality is each time unique in its own way, and therefore they are all not only different from others, but also have little in common with each other . Is it just that they are the most difficult to adapt to life, they are distinguished by the originality of their motivation and sphere of interests, which is largely away from everyday problems. They are sometimes mistakenly assessed as stress-resistant, and this is a serious misconception. It’s just that what worries most other people occupies an insignificant place in their hierarchy of values. If their true values are affected, then extremely low stress resistance is revealed and maladjustment proceeds in the most irrational way. Therefore, type “8” individuals, deprived of the opportunity to fit into the social niche offered to them by circumstances, may turn out to be misunderstood, outcasts, eccentrics, who, without being taken seriously, are feared and avoided. Those of them who have extraordinary abilities evoke respect and admiration, bordering on mystical worship, since for an ordinary person they still remain a mystery. But their loyalty to their individuality and special life purpose serves as the basis for the formation of messianic attitudes. In their personal lives, they can be patiently adored, despite the fact that they are completely unsuited to family life: women like the “wives of the Decembrists,” believing in the higher purpose of their life partner, sacrifice both themselves and the well-being of the entire family for the sake of the one they worship . If the pedestal of greatness of such a “special person” collapses for some reason, he remains in splendid isolation. Most often, people of this type are lonely all their lives, sacrificing personal well-being for the sake of their special purpose. Due to their extremely high intuition and ability to think transcendentally (i.e., in global categories), among them there are often fortune tellers, psychics, healers who use alternative methods of treatment, specialists who deal with the mental state of a person: psychiatrists and psychologists, as well as theologians, philosophers, astrologers, populist psychotherapists, leaders of religious sects and informal social trends.
9th scale
The leading peak on the 9th scale - the optimism scale - in a profile in which the other scales are within the normal range (from 45 to 55 T), reflects the activity of the position, a high level of love of life, the subject’s self-confidence, positive self-esteem, and a penchant for jokes. and leprosy, high achievement motivation, but focused more on motor mobility and speech hyperactivity rather than on specific goals. The mood is high, but in response to opposition, an angry reaction easily flares up and just as easily fades away. Success causes a certain exaltation, an emotion of pride. Everyday difficulties are perceived as easily surmountable, otherwise the significance of the unattainable is easily devalued. There is no inclination to seriously delve into complex problems, carelessness prevails, a joyful perception of the whole world around us and one’s existence, brightness of hopes, confidence in the future, conviction of one’s happiness. An elevated 9th scale defines accentuation as a hyperthymic or exalted type and reveals inflated self-esteem, ease of decision-making, lack of particular discernment in contacts, unceremonious behavior, a condescending attitude towards one’s mistakes and shortcomings, easily occurring emotional outbursts with quick reactivity, inconstancy in affections , excessive laughter, falling in love - in a word, characteristics that are completely natural for adolescence, but sound like a well-known infantilism for an adult. Therefore, the 9"4-/2 type profile is a variant of the adolescent and youth norm, and in the profile of an adult it reflects the problem of emotional immaturity. Sometimes such a profile reveals a hypercompensatory reaction of the pseudomanic type with a tendency to deny problems in an objectively complex situation that threatens with serious consequences. We observed this type of reaction in hyperthymic individuals in the situation of a forensic examination after they had committed a serious crime, when, despite the very pessimistic prospect of their future fate, their state was characterized by bravado, exaltation, and conviction that they were right.As mentioned above, for the first time this the clinical group was identified as a pseudomanic syndrome within the reactive state in 1984, and psychologists and psychiatrists came to this conclusion independently.
Various authors have repeatedly noted a change in the usual pattern of the SMIL profile with a rise in the 5th and 9th scales under the influence of alcoholic euphoria, on the 10-14th day of therapeutic fasting (when an increase in mood is observed), as well as in persons in a state of love. In a situation of stress, persons with a leading 9th scale in their profile show excessive, but not always purposeful activity, and can imitate an authoritative leading personality. They exhibit a tropism for activities where they can realize physical and social activity, a craving for communication, and a desire to be visible.
At the same time, satiety with monotony occurs quite quickly, a tendency to change the place or type of activity appears, which is usually driven by a feeling of failure, the desire to search for a better option or simply novelty. With maladaptation, hypersthenic characteristics intensify, behavior acquires antisocial features (profile type 946 "8). Behavior correction is possible through an authoritative leader or the opinion of a reference group, taking into account such personality traits as increased vanity and instability of interests. Since low self-esteem is a technique that contradicts the basic attitude psychotherapy, then the work should be aimed at increasing the level of self-control and self-awareness, as well as along the path of channeling spontaneous activity into a socially useful channel. Imperative methods of influence are ineffective, joint cooperation based on the skillful imitation of trust and respect for the individual within the framework of pedagogical techniques brings greater success Makarenko. An increase in the 9th scale in profiles reflecting psychopathological variants of maladaptation gives a hint of agitation (for example, agitated anxiety 27""9"-/), or reflects a decrease in criticality 861""49"-/).
Profile type 94""3"-/70 reveals a hyperthymic psychopathic pattern with features of adventurism and a tendency towards pseudology.
In alcoholism, indicators of an elevated 9th scale reduce the prospects for successful treatment due to uncriticality and a relaxed attitude towards problems, and a tendency to deny the presence of alcoholism itself. In the structure of the general condition of patients who have suffered a myocardial infarction or contracted tuberculosis, a profile of the 49"-/ type reveals anosognosia and indicates the presence of a protective mechanism such as denial of problems, as well as hypercompensatory activation.
The most pronounced, grotesquely pointed model of the hypersthenic type of response is the profile of the hypomanic state - 9*4"6"-/278, characteristic of patients with manic-depressive psychosis in the manic phase. A simultaneous increase in the 9th and 2nd scales in a moderately elevated profile may mean a cyclothymic variant of personality accentuation, i.e. a tendency to autochthonous (not situationally conditioned) mood swings that occur with a certain frequency.
In the floating (highly raised) profile 27""13869"-/ or 13""24768"90-/5, reflecting a state of severe stress, the contradictory combination of a high 9th with a 2nd or 0th reveals the hypercompensatory involvement of various protective mechanisms and increased activity of the individual in search of a way out of a difficult situation, despite confusion, reduced mood and narrowing of the contact zone.
The combination 98"-/0 or 894"-/7 is characteristic of persons who are very unique in their views, interests and behavior, whose actions are unpredictable and uncontrollable, and whose egocentrism and independence are extremely sharpened.
Low scores on the 9th scale indicate a decrease in the level of optimism, love of life and activity. If there is a peak on the 2nd scale, then this profile reflects a particularly deep depressive mood (as a rule, the 0th scale is quite high), but if the peak on the 4th scale is also high, then due to increased impulsiveness Suicidal risk (S-risk) is especially pronounced here.
In neurotic and neurosis-like profiles, low scores on the 9th scale indicate increased fatigue and asthenia; apathy is usually detected by a combination of 82""0-/9 or 28""70"-/9. The depressive phase of MDP, involutional melancholia and endogenous depression within schizoaffective disorders are also manifested by a significant (below 40 T) decrease in the profile on the 9th scale. At the same time, compensatory or protective mechanisms are not expressed, i.e. the profile is an illustration of the most striking embodiment of the asthenic type of response with depressive experiences that occupy a central place in the structure of the clinical syndrome: 2*8""0-/9 or 82""70"- /:9. Hypochondriacal or paranoid inclusions are reflected by an increase in the corresponding scales (1st or 6th).
The properties revealed by the 9th scale can be life-altering only if maturity and a serious attitude towards life do not come to a person over the years: the play component in any areas of his activity remains dominant for the rest of his life, and the feeling never arises responsibility for yourself and loved ones. Typically, features characteristic of adolescence and early youth smooth out or disappear altogether in later years. An adult who belongs to type “9” is an incorrigible optimist, intoxicated by the joy of being: “the sea is knee-deep” and “jumping over one’s head” is a common thing for him. If something fails, then lies and boasting compensate for the damage caused to self-esteem, leaving it invariably high thanks to the powerful defense mechanism of “denial” of problems.. Literary images that reflect the general appearance of type “9” are Nozdryov from “Dead Souls” N V. Gogol and the well-known Baron Munchausen, who in difficult times can pull himself out of the water by his hair. Walking easily through life, personalities of this type are extremely sweet at a distance, but are incorrigibly irresponsible and unnecessary in family life and work. They can show sufficient (and even enviable) persistence and diligence only in activities that bring joy and completely coincide with their need for self-realization. Moreover, the desire to indulge immediate needs absolutely dominates any set aside goals and values shifted to the future, which leads individuals of this type in their declining years to moral bankruptcy.
0 scale
An increased O-th scale (scale of “introversion”) aggravates hyposthenic manifestations and weakens (makes less obvious, noticeable) sthenic features. It reveals the passivity of the personal position and a greater focus of interests in the world of internal experiences (than outside) as a constant personality property (i.e. introversion) with increased and high indicators of the 0th scale in the norm profile. An increase in the 0th scale reflects a decrease in the level of involvement in the social environment and reveals a certain isolation and shyness. The 0th scale reacts with a slight increase (by 5-7 T) when a person experiences difficulties in establishing relationships in connection with the process of getting used to a new microgroup or in connection with a serious interpersonal conflict. With pronounced accentuation according to the type of introverted personality, a high (65-70 T) 0 scale reflects inertia in decision making, secrecy, selectivity in contacts, the desire to avoid conflicts at the cost of a significant narrowing of the scope of interpersonal contacts. In a situation of stress - inhibition, avoidance of contacts, escape from problems into loneliness (escape). High indicators reflect not only isolation and taciturnity, but are often a sign of internal disharmony and a way of hiding the originality of one’s character and awkwardness in communication from others. Sometimes, at first glance, these people can give the impression of being quite sociable, but this comes at the cost of significant stress, which only they themselves know about.
If the 0th scale is the only peak in the profile, then in women this indicates modesty, commitment to family interests, social compliance, and in men it reveals a typical Jungian version of introversion, the attributes of which are inertia of mental functions, rigidity of attitudes, subjectivism, irritability, isolation .
In combination with the 2nd, 7th and 8th, an increase in the 0th (65 T and above) reveals a weakening of social contacts, isolation and alienation. A high 0 (70 T and above), especially in a profile like 80"-/9, reflects the problem of autism. People around them usually know little about people with a high 0, and their sthenic features and originality are smoothed out and made less noticeable. Thus , the qualities of this scale are directly opposite to the properties of the 9th, which enhances the characteristics of the sthenic register.
Low scores on the 0th scale, on the contrary, demonstrate not only sociability and lack of shyness, but also ease in flaunting their characterological characteristics.
Data on the 0th scale below 40 T reveal illegibility in contacts, excessive sociability, bordering on importunity with a high 9th scale in the profile. Correcting the behavior of people with a high 0 scale is difficult due to their isolation and lack of frankness, and is possible only in a situation where the patient’s trust has been gained. Although they agree with many things and do not argue, in fact they are little susceptible to external influence. They rarely act as a leader. The choice of professional activity is revealed by other profile indicators, but their tendency to limit contacts must be taken into account.
Of all the trends identified by the SMIL profile, the 0th scale hides from prying eyes rather than reveals a person’s individuality. The fate of a person of type “0” is strongly dependent on any other leading tendency, since the signs inherent in the 0th scale in their pure form are characteristic only of a person who has completely moved away from the “worldly vanity”, a hermit who has refused any contact with the surrounding world. If this happens after everyday tragedies and a dramatic break with society, then escape is somehow associated with painful experiences, which are an echo of emotional storms and are manifested by different indicators of the SMIL profile, in addition to the 0th scale. If the departure from active social life is primary, due to the initial rejection of the world as it is, if the world of one’s own soul is in fact not at all connected by community with the environment, then this is type “0”, a lonely traveler who does not need to someone wanted to share his loneliness with him. There is no point in describing the social role here, since this is a position outside of society. These are people who have refused to realize their own destiny within the framework of the world as it really exists.
This is the interpretation of the basic (main) scales of the SMIL methodology.
Profile analysis.
Knowing the personal characteristics and characteristics of states that are determined by individual scales, as well as taking into account their influence on each other, you can move on to a holistic assessment of the profile. First of all, the profile should be considered through the prism of the subject’s attitude towards the testing procedure, which is revealed by the ratio of the reliability scales and the height of their indicators.
One should be wary of smoothed profiles in which scales contrasting in their content are almost at the same level, and the indicators of the K or L scale are quite high. When F is high, the height of the profile may be due to various reasons given earlier, but in any case the profile will be sharpened and inflated, which must be taken into account when interpreting.
If there is an increase within the normative range of the 1st and 3rd scales with a relatively low 2nd and without a significant increase in the profile on other scales, you should pay attention to the L and K indicators. If they are elevated (above 60 T, or more than 7 T is higher than the F scale), then most likely we are talking about the subject’s tendency to “show himself in the best light”, about the desire to deny any difficulties and problems, about an attitude towards improving results, about an attempt to give “supernormal” answers and emphasize his friendliness , conformity, altruism, while in fact this can only be a facade behind which various problems and a different character are hidden. In such subjects, sometimes on the “?” may be quite high. The interpretation of such a profile comes down to stating the presence of an attitude towards compliance with normativity; the profile itself (especially if it is submerged on four to five scales) is regarded as “hypernormal”. The examination is worth repeating. In a reliable profile, interpretation is carried out according to general rules, while the characteristic of the 3rd scale absorbs the properties of the 1st, since the emotional brightness of its signs neutralizes the restraint reflected by the 1st scale. Only the predominance of the 1st over the 3rd by 5 T or more gives grounds to focus on the interpretation of the 1st scale.
The combination of 1st with elevated (or high) 2nd, 6th, 7th, 8th and 0th with low 9th reflects the problem of suppressed hostility and is characteristic of the so-called “ulcerative personality type”, characterized by pedantry, dogmatic style of thinking, increased irritability, distance, demandingness both to oneself and to others in matters of morality, duty, responsibility. With high efficiency, integrity and honesty in work, they show petty despotism in contacts of a narrow circle, are secretive, awkward and constrained in communication, the tone of statements is edifying, external rigidity is combined with internally felt tension and vulnerability in relation to environmental influences. Successful social adaptation is a well-balanced relationship between a person’s egocentric needs and the requirements of the social environment. An absolutely balanced, harmonious personality is distinguished by a complete balance of a moderately expressed tendency towards self-realization with good self-control, ensuring full compliance with the regulatory requirements of the environment. The more pronounced a person’s character and individuality are, the greater the load falls on the function of control systems that maintain balance. This is the main difference between a concordant and a discordant personality: in the latter, the external attributes of normative behavior hide internal tension. The price that an individual “pays” for meeting the requirements of society can be quite high.
If the “I” of an individual is destroyed by the pressure of society and self-realization of the individual does not occur (needs are not satisfied, abilities are not realized), then neuroticization occurs, reflected in the profile by the predominance of hypothymic, inhibited traits. If the balance is disturbed due to weakened self-control towards spontaneous self-realization, then the clash of interests of a self-affirming individual with the demands of society is reflected in behavioral reactions, manifested in the profile by the predominance of hyperthymic signs. The price of this imbalance is mainly paid for by the difficulties of society. If both mechanisms for maintaining balance are involved simultaneously, then we observe the implementation of a psychosomatic mechanism, manifested by physical disorders of various kinds.
For the convenience of a holistic interpretation of the scale profile, the methods should be grouped in such a way that, based on the leading peaks, it is possible to first determine in general the main type of response, and then, based on the values of the scales, identify the individual personality characteristics and level of adaptation of the subject. The 2nd, 7th and 0th scales reflect the properties of the hyposthenic type of response and indicate the predominance of inhibited character traits. If in the profile these scales significantly prevail over others, then conformity, social pliability, normativity of the individual, and refusal of self-realization are revealed. In any profile reflecting a personality’s reaction to a traumatic situation, the configuration with the leading scales of the hyposthenic register reveals a neurotic variant of maladjustment or decompensation of the personality in the direction of strengthening inhibited reactions. The 4th, 6th and 9th scales form the sthenic type of response and allow one to describe the personality in terms of activity, strength, and the predominance of excitable traits.
A moderate increase in these scales in the profile indicates a pronounced tendency towards self-realization and resistance to environmental influence. If the height of the profile indicates a violation of adaptation, then the variant of maladaptation corresponding to this type of response is manifested by behavioral reactions of an asocial or antisocial orientation. This may be conflict behavior, non-conformity, authoritarianism and the desire for dominance, an increased sense of independence and repulsion from imposed authorities (including problems of the puberty period). High rates of the hypersthenic profile may also reflect the problem of alcoholism, drug addiction, and delinquent behavior.
A combination of multidirectional trends, i.e. indicators of both hypo- and hypersthenic properties, reveals a mixed type of response, in which a high need for self-realization is combined with equally high self-control and a tendency to inhibit and restrain behavioral reactions. In this case, the channels of both neurotic and behavioral responses are blocked, which affects the general overstrain and is manifested by the somatization of the internal conflict, i.e. a psychosomatic variant of maladaptation, the target of which will be the weakest link of a particular functional system of the human body.
Indicators of the 1st and 3rd scales already bear the characteristics of a mixed type of response, regardless of the rest of the profile structure, since they reflect the problem of suppressed hostility. Their presence in the profile, as a rule, reveals a mixed type of response, and other profile indicators are only additional information. Having determined the reliability of the data obtained and the perspective that allows us to examine the profile itself through the prism of the attitudes identified in the subject, after the general type of response has been identified, attention should be paid to the degree of adaptation of the individual. A recessed profile may be the result of insincerity in answers (the reliability scale will indicate this), but it may also indicate a certain hypoemotionality of the subject, the lethargy of his reactions, a reduced level of achievement motivation, and a narrowed range of interests.
A normal, harmonious personality can be manifested by indicators of a linear profile, in which all properties are balanced and none of them is more pronounced than the others. But balance can also be manifested by the balance of multidirectional tendencies with increased indicators, which creates the ground for a certain tension in an internally contradictory personality pattern; however, externally, the efforts at the cost of which a person achieves self-compensation may be invisible or appear extremely rarely. Therefore, in a profile that is at the upper limit of the norm or slightly exceeds it, a state borderline between normal and pathological is revealed - be it the everyday difficulties of an accentuated personality or the sharpening of personal characteristics in an objectively difficult situation.
Understanding the problems behind these indicators should be based on the relationship between scales that reveal a hyposthenic, sthenic or mixed type of response, on the characteristics of different scales and their mutual influence on each other, strengthening or weakening the tendencies behind them. In a high-lying profile, when interpreting, we are primarily interested in peaks that take the profile contour beyond the normal limits. They determine the state of the subject and show the level of personal disintegration, revealing the structure of the leading syndrome, the degree of expression of emotional stress, and the affective intensity of the subject’s experiences.
When interpreting a profile, a psychologist should not be confused by contradictory data associated with equally high scores on scales of opposite meaning. If normally balance is achieved by the fact that each individual personal tendency is balanced by an equally moderately expressed anti-tendency, then with difficult adaptation, compensation is achieved by the fact that a strongly expressed, accentuated leading tendency is opposed by an anti-tendency as a protective, compensatory reaction. Real maladaptation occurs when the leading, sharply strengthened tendency is not balanced or compensated by an anti-tendency. The more pronounced the peaks and the smaller the accompanying rises in the scales, reflecting trends opposite to a given peak, the more reason there is to talk about the established structure of the subject’s attitude to the current situation, about chronic mental maladjustment, as well as about a deficiency of compensatory resources of the individual. On the contrary, a floating profile, in which most scales are located above the upper limit of the norm, indicates a state of general stress, in which various protective mechanisms are involved and multiple compensatory functions of mental activity are strained, aimed at leveling maladjustment. And although mental tension increases, prognostically this profile is more promising in terms of normalizing the condition, especially when it comes to psychogenic borderline disorders. In any case, the diagnostic aspects of assessing the condition should be based on longitudinal data, that is, on a comparative analysis of repeated studies using the SMIL test. Even greater objectivity for solving diagnostic issues is given to us by a comparative analysis of data from a comprehensive study using other methods, including traditional experimental psychological ones, which give us an idea of the state of an individual’s mental functions.
At the same time, moderately elevated profiles (65-75T), combining a variety of scales reflecting the severity of multidirectional tendencies, may be the result of neurotic (if hyposthenic register scales predominate) or pathocharacterological (if sthenic signs predominate) development. At the same time, the increases accompanying the leading peaks are a reflection of the compensatory tension of secondary defense mechanisms. All these nuances become interesting for those specialists who already have experience working with this technique.
Profile graphic.
The interpretation of the data obtained is, to a certain extent, subject to discussion with the subject or those persons on whom the fate of the examined depends. It must be remembered that any at first glance flattering description, as well as other overly harsh epithets, represent a rather one-sided interpretation of a particular phenomenon. Each personal property is dialectical and reflects both the “front” and “back side of the coin” of the personal portrait. The characteristics revealed by one or another scale carry different meanings and can be viewed differently both in the context of interpersonal relationships and in the sphere of professional activity. Stubbornness and pedantry simultaneously carry such positive qualities as stability of interests and competitiveness; increased anxiety, along with timidity in decision-making, is manifested by conscientiousness and empathy in relationships with others, etc.
In this regard, when interpreting, special attention should be paid to ensure that the profile description is not clearly evaluative in nature, i.e., does not look like a review of the bad and good qualities of an individual and does not harm the person in the eyes of others.
A person is never bad or good depending only on what type of nervous activity he has - strong or weak, or on what style of cognitive or behavioral activity he has - holistic, communicative, or formal-logical, introverted. People are simply different, and whether a person is bad or good is a category of situational assessment of his actions by others and depends entirely on the moral attitudes of society, the established cultural and historical values of a particular group of the population. Outside of these conditions, a person is what he is, and he (with the exception of gross pathology) has no intentions of doing evil to other people. If he does this, then, most often, he defends his interests, which justifies his “bad” actions and statements, painfully and negatively perceiving criticism addressed to him. The more selfish a person acts, the more often and more strongly he risks infringing on the interests of other people.
One cannot help but recall lines from the diary of young Anne Frank. As a victim of fascist genocide, she died in one of the concentration camps during World War II. The tragedy of her life is difficult to exaggerate. And yet she wrote: “Despite everything, I still believe that people, deep down, are truly good.” Often, sthenicity, which develops into aggression and manifests itself in harsh actions or statements, is a manifestation of hypercompensatory reactions of a person who is unhappy in his own way. At the same time, people rarely think about the fact that their harshness can often manifest itself in relation to innocent people as an unreacted defensive reaction to an insult coming from a completely different source. It should always be borne in mind that every “bad” person has a positive internal picture of his own “I”, and he always finds justification for his bad actions. If the picture of “I” is reduced to the image of a “bad” or worthless person, then such experiences can lead to auto-aggression, that is, to suicidal tendencies. For fruitful cooperation with the subjects (and this is what a psychologist needs in order for his work to bring positive results and professional satisfaction), in the process of discussing the results obtained, the following immutable rule must be observed: it is necessary to maintain a sufficiently high self-esteem of a person, since this is an indispensable condition for his normal existence. This is what psychotherapist Carl Rogers, famous throughout the world for the humaneness of his approach, argued. This is confirmed by the experience accumulated in domestic psychology. It should be remembered that the inflated but unstable self-esteem of impulsive, excitable accentuators or psychopathic individuals also obeys the general rule, since this often hides self-doubt and an inept attempt to hide one’s own complexes, and aggressiveness is hypercompensatory in nature. Even in a person whose personality portrait, according to SMIL data, is characterized by leading anxiety-depressive and introverted characteristics and looks like a melancholy complaint and a call for help, crushed by circumstances, an unfortunate loser who does not believe in himself, prone to self-deprecation, declaring readiness for suicide, there is always a hidden hope. He hopes for the restoration of his “I”, for an increase in social status and the return of positive self-esteem, which actually exists and, like a float, pushes the sinking personality construct upward. Otherwise, why would he complain, to whom would he appeal for help, if he were completely confident in his worthlessness and did not hope for anything?
The ethics of psychological research stipulate that the data obtained should serve the interests of the person being examined and not cause harm to him. Otherwise, the trust shown by the examined person in relation to the psychologist will not be justified or will be completely undermined, and psychology itself will be discredited in the eyes of people.
Psychodiagnostics is a subtle and double-edged weapon; it can do a lot - that’s why it’s necessary, but that’s also why it’s dangerous. Only those who are responsible for the continuous improvement of their professional skills, strict and demanding of themselves and others when choosing not only a testing tool, but also the means of realizing its effect, are able to truly help people and be honored to bear the name of “engineer of human souls” from science.
With the most skillful interpretation, it should be remembered that, in addition to the 10% of unreliable profiles that accompany any study, in which motivational distortions are determined by reliability scales, as a rule, there are at least 5% of formally reliable, but, thanks to the cunning of those surveyed, insufficiently sincere or far-fetched profiles that sound in a certain sense, dissonance in relation to the data of other psychological methods and observed objective reality. Such profiles can be encountered when examining individuals with sufficiently high intelligence in a situation where the test results may be of particular significance for their future fate.
Particular attention should be paid to the combination of objectively existing problems with simulative tendencies. Such profiles occur during sursimulation. This is a tendency towards simulation in a person with an existing mental pathology, which he does not recognize or which he treats without sufficient criticism. However, due to protective tendencies, he has a certain degree of preservation to pretend to be sick within the framework of his idea of a particular disease. At the same time, in the contours of the profile one can see violations of the patterns of the declared pathology. Thus, the actually experienced state of psychogenic stress, reflected in the profile in the form of signs corresponding in severity to the characteristics of an emotionally intact personality, when trying to simulate schizophrenia, can be intertwined with artificially interspersed indicators of emotional coldness, autism, and impaired perception. And vice versa: signs of personality changes characteristic of schizophrenia can be combined with declared excessive anxiety, depressive symptoms, and hypochondriacal focus on imaginary physical disorders.
Considering the nature of the requirement of verbal techniques, one should always remember that they can provoke in the subject a rather sophisticated defensive reaction to the examination procedure. Therefore, relying only on data from the SMIL technique (or another version of MMPI), one should not count on a reliability higher than 75%. The reliability of psychological testing increases if a battery of test techniques is used. The use of verbal techniques in combination with nonverbal ones is especially effective. Not all of them are sufficiently formalized and standardized methods, but psychological research has always been and will remain to a certain extent an art, and the methodology is just a tool that only in skillful hands helps to reveal the image of a person. At the same time, strict standardization, while increasing the reliability of the method, simultaneously reduces the area of research search, leaving outside the scope of the experiment a significant number of variations in personality patterns that are not included in the structure of the mathematical model of the method. An excellent addition to the SMIL test, which mainly reveals the internal picture of the individual “I,” are: the method of portrait selections MPV, based on a modification of the Szondi test of eight drives, the method of color selections MCV (adapted eight-color Luscher test), as well as the drawn apperceptive thematic test PAT ( modification of the Murray Thematic Apperception Test).
The least stable are the individual personal characteristics of children and adolescents. Due to excessive emotiveness, some features reflecting ambition and self-confidence in 16-20-year-old youth are not sufficiently controlled. Therefore, these SMIL techniques, which outline a fairly objective picture of a person’s conscious “I,” must be compared with what nonverbal tests aimed at identifying unconscious tendencies will reveal. However, having received such a multifaceted portrait of individual personal properties, do we have the right to consider the complex structure of what we generally call personality to be fully studied? At this moment, that aspect of mental individuality that is directly related to the learned socio-historical experience of one’s ethnic group, one’s social environment and those moral criteria that are the basis of any particular community becomes more relevant than ever. With an individually determined tropism towards certain types of activities, certain values and social circles, a person can really turn only to those of them that are available to him, about which he knows something, that surround him. Taking into account the internalized social attitudes and cultural and historical experience gleaned by the individual in his environment, the psychologist forms a holistic picture of the personality.
Many modern scientists deny the possibility of including adaptive reactions in the personality structure. However, it is adaptation to real environmental conditions that shapes personality, revealing its individual style. At first, these are only primitive reactions of a defensive nature, manifesting themselves as properties of innate temperament. Then a set of habitual forms of response in interaction with the immediate environment forms character. Already at this level of personality development, individual properties are involved - the individual style of cognitive activity, motivation, emotions and interpersonal behavior, that is, those basic personality properties that determine a person’s individuality, which we call leading tendencies. Higher levels of personality and a person’s social orientation are also formed and hardened in the struggle for their own self-realization with a resistant environment, regardless of what social formation structures the society in which a particular person lives. At the same time, adaptive mechanisms, manifesting themselves as a dynamic, individually outlined personality pattern, constitute a form of personality manifestation in different situations. The substantive essence of personality - the hierarchy of values, educational level, professional and social activities also largely depend on those stylistic individual-personal characteristics, which representatives of fundamental approaches in psychology somewhat disparagingly classify purely as emotional-dynamic properties.
The formalized data of a psychodiagnostic study using the SMIL method quite clearly outlines that basic pattern, that outline of a person’s psychological essence, along which fate embroiders its complex pattern. But no matter how much upbringing, social restrictions, the influence of the environment and the culture of an ethnic group are layered on the typological basis, the individual style of response permeates all types of human activity. Individual style is especially pronounced in a situation that is perceived by the individual as a threat to life or self-esteem.
SMIL 566 - MMPI test. Method Minnesota Multidimensional Personality Inventory. Standardized multifactorial method of personality research, Sobchik L.N.
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