Abstract
While much literature suggested that highly elevated MMPI profiles are of questionable validity, Newmark and Sines (1972) found that even profiles with elevations ≥70T on scales 1–9 have clinical significance. The two studies reported here were designed to investigate further such “floating profiles.” In Study I, MMPI profiles from 67 male psychiatric inpatients who produced “floating profiles” were subjected to Veldman's Hierarchical cluster analysis and five floating profile subtypes were identified. In Study II the entire sample of floaters as well as the subtypes were compared with a randomly selected sample of 40 nonfloaters in terms of a number of demographic and clinical variables. Results generally suggested that individuals who produce floating profiles differ significantly from individuals who produce more traditionally “valid” profiles. Also, results supported the assumption that the floater subtypes represent unique personality types. Findings are compared with the Newmark and Sines (1972) results, and implications of the current research are discussed.
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