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VALIDATION OF URDU VERSION OF MINNESOTA MULTIPHASIC PERSONALITY INVENTORY (MMPI) AS A DIAGNOSTIC TOOL#
The purpose of this study was to assess the validity of MMPI (Urdu version) as a measure of mental health for Pakistani population and to justify its usage in various researches pertaining to mental health. For this purpose, CPI a culturally valid test within Pakistan was used as a criterion. The CPI is a measure of social and interpersonal relationship whereas MMPI is designed to measure mental health. As the sample consisted mainly front the general population with no apparent psychiatric history, therefore, instead of the whole scales, only the Neurotic Triad (i.e., Depression, Hypochondriass, and Hysteria) was selected front the A-AVI. A high score on CPI would simply signify healthy personality whereas on the Neurotic Triad of MMPI it would indicate neurotic trends. The present research was designed keeping in view the philosophy of the construct of the two tests, as one expects an inverse correlation between these two measures of personality. A heterogeneous sample of 695 males completed the two tests. Contrary to our hypothesis, significant positive correlations were obtained between majority of the scales of CPI and the Neurotic Triad of MPI.
Psychologists in many countries administer personality inventories and other questionnaires, which have been standardized and validated on samples other than the population of their own countries. They ignore an important fact that cultural differences might contaminate and affect the responses on different items, grouped under various scales, thus leading to spurious results. The problem aggravates when the language of the tests is different for the population being tested. If the test is in English and administered on English speaking population the result may not be as variant as when used on non-English speaking population. such as Pakistan. Even if it is translated into the native language (Urdu) as in our case. still it would not serve the purpose and the meaning of the words. having different connotation from the English would not convey its actual flavour.
Because of the incorporation of idiomatic language in the items. and because or their emphasis on ego-syntonicity. translation. cannot be merely literal. What is called for is "psychological translation. in which the underlying psychology of each item...