Testing -- Mental Health Evaluation

(405) 546-5096

I can perform mental health testing, including personality testing, IQ and substance abuse testing.

Personality testing includes the MMPI-2, MMPI-2 RF and some others, including the Beck Depression Inventory.

The IQ test is the Shipley-2

The substance abuse testing includes the SASSI and the ASI.

In addition, there is a psychosocial interview involved.

When you request testing, if you were referred by an authority, please specify exactly what kind of testing you want done.

Some referrers may be unclear as to what they want.

If they say "psychiatric exam," please know that an actual psychiatrist (a medical doctor) does not have time to do all the above testing, and also is typically not trained to do that.

S/He generally sees a new patient for 30 minutes, and then sees him/her once a month, for 15 minutes, generally prescribing medications, for which time he receives a high price. Spending two or three hours with a patient would be cost prohibitive.

Then spending 8-12 hours scoring the tests would be very costly.

However, he may ask "Who are you? Where are you?

What day is this? Why are you here? What did you have for breakfast?" Name three presidents, and other such questions. 

Some employers require an MMPI without much concern about where it came from. An MMPI should include a psychological interview. 

Possibly they may not be licensed therapists, or even therapists at all. If they are, they should show you a wall certificate or a card, and state their license and their license number in the report.

This can be verified on the internet.  Go to State Board of Behavioral Health, and the person's record can be found.  Be sure to avoid searching for nicknames.  (My first name is Edgar, which I rarely use.)

Some tests are scored by a computer, which produces an even sketchier result.

Of course, to the prospective employee, it's just paperwork, and he wants to get it behind him If to the employer or training school it is just paperwork, then the quicker and the cheaper the better.

If the employer cares about getting a thorough workup, then s/he should know that the work was done by a licensed therapist, and a psychological interview was included in the workup and report.

My rate for an MMPI-2 alone is $150. Adding a psychosocial interview (such as for a court) is an additional $100. An MMPI-2 RF (such as for spinal surgery) is $400, with psycho-social interview.

Article on cost of testing (Click here.)

A NOTE FOR MMPI TAKERS--

There are several truthfulness scales, including Fb for faking bad (malingering.) The L (lie) scale detects "faking good." The K scale detects defensiveness.  The S scale detects superlative self-presentation.

Other scales also show forms of truthfulness or untruthfulness. If the test shows you were untruthful, the whole test will be invalidated. The best policy is to

be perfectly truthful on all questions.

Most items on the test are "subtle." That means one can't tell by looking at it which is the good answer or the bad answer.

Sometimes a single answer is good

on one scale and bad on another scale. There is no answer to such questions that would be good on both scales.

One answer by itself means nothing. Only when a lot of answers stack up in the same direction do they mean something. An answer is not good or bad by how one

would morally judge it when reading it. 

It is good or bad depending how it matches how other people have answered it, in particular, people with known disorders compared with those without them.

Scales from a particular test are good or bad depending on whether the total is above or below how most healthy people answer them. Being a little bit above or below does not mean as much. Being a very lot above or below means more.

A combination of more than one scale being high or low has a meaning, depending on which scales they are. It does no good to be concerned about this, because the test taker can not control that. 

In other words, honesty is the best policy.