Proprietà psicometriche di inventari di personalità e del test di Rorschach: studio sulla validità concorrente e indicazioni per la valutazione clinica e forense

A wide debate has regarded reliability and validity of psychometric instruments for use in clinical and forensic assessment, differentiating inventories from projective tests. After an overview on the control indices proposed in different instruments, a study is presented with the aim of cross-correlating these indices in MCMI-III, PAI and Rorschach tests. The sample consisted of 86 healthy adult subjects, 34 males and 52 females, aged between 20 and 50 years. The results of the comparisons between the validity scales of the different instruments show that the analytic style, as opposed to the global one, is related to greater openness to psychological assessment, less social desirability and defensive tendency. The positive defenses contrast with indicators of simulation and with the tendency to give negative impression. Rorschach indicators as positive defenses, rotation of the tables, presence of morbid content are otherwise related to aspects of validity. The Lambda index shows good validity in detecting tendency to defensiveness, social desirability and dissimulatio