Clinical Utility of the MMPI–2 Restructured Clinical (RC) Scales in Therapeutic Assessment: A Case Study

Abstract

In the following article, we provide a case study on a 25-year-old man who was released from a crisis stabilization unit following a suicide attempt. After completing a diagnostic intake, the client participated in a Therapeutic Assessment (Finn, 1996, 2003), which included the MMPI-2 (Butcher et al., 2001) and the Incomplete Sentences Blank (Rotter & Rafferty, 1950). In particular, in the article, we focus on how the Restructured Clinical (RC; Tellegen et al., 2003) scales can be used to form a personological conceptualization of the client. The RC scales measure important personality and affective trait dimensions including demoralization and both positive and negative affect, which allows for a clear explanation of the underlying etiological factors that influence a client's negative emotional experience. In this article, we highlight how explaining these underlying personality characteristics to the client within the framework of therapeutic assessment allowed for an increase in his insight.

Acknowledgments

We thank “Robert” for allowing us to write this case study. We gratefully thank Martin Sellbom and Yossef S. Ben-Porath for their insightful comments on an earlier version of this article.

Dustin B. Wygant is now at Summit Psychological Associates, Inc., Akron, OH, USA.

Notes

In this manuscript, Therapeutic Assessment (uppercase; Finn, 1996, 2003; Finn & Kamphuis, 2006b) is different from therapeutic assessment (lowercase), which is a more generic term implying the collaborative nature of assessment to achieve a therapeutic end for the client. Therapeutic Assessment is a term that describes the semistructured format of therapeutic assessment detailed by Finn and colleagues at the Center for Therapeutic Assessment in Austin, Texas.

All identifiable information was removed or masked to protect the client's identity.

Non-K-corrected scales are presented because of recent discussions questioning the utility of the correction (e.g., Barthlow, Graham, Ben-Porath, & McNulty, 2002; Sellbom & Ben-Porath, 2006) and so that a direct comparison can be made between the Clinical scales and other sets of MMPI–2 scales that do not employ a correction (e.g., RC, Content, and Personality Psychopathology Five [PSY–5; Harkness, McNulty, & Ben-Porath, 1995] scales).

⁴D. B. Wygant was the therapist in this case.