Psych-blogging: the SILS and MMPI

Fifth came the Shipley Institute for Living Scale (SILS). This seemed to me to involve two disparate components, both of them timed (the only timed tests I took). The first component tested verbal ability; it was basically a multiple-choice synonym test. For some reason I got a kick out of 'dingo' as a possible synonym for 'amulet'. (Is that fact more psychologically revealing than whether I would like the work of a private secretary? Probably. But of course the tests don't reveal that sort of thing.)

The second component of the SILS tested intelligence by means of the usual complete-the-sequence items. I had a brief moment of worry when I couldn't figure out how to complete the following: 3124 82 73 154 46 13_ (where the blank indicated that there was one number to beinserted). The previous sequences of numbers had set me up to look for entirely the wrong kind of pattern. Those sneaky bastards!

But finally, the crowning achievement of the day: the 566 true-false questions of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Taking this test was truly one of the oddest experiences of my life. I occasionally found myself laughing out loud at the questions. It would go along with perfectly normal sorts of statements and then come out with something like "Evil spirits possess me at times" or "Someone has been trying to poison me." I wondered how the designers of the test understood what I came to think of as the "religious nut" questions like "I believe in the second coming of Christ." ("He will come again to judge the quick and the dead," after all. I'm probably safe on that one, but I may get talked to about "I feel sure that there is only one true religion.")

There were some items I just didn't know how to respond to. "I like science." Does that mean that I like studying science, or that I think science is a Good Thing? It's false on the first interpretation, true on the second. I think I went with the second. "Horses that don't pull should be beaten or killed." I have to say that I don't have any strong views about the proper treatment of horses that don't pull, especially since I'm not sure I know what that means. But my favorite source of bewilderment was "I like tall women." That was the one question I simply couldn't answer. I don't dislike tall women, but I don't prefer them to short women, or have any particular sentiment of approbation toward tall women qua tall. The height of women is a matter of supreme indifference to me. What is that all about?

I had no trouble with "I used to like drop-the-handkerchief." That's clearly false, since I have no notion what drop-the-handkerchief is. And there was a subtle question to test for homosexual tendencies: "I am very strongly attracted by members of my own sex." Fiendishly clever!

I was struck by how many questions there were about physical health. It occurred to me only later that they are probably testing for hypochondriasis. I was even more struck by the fact that there were no questions about money, not only on the MMPI but on any of the tests I took. If there is a better indicator of mental and spiritual health than someone's attitudes about money, I don't know what it is.