MMPI-2 Profiles of Death Row Inmates: Situational Factors Affecting Scale 6 and RC6

While personality characteristics can be an enduring part of an individual, it is also possible that certain traits are situation-dependent. One such trait is paranoia and an environment that is likely to cause it to manifest is prison. Paranoia among incarcerated individuals has been established throughout many years of research. The purpose of the current study is to investigate the paranoia of death row inmates. An archival research design will be utilized in which MMPI-2 data that has previously been collected will be examined in order to assess this paranoia in terms of the situation. The goal of this research was to determine whether or not the paranoia exists because these individuals are on death row or if the MMPI-2 scales associated with paranoia are elevated regardless of the context. Specifically, this study examined Scale 6 on the Clinical Scales and RC6 on the Restructured Clinical Scales. These scales were compared to each other to see if one is more likely to be elevated with this population. Additionally, a panel of forensic experts was asked to rate the questions on these scales as either situational or dispositional. Those items deemed situational were removed and the scale was replotted as Dispositional 6. Finally, age was assessed for each of these scales in order to determine if older younger inmates scored higher on items measuring paranoia. Scale 6 was found to be significantly higher than RC 6. No other significant results were found, though there were trends towards significance with older inmates scoring higher than younger ones on Dispositional 6.