NCJ Number
223893
Journal
Journal of Forensic Sciences Volume: 53 Issue: 4 Dated: July 2008 Pages: 975-981
Date Published
July 2008
Length
7 pages
Annotation
This paper reports on two studies, one that developed and tested a revised self-report scale that measures “supernormality,” (patients’ tendency to systematically deny the symptoms of their psychopathology) and one that examined the relationship between supernormality and psychopathy.
Abstract
The first study found that the Supernormality Scale-Revised (SS-R) showed good test-retest stability, adequate internal consistency, and overall good predictive and convergent validity. In addition, the diagnostic accuracy was excellent (sensitivity and specificity being 0.80 and 0.92, respectively). This means that the SS-R is an effective tool for determining whether patients are denying or attempting to “fake good” regarding symptoms of mental illness. This study involved a sample (n=135) of the following distinctive groups: forensic patients (psychiatric/criminal; n=63); psychiatric patients (psychiatric/noncriminal; n=26); students (nonpsychiatric/noncriminal; n=26); and instructed students (nonpsychiatric/noncriminal; n=20). The latter group was instructed to imagine being an inmate of a forensic clinic who is required to complete the questionnaires in such as way as to get an early release, i.e., complete the SS-R so as to appear to be free of mental illness. The second study reaffirmed that the SS-R is a reliable and valid instrument; however, it did not show that supernormal was related to psychopathy as measured by the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI). One explanation for this might be that the PPI does not measure psychopathic traits, but rather antisocial behavior. A future direction for research into the concept of supernormality could be to examine whether supernormal behavior is a normative response for self-reporting symptoms of mental disorder. The second study involved an experimental group of 34 forensic patients in Germany and a control group of 118 native Germans (74 females). Participants were administered the SS-R and the PPI. 4 tables and 24 references