Millon's Clinical Multiaxial Inventory: how it works and what it contains

In psychological evaluation there are many tests used and validated to evaluate both personality disorders well as other pathological pictures, such as clinical syndromes or disorders (for example schizophrenia, depression, mania, etc.).

In this article we will know the Millon Multiaxial Clinical Inventory, specifically the MCMI-III, although we will see how there are also previous versions and a later one. This test evaluates personality disorders and clinical syndromes.

• Related article: "Types of psychological tests: their functions and characteristics"

Millon's Clinical Multiaxial Inventory: what does it assess?

The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (Millon MCMI-III) is, as its name suggests, a multi-axis clinical inventory. Specifically, it has two axes: Axis I (includes different clinical syndromes of moderate and severe severity) and Axis II (includes basic and pathological personality scales). In addition, it also has psychometric scales.

This is a test for clinical use in adults., aimed at evaluating personality disorders and different clinical syndromes (psychopathology).

Who was Theodore Millon?

Theodore Million, the author of the Clinical Multiaxial Inventory, was an American psychologist who pioneered personality research. In addition, he is also the author of more than 30 books and 200 articles.

Millon was the first to use weighted means, which stated that not all factors had an equal influence on total scores. On the other hand, the construction of his tests was carried out through the combination of rational, empirical and factorial criteria.

versions

Million inventories have always been coordinated with the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).

In addition, the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory has been evolving, so we actually find up to 4 versions: the MCMI-I (coordinated with DSM-III), MCMI-II (coordinated with DSM-III-R), MCMI-III (coordinated with DSM-IV), and finally MCMI-IV.

In this article we will focus on the Millon MCMI-III Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (that is, the third version), as it is the best known and most used in recent years.

• You may be interested in: "Differences between DSM-5 and ICD-10"

Characteristics

The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory is aimed at adults, It has an administration time of between 20 and 30 minutes and is individual application.. On the other hand, the design of this inventory implies that more importance is given to the most valid items.

Also, t. Million establishes the concept of the base rate, applied when the syndromes are not distributed according to the normal curve; that is, this concept causes syndromes and pathologies to be distributed based on epidemiological and theoretical studies.

Components

As we have seen, the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory is divided into different components:

1. axis I

this axis includes different clinical syndromes of moderate and severe severity.

Within the syndromes of moderate severity, we find:

• Anxiety.
• hysteriform.
• hypomania
• dysthymia.
• Alcohol abuse.
• Drugs abuse.
• PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

AND within the clinical syndromes of severe severity, we found three:

• Psychotic thought.
• major depression.
• Delusional disorder.

2. axis II

Axis II of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory includes personality scales, which in turn are divided into two: basic scales and pathological scales.

The basic scales include the following personality types:

• Schizoid.
• depressive.
• phobic
• Dependent.
• histrionics
• Narcissistic.
• Antisocial.
• Aggressive-Sadistic.
• compulsive.
• Passive-Aggressive.
• Self destructive.

For their part, pathological personality scales include the following personalities:

• schizotypal.
• Limit.
• Paranoid.

3. Psychometric Scales

The psychometric scales of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory are as follows:

3.1. Validity

Detect mental confusion or extreme oppositional behavior, are extreme trend responses. It is made up of items with improbable but not absurd content (it is a random response scale).

3.2. Sincerity

rate the extent to which patients try to be honest; it focuses on sincerity and directness, reflecting at one extreme the tendency not to be reserved and at the other the tendency to be reticent, ambiguous or reserved.

3.3. desirability

Detects wanting to make a good impression, wanting to appear mentally healthy and socially virtuous. It also includes people who deny being unattractive or who deny having any peculiar problems.

3.4. Disturbance

This scale attempts to detect the tendency to degrade oneself, accentuate distress and exhibit emotional vulnerability by the patient.