General Information
The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Instrument, also known as MCMI-III is an assessment tool meant for psychological reasons. It provides information on psychopathology which included disorders that are outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It is standardized and includes a questionnaire for assessment and self-reporting of a wide range of information that is related to emotional, test-taking and personality attitude. The Millon Clinical Instrument III is the current invention of the inventory of the instrument. This particular instrument was published in 1994. Its reflective revisions were made in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV. The authors of Millon Clinical Multiaxial Instrument-III are Carrie Millon, Theodore Million, who apparently it is named after and Roger Davis. The publisher is NCS Pearson (Millon 1994). Millon Clinical Multiaxial Instrument-III is applicable to an adult population that is clinical of eighteen and above with a reading of grade eight. This version of the instrument has eliminated some specified scales of personality and has added scales for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression. This brings a total number of scales to fourteen personality scales, five correction scales and ten clinical syndrome scales. The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Instrument-III is usually composed of one hundred and seventy five false-true questions. The time of administration required is approximately twenty five to thirty minutes and is not really costly (Craig 2005).
Purpose and nature of instrument
The purpose of the instrument is to provide information on the treatment in areas of clinical syndromes and personality disorder. The brief Millon Clinical Multiaxial Instrument-III based on Ph.D., D.Sc.s Evolutionary theory of personality and psycho pathology by Theodore Millon, the instruments provides a standard measure of twenty four clinical syndromes and personality disorders for adults that are undergoing psychiatric or psychological treatment and assessment. It was specifically designed to asses both Axis I disorders and Axis II disorders too. This psychological test is very important as it helps the clinicians in diagnosis that are psychiatric, guiding the psychiatrists on best treatments to give to patients and in addition to that, it also helps in the development of a treatment approach which takes into consideration the personality trait of the patient as well as their behavior in coping (Weiner 2013).
The scoring of MCMI-III is very complex as it consists of twenty eight clinical personality scales which are produced form one hundred and seventy five items. The Clinical Personality Patterns make up eleven of the twenty eight, Modified Indices are four, Clinical Syndrome are seven, Severe Clinical Syndromes are three while Severe personality Pathology are three also. The scoring for the scales are groups as Clinical Personality Patterns (Avoidant, Schizoid, Dependent, Depressive, Narcissistic, Histrionic, Compulsive, Aggressive (Sadistic), Antisocial, Self-Defeating, Passive-Aggressive (Negativistic)), Modifying Indices (Desirability, Disclosure, Validity, Debasement) Clinical Syndromes (Bipolar: Maniac, Anxiety, Dysthymia, Somatoform, Drug Dependence, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Alcohol Dependence), Severe Clinical syndromes (Major Depression, Delusional Disorder, Thought Disorder), Severe Personality Pathology ( Paranoid, Schizotypal, Borderline). In addition to that, there are another five scales which are used in the detection of carelessness, confusion and random responses towards the test. They are the tree Modifying Indices which modify the Base Rae scores f an individual basing upon the areas of Desirability (X), Disclosure (Y), Debasement (Z) and two indicators for random responses which are Validity (V) and Inconsistency (W) (Millon 1994).
Normally, the test is brief as compared to the other personality inventories. To add on that, it has a very strong basis of theory. Most of the psychologists prefer giving it to patient as compare to the other simply because the scoring and the administration is simple, and also its format is that of multi-axial. Among all personality tests, it is apparently the shortest test. It can be scored and administered easily by the use of a computer in the office of the psychologist (Craig 2005).
The general administration procedures are not technical as it is just a set of questions that the patient needs to answer while the psychologist monitors their behavior and records the score by the help of the MCMI-III. For the personality and primary clinical scales, the Base Rate score are normally calculated form how an individual respond to each and every question of the test given. For score as that range from seventy five to eighty for, they indicate a significant concern of mental health or personality trait. On the other hand, for scores which are higher than eighty five indicate a personality disorder, significant clinical concern which might be persistent (Weiner 2013).
This particular Millon is given in a clinical setting where questions which arise form a particular diagnosis that a person might have. This might be based on the characteristics and the personality traits that the person might be displaying which might have had an impact towards the ability of the individual to cope with a concern in mental health or life, effectively. The inventory can illuminate an individuals personality trait readily and the personality styles too in a more effective manner as compere to clinical interviews, which might not be as accurate (Craig 2005).
The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Instrument is normed with psychiatric individuals and it uses a new weighed score, BRS which takes into account the information about the specific disorder that the psychiatric population has. The transformation score and the normative data are entirely based on patients clinical samples and they become applicable to individuals who only display evidence of interpersonal symptoms and problematic emotions or either those who might be undergoing psych diagnostic evaluation or psychotherapy (Weiner 2013). An examiner who is responsible of the entire process should be qualified as a psychiatrist as they have they required knowledge to evaluate the conditions of the patients. They too are skilled enough to know what sort of help and what treatment would be best for the patient. MCMI-III is also used in counseling settings whereby an individual might be into substance abuse. The psychiatrist uses this instrument to evaluate the effects that the substance might have towards the individual and it helps a lot in counseling of the individual (Millon 1994).
Technical consideration
Reliability
The measures of internal consistencies of MCMI-III are very strong. The coefficients of alpha have exceeded eighty for twenty of twenty six scales. The Compulsive scale was measured to be low at sixty six while the Depression scale was measured and it had a high of ninety. The reliability of test to retest at an interval of five to fourteen days was also high with a median of nine point one (Craig 2005).
Validity
Analysis of MCIM-III factors surely supports scales of an organization. There have been numerous collerations which have been made between Millon Clinical Multiaxial Instrument and other instruments that relate to it, a good example being The Beck Depression Inventory which collated with the MCMI-III Dysthymia (.71) and Major Depression (.74). There were high collerations which were found also between Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Instrument-2 and MCMI-III Dystimia (.68) and Major Depression (.71) Even though there have been some unexpected results, with either low or moderate collerations, most of the results achieved have been as according to expectations (Weiner 2013).
General evaluation
Strength
It is used primarily in a clinical yet professional setting with those individuals that require services on mental health for social, interpersonal and emotional difficulties. The tests have alpha coefficients and internal consistency which make it very reliable. The Base Rate score makes it easier for interpretation of the result for both the patient and the psychiatrist. It is also effective in proper diagnosis by the psychiatrist (Weiner 2013).
Weakness
Millon Clinical Multiaxial instrument might retain validity on population that is non-clinical. For that matter, in cases where the psychologist has to administer it to the member of the entire population, then they have to do it with caution. The concepts that are applied in the questions asked and in the presentations make it less suitable for those patients that have an intelligence that is below average or a reading ability (Craig 2005).
Recommendation
It would be recommended that the concept of the questions applied be simplified or rather be displayed in another easier format so that the below average and those patients with reading abilities can be able to cope with the test just like the rest of the patients.
Reference
Craig, R. J. (2005). New Directions in Interpreting the Millon TM Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-
III (MCMI-IIITM). Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.
Millon, T., Millon, C., & Davis, R. D. (1994). MCMI-III manual. Minneapolis, Minn: National
Computer Systems.
Weiner, I. B., & Greene, R. L. (2013). Handbook of personality assessment. Hoboken, N.J:
Wiley.
