Navigating the Custody Evaluation
Narcissists love the "stage" they get to perform on; will the Psychological Testing see through it?
Part 2: Psychological Testing
Welcome back!
In the first part, we discussed the importance of making a strong first impression with the evaluator. Now, let’s explore the psychological testing.
Psychological Testing: The MMPI-3
The MMPI-2/MMPI-3 is a common tool used by evaluators to assess your psychological state, although not the only one. Many evaluators use only this test, though, so we’ll focus on this one.
Honesty is Paramount:
Evaluation Preparation Specialist Reneé Rodriguez recommends: "Just be honest. There's not much you can do here to try to steer the results."
This is because the test is designed to uncover inconsistencies, so honesty is the best policy.
Understanding the Process:
“This is a written test.” Rodriguez says. “You're filling in the ovals, and you're usually answering it either true or false or the frequency scale.”
Familiarize yourself with the test format to reduce anxiety.
Avoiding Overthinking:
"And the reason there are so many questions is because it's meant to exhaust you. It's meant to make you reach a point where you're basically like, you know what, I don't even care anymore. Here's what it is."
Don’t try to game the system; answer truthfully and consistently.
Taking the MMPI-3 is generally characterized by the following:
Format:
True/False Questions: The MMPI-3 consists of 335 true/false statements about yourself, your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and attitudes.
Administration: It is typically administered on a computer, but can also be taken in a paper-and-pencil format.
Time: It usually takes between 25 to 50 minutes to complete, although this can vary depending on your reading speed and how much time you take to consider each question. The completion time itself isn't part of the scoring. Plenty of protective parents have said that it usually takes them about an hour to complete.
During the Test:
Read Carefully: It's important to read each statement carefully and answer honestly based on how you generally feel or think.
Answer All Questions: Try to answer every question. If you're unsure, make the best choice you can. Leaving many questions unanswered can affect the validity of the results.
Be Honest: There are validity scales built into the test to detect inconsistent or overly favorable/unfavorable response patterns. Trying to manipulate your answers can lead to inaccurate results. It's best to answer truthfully.
No Right or Wrong Answers: The MMPI-3 is not a test with right or wrong answers. It's designed to understand your personality and psychological functioning.
Focus on Yourself: Answer the questions as they apply to you, not how you think you "should" answer or how someone else might answer. Rodriguez shares: “When I took the MMPI-3 during my own custody case evaluation, I realized I would have to admit I was less than perfect. I made the right choice in simply being honest and hoping I could explain myself later. And, indeed, some evaluators will ask you about your answers to learn more about what led you to them.”
It Can Feel Repetitive: You might notice some questions that seem similar, but they are often worded slightly differently to assess various aspects of a particular trait. Answer each one as honestly as you can. Even if it feels like it’s been asked already, part of the test results is about seeing if you are able to answer each of the versions of what feels like the same question, in an honest and open way.
Some Questions Might Seem Odd or Personal: The test includes a wide range of questions, some of which might seem unusual or very personal. Remember that these questions contribute to the overall assessment and are important for the interpretation of the results.
You Won't Get Immediate Feedback: Unlike some tests, you won't receive your results immediately after completing the MMPI-3. The responses need to be scored and interpreted by a qualified professional, and the evaluator will likely include those results in the final evaluation report. Ideally, the evaluator is not interpreting the results so much as reporting them.
A Deeper Dive into the Test:
There is a lot of mystery around why this test is administered for a custody evaluation, and how it may be applied. The scales measured below might give you some insight on what it could show about you, your co-parent, and your custody case:
Scales Measured: The MMPI-3 measures a wide range of aspects, including:
Validity Scales: To assess the accuracy and honesty of your responses (e.g., inconsistency, exaggeration, minimization).
Higher-Order Scales: Broad measures of psychological functioning (e.g., emotional/internalizing dysfunction, thought dysfunction, behavioral/externalizing dysfunction).
Restructured Clinical Scales: Revised versions of the original clinical scales to provide more distinct measures of different clinical constructs (e.g., demoralization, somatic complaints, low positive emotions, cynicism, antisocial behavior, ideas of persecution, dysfunctional negative emotions, aberrant experiences, hypomanic activation).
Specific Problems Scales: To assess more specific issues (e.g., suicidal/death ideation, helplessness/hopelessness, anxiety, anger proneness, shyness/social anxiety, aggressiveness, substance use, etc.).
Personality Psychopathology Five (PSY-5) Scales: Based on broader personality traits relevant to psychopathology (e.g., negative emotionality/neuroticism, introversion/low positive emotionality, aggressiveness, psychoticism, disconstraint).
No "Passing" or "Failing": The MMPI-3 is not a pass/fail test. The results provide a profile of your personality characteristics and potential areas of concern.
Used in Conjunction with Other Information: As mentioned, the MMPI-3 is usually one part of a broader psychological assessment, which may also include interviews, behavioral observations, and other tests. And this is just one piece of the entire custody evaluation.
In a custody evaluation involving allegations of abuse and a protective parent, the MMPI-3 is considered critically important because it is believed to offer an objective, standardized measure of each parent's psychological functioning and personality characteristics. This can certainly be invaluable in discerning potential patterns of behavior consistent with abuse (e.g., aggression, lack of empathy, impulsivity) in the alleged abusive parent, while also assessing the protective parent's psychological well-being and capacity to provide a safe and nurturing environment. The MMPI-3's validity scales further enhance its utility by helping to identify potential attempts at deception or minimization of problems, contributing crucial data to inform the court's decision in prioritizing the child's safety and best interests.
However, many protective parents share that in spite of their co-parent’s results showing that they are deceptive, those results are not taken seriously and might even be ignored. This is one the most frustrating things about how the results are used.
Even worse, often a protective parent who has suffered and survived terrible abuse can get MMPI-3 results which show “paranoid” tendencies or a high level of “anxiety”. The vast majority of evaluators do not have deep training in domestic violence, which means any given evaluator may choose to believe the protective parent is making up stories, whether due to paranoid delusions or because they are misinterpreting very real actions.
Critics argue that over-reliance on MMPI-3 results without sufficient clinical context can lead to inaccurate conclusions about a parent's fitness. The interpretation requires a highly skilled professional with expertise in both the MMPI-3 and forensic psychology. But all too often, the results are interpreted in a way that rewards the abuser, while leaving the protective parent to wonder why something as clear as glass could be so badly misinterpreted.
The crucial companion piece to these results and a major part of the custody evaluation should be creating a body of evidence which shows what is really going on with the co-parent, no matter what the test results may say.