Differential Misdiagnosis of Blacks and Whites by the MMPI

Summary Profile analysis, Goldberg's composite, and a discriminant function were used to differentiate psychosis from behavior disorder on the basis of MMPI scores. These procedures, derived in samples of white patients, resulted in the misdiagnosis of blacks at a substantially higher rate than whites. For two of the three analytic procedures, misclassification was significantly greater for black behavior disorders than for black psychotics, as was predicted.