THE USE OF THE MMPI TO PREDICT CONSCIENTIOUS HOTLINE WORKERS'

DAVID R. EVANS

University of Western Ontario

PROBLEM Crisis centers and hotlines staffed by community volunteers have experienced

phenomenal growth in the past decade. A number of selection methods presently are employed with aspiring hotline workers. Among these are behavioral observa- tion during training, personal interviews, behavior during sensitivity training, and, less frequently, psychological testing. In a survey of 860 hotlines, Decell(2) found that onlyllyo employed psychological testing in their selection procedures. In a similar survey, McCord and Packwood@) found that of 250 crisis centers, only 13.6% employed psychological testing in their selection process. Among psy- chological tests employed in selection, the MMPI is the most popular(6. '- *). How- ever, the MMPI usually is employed as a broad screening device to select out individuals with major psychopathology @). The present study investigated the use of the MMPI to discriminate volunteers who would become active hotline workers from those who would drop out during or shortly after training.

Achievement of this goal was seen as important for two reasons. First, the training process in most hotlines is quite elaborate and extensive and involves skills training, lectures, role-play calls, and discussion sessions. Such training is most expensive in terms of volunteer training hours. Second, of those who enter training, a high percentage fail to complete training or drop out shortly 6 ) ,

The effect of this phonemenon is to reduce the morale of other hotline workers, and hence, to cause further attrition.

METHOD Subjects. Fifty-six applicants to CONTACT, the hotline in London, Ontario,

participated in the study. The mean age of the participants was 34.8 years, range 18 years to 65 years. There were 15 males and 41 females.

Measure. All Ss were administered the short form of the MMPI (366 items) during the routine selection period prior to their training and subsequent service with CONTACT.

Procedure. Ss entered CONTACT in groups of 8-14 between April 1973 and September 1974. Each S completed an application form, attended an orientation interview, and completed the short form of the MMPI. Ss who were interested in entering CONTACT proceeded to the training phase. Of 75 individuals initially evaluated, 56 (75%) entered training.

Each group attended an initial 3-hour introductory evening session, at which they were further oriented to CONTACT. On the weekend after this session, each group participated in a residential, weekend, training workshop designed to train them in counselling skills. After the weekend, Ss in each group attended six weekly, Wednesday evening seasions of technical training. The topics for these sessions were the same for each group and were as follows: Sex Calls, Drug Calls, Alcohol Calls, Suicide Calls, Loneliness and Grief Calls, and Family and Marital Problem Calls. The format for each session was the same and followed the following general outline: mini lecture on the area under discussion, a practice call, discussion of the call, a second practice call, and discussion of the second call. A community expert in the area under consideration gave the mini lecture, and the same two CONTACT trainers led each session. The final weekly evening session dealt with administra- tive matters and was used to introduce the trainees to the mechanics of the CON- TACT operation.

1The author wishes to thank Irene Gic for her he1 with this study. Requests for reprints Rhould be sent to David R. Evans, Department of PsychoLgy, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5C2.

The Use of the M M P I to Predict Conscientious Hotline Workers 685

Subsequent to training, each S began service on the phones. Records were kept of the number of shifts that each S completed over the next 3 months. Ss in the nonconscientious group (N = 26) were those who completed training, but gave poor service in that they did not meet the criteria of being on the phones at least twice per month, with an average of a t least three shifts per month for the 3 months after training. Ss included in the conscientious group (N = 30) completed training and gave good service in that they met the above criteria with regard to the fre- quency of shifts during the 3-month period after training.

RESULTS Raw scores and K corrected scores were obtained for all participants on the

following MMPI scales: ?, L, F, K, Hs, D, HY, PD, PA, PT, Sc, and MA. Initial Discriminant Analysis. In order to test the hypothesis that conscien-

tious and nonconscientious hotline workers could be differentiated on the basis of their MMPI scale scores, a stepwise discriminant analysis was performed on the raw and K corrected scale scores by the Biomedical Computer Program, BMD47M @). In the analysis, variables are added one by one in a hierarchical fashion be- ginning with the variable that discriminates most effectively between the groups. When a variable duplicates information provided by a previously included variable, its F value for inclusion becomes nonsignificant, and hence it is not included in the discriminant function. The scales that were found to discriminate maximally between the two groups were L, and K corrected Hs. The discriminant function that employed these two scores correctly classified 66% of the conscientious group and 69% of the nonconscientious group. Such levels of discrimination were not deemed adequate for selection purposes. Hence, the strategy of developing an empirical scale to discriminate between the two groups was pursued.

Empirical Scale Approach. An empirical scale was developed from the 366 items of the MMPI according to the procedure outlined by Edwards"). Items with 2 values greater than 1.90 were selected for inclusion in the scale. The 20 items selected were as follows: 15(T), 28(T), 64(T), 84(T), 103(T), 109(T), 149(T), 162(T), 174(F), 180(T), 186(T), 277(T), 292(T), 303(T), 307(T), 314(T), 326(T), 337(F), 346(F), 349cT). Scores for each participant then were computed on the Hotline Perseverence Scale (HPS). The mean score for the conscientious group was 9.5, range 5-16, and the mean for the nonconscientious group was 4.6, range 3-10. By the use of a cutting point between 6 and 7, 83% of the conscientious group were classified correctly, and 92% of the nonconscientious group were clas- sified correctly. In an effort to classify more accurately members of the two groups, a stepwise discriminant analysis was performed that employed the initial 17 MMPI scores and the scores on the HPS.

Discriminant Analysis with the HPS. A stepwise discriminant analysis (BMD- 07M) was performed on the initial 17 MMPI scale scores and scores on the HPS. The scales that were found to discriminate maximally between the two groups were as follows: L; Hs; PT; Hs, K corrected; and the HPS. The discriminant function that employed these scales correctly classified 90% of the conscientious group and 96% of the nonconscientious group. Discriminant analysis then was carried out with the above five variables using the BMD-04M discriminant analysis ( 3 ) in order to compute the discriminant function coefficients. The following formula was produced :

When the resulting value is less than -21.00 a prospective hotline worker would be classified as conscientious, while a score greater than -21.00 would predict a nonconscientious worker. Mahalanobis D square for the function was 6.15 with an associated F (5, 50) = 15.86, p < .001, which indicates that the discriminant power of the function was significant.

(-.531)L + (.667)Hs + (.237),PT + (-.433) (Hs+.5k) + (-2.559)HPS =

686 Journal of Clinical Psychology, July , 1976, Vol. 32, No. 3.

DISCUSSION In the selection of hotline volunteers the MMPI is the most popular psycho-

logical test. However, to date i t generally has been employed as a broad screening device to exclude volunteers with major psychopathology. The aim of the present study was to develop a more specific use of the MMPI as an instrument to select conscientious as opposed to nonconscientious volunteers. The results indicated that when a discriminant function was developed that employed both standard MMPI scales and a derived, empirical. scale, 90% of the conscientious volunteers and 96% of the nonconscientious volunteers were predicted accurately. While such accuracy is promising, there are obvious limitations to the present results. First, the present results were obtained for a specific hotline, CONTACT, in Lon- don, Ontario. Second, due t o the small derivation sample, a cross-validation sample was not available a t the present time. However, i t is hoped that the present re- sults will stimulate those who work with other hotlines to demonstrate both the generality and the validity of the present results.

Perhaps a word is in order as to the sequential method employed in this study to derive the optimal discriminant funtion. The author, mindful of the proliferation of empirical scales based on the MMPI item pool, was concerned to follow the approach used by Cattell(') and his colleagues with the 16PF. That is to produce a specification equation, based upon the standard MMPI scales, to predict the target trait. However, as can be seen from the results, such an approach failed to discriminate accurately between the two groups. The second strategy employed in this study was to derive an empirical scale to predict the target trait. While this method was found to be more accurate than the initial approach, improved ac- curacy was obtained through a combination approach. Thus, the most accurate strategy was to derive a specification equation based on both the standard MMPI scales and an empirical scale. The ultimate validity of this combined approach must await replication of the present results with other populations and other target traits.

SUMMARY The present study was designed to determine whether conscientious and

nonconscientious hotline volunteers could be differentiated on the basis of MMPI responses. Conscientious volunteers were defined as those who maintained ade- quate service for the 3-month posttraining period. By the use of a specification equation based upon the standard MMPI scales, 66% of the conscientious and 69% of the nonconscientious group were classified accurately. Based on an empirical scale derived from the responses of the two groups, 83% of the conscientious and 92% of the nonconscientious group were classified correctly. By the use of a specifi- cation equation based on standard MMPI scales and the empirical scale, 90% of the conscientious and 96% of the nonconscientious group were classified correctly. While the results of the present study have several limitations, further validation of both the findings and the method should demonstrate their value.

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2. DECELL, L. A. International hotline survey: a preliminary report. Proceedings, 80th Annual Convention, APA, 1972, 807-808.

3. DIXON, W. J. BMD, Biomedical Computer Programs. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1471

EDW ED WARDS, A. L. The Measurement of Personality Traits by Scales and Inventories. New York: Holt, Rinehart I% Winston, 1970.

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