Personality and clinical instruments: MMPI, MBTI, projective tests, BDI
Last reviewed September 2026 by Dr. Andrew Wichterman · Aligned to the current NCE blueprint. Valid for exams through June 30, 2027.
AI-narrated overview made with Google NotebookLM. The written lesson below is by Dr. Andrew Wichterman.
You can ask someone directly about their personality, or show them an inkblot and see what they make of it. That difference, objective versus projective, organizes every instrument on the exam. This lesson covers the MMPI in detail, the tests of normal personality, the projectives, and the short clinical scales counselors actually use.
Try to answer each from memory first, even if you have to guess. Guessing before reading makes the answer stick; reveal only after you have tried.
Start here: two ways to ask about personality
If you want to know whether someone is anxious, you can ask them directly ("I worry more than most people: true or false?") or you can show them something ambiguous, like an inkblot, and see what they make of it, on the theory that people project their inner life onto vague material. The first approach is called objective; the second is projective. Almost every personality and clinical instrument on the exam falls into one of these two groups, and knowing which is which is half the lesson.
The MMPI: the big one
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory is the most widely used and most researched clinical personality test in the world, and the exam asks about it more than any other instrument. It is a long true/false questionnaire (567 items on the MMPI-2; the newer MMPI-3 has 335) designed to detect psychological problems, not to describe normal personality. Scores are reported as T-scores (mean 50, SD 10), and a score of 65 or higher on a clinical scale is considered clinically significant.
The MMPI has two kinds of scales. The clinical scales (ten of them on the MMPI-2) measure things like depression, paranoia, and schizophrenia. The validity scales check whether the person answered honestly and carefully. The exam likes the three classic ones:
| Scale | What it catches | Everyday version |
|---|---|---|
| L (Lie) | Claiming to be unrealistically virtuous | "I have never told a lie." Trying to look too good |
| F (Infrequency) | Endorsing rare, odd items; possible exaggeration, confusion or random answering | Saying yes to things almost nobody says yes to |
| K (Correction) | Subtle defensiveness; downplaying problems | Denying ordinary human faults; used to adjust other scales upward |
There are versions for different groups: the MMPI-2 for adults, the MMPI-A for adolescents (14 to 18), the MMPI-2-RF (Restructured Form, shorter), and the MMPI-3 released in 2020. If an item asks about a 15-year-old, the answer is the MMPI-A.
Tests of normal personality
The MMPI looks for problems. A second group of tests describes ordinary personality without any assumption that something is wrong. These are the ones used in career counseling, team-building and research on healthy adults.
| Test | Based on | What it gives you | Remember |
|---|---|---|---|
| NEO-PI (NEO Personality Inventory) | The Big Five (Five Factor Model) | Scores on Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism (OCEAN) | The research standard for normal personality; Costa and McCrae |
| MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator) | Jung's psychological types | One of 16 four-letter types, e.g. INTJ, from four pairs: Introvert/Extravert, Sensing/iNtuition, Thinking/Feeling, Judging/Perceiving | Popular in career and workplace settings; not a measure of pathology or ability; type, not trait |
| 16PF (Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire) | Cattell's factor analysis of personality | Sixteen primary traits | Same Cattell as fluid/crystallized intelligence |
| CPI (California Psychological Inventory) | Everyday personality descriptors | Scales like dominance, sociability, responsibility | Often called "the sane person's MMPI" |
| Strong Interest Inventory | Holland's six interest types (RIASEC) | Which occupations match your interests | An interest inventory, not a personality test, but often grouped here; see the career lessons |
The Big Five deserves a sentence more. Decades of research keep finding the same five broad traits when people describe personality, and most modern research uses them. The mnemonic is OCEAN: Openness to experience, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism.
Projective tests
Projective tests grew out of psychoanalysis: the idea that if you give someone something ambiguous, their unconscious concerns will shape what they see. They are time-consuming, require specialized training, and their reliability and validity are debated, which is exactly what the exam wants you to know.
| Test | What the person does | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Rorschach Inkblot Test | Looks at 10 inkblots and says what each could be | Hermann Rorschach, 1921. Exner's Comprehensive System gave it a standardized scoring method |
| TAT (Thematic Apperception Test) | Looks at pictures of people in ambiguous situations and tells a story about each | Murray and Morgan. Reveals needs, motives and how the person sees relationships |
| House-Tree-Person; Draw-A-Person; Kinetic Family Drawing | Draws the named things; the examiner interprets the drawing | Common with children who cannot yet put feelings into words |
| Sentence completion (e.g., Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank) | Finishes sentence stems: "My mother…" | Semi-projective; quicker and easier to score than the Rorschach or TAT |
| Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt | Copies nine geometric designs | Screens for neurological problems and developmental delay, not personality; sometimes miscategorized as projective |
Short clinical scales you will see in practice
Most of what a working counselor actually uses are short questionnaires that measure one problem, quickly. These are objective, take a few minutes, and are used to screen, to measure severity, and to track change over treatment.
| Scale | Measures | Items | Who wrote it |
|---|---|---|---|
| BDI-II (Beck Depression Inventory) | Depression severity | 21 | Aaron Beck |
| BAI (Beck Anxiety Inventory) | Anxiety severity | 21 | Aaron Beck |
| BHS (Beck Hopelessness Scale) | Hopelessness; a suicide-risk indicator | 20 | Aaron Beck |
| PHQ-9 | Depression; the nine DSM symptoms | 9 | Spitzer, Kroenke, Williams |
| GAD-7 | Generalized anxiety | 7 | Same group as the PHQ |
| STAI (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) | Anxiety right now (state) versus anxiety as a personality tendency (trait) | 40 | Spielberger |
| MAST, CAGE, AUDIT | Alcohol use screening | 25 / 4 / 10 | See lesson 2 |
| SCL-90-R / BSI | Broad symptom checklist across nine dimensions | 90 / 53 | Derogatis |
| Conners Rating Scales | ADHD and behavior in children; parent and teacher versions | Varies | Conners |
Two things the exam tests about these. First, they are screening and severity tools, not diagnostic tools: a PHQ-9 of 18 means "severe range," not "has major depressive disorder." Second, the state/trait distinction from Spielberger: state is how you feel at this moment, trait is how you generally are.
Choosing and using an instrument responsibly
The ACA Code (Section E) and the exam both expect a few habits. Use a test you are trained to give and interpret. Check that the norm group resembles your client. Get informed consent for testing and explain what the results will be used for. Report results with interpretation, in language the client can understand, and never make a decision from a single score. And remember what kind of test it is: a projective drawing from a 7-year-old is a conversation starter, not a diagnosis.
How the exam asks about this
Objective or projective? "A client is asked to describe what she sees in a series of inkblots." Projective (Rorschach). "A client answers 567 true/false items." Objective (MMPI-2).
Match the test to the purpose. "Assess normal personality for a career-planning client." NEO-PI or MBTI, not the MMPI. "Screen for depression in five minutes." PHQ-9 or BDI-II. "Detect whether a client is faking good on a personality test." MMPI validity scales (L and K).
Interpret the number. "A client's T-score on the MMPI-2 Depression scale is 72." Above the 65 cutoff, so clinically elevated; about the 98th percentile. "Her F scale is very high." Consider exaggeration, random responding or severe distress before interpreting the clinical scales.
Who wrote it? Beck for the BDI, Spielberger for the STAI, Murray for the TAT, Rorschach for the inkblots, Costa and McCrae for the NEO, Myers and Briggs (from Jung) for the MBTI.
Without scrolling up, write everything you remember from this lesson. Then check yourself against the key terms. Recalling the whole lesson once, right after reading it, does more than reading it twice.
Ten more questions from the whole domain, with an explanation after each answer.
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