Being Recognized As A Mental Illness - 1190 Words

In today’s society, the phenomenon of malingering is not being recognized as a mental illness, but rather an intentional faking of mental illness. Malingering had captured the attention of many forensic psychologists and is now a growing concern due to the potential consequences of misdiagnosis in clinical or correctional setting. Malingering defined as a deliberate act by a person pretending to have some form of physical or psychological symptoms in order to avoid a negative outcome such as a prison sentence, or to gain a positive outcome such as financial compensatory. In a criminal or correctional setting, it is extremely important for forensic psychologists to determine whether an individual is malingering. For example, a†¦show more content†¦In other words, the defendant pretending not to be responsible for his or her action(s) during a mental defect. Therefore, it is important for forensic psychologists to determine whether or not the defendant know what he was doing was wrong. In addition, incarcerated inmates often malinger serious mental illness symptoms. The motives for an incarcerated inmate are to obtain a more preferred or comfortable correctional setting that may have more privileges including prescription medications. In a work injury claim, a malingerer may fabricate or exaggerate the symptoms of an injury for the sake of avoiding work or increase benefits. The worker might also claim to have suffered from a mental disorder such as post-traumatic stress disorder due to the (fake) injury he or she sustained in order to receive higher worker’s compensation premiums. An assessment or evaluation of malingering can pose a difficult task for forensic psychologists or evaluators. In other words, malingering can be difficult to detect. However, a series of psychological tests have been developed to help forensic psychologists detect a person who is faking symptoms of mental illness. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (M MPI-2) is one of the most frequent used psychological test in assessing mental illness. The MMPI-2 consists of various scales which accurately detect symptoms of false exaggeration. Another psychological test is the Structured Interview of