Validity scale
A validity scale, in psychological testing, is a scale used in an attempt to measure reliability of responses, for example with the goal of detecting defensiveness, malingering, or careless or random responding.
For example, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory has validity scales to measure questions not answered; client "faking good"; client "faking bad" ; denial/evasiveness; client "faking bad" ; answering similar/opposite question pairs inconsistently; answering questions all true/all false; honesty of test responses/not faking good or bad; "appearing excessively good"; frequency of presentation in clinical setting; and overreporting of somatic symptoms. The Personality Assessment Inventory has validity scales to measure inconsistency, infrequency, positive impression, and negative impression. The Psychological Inventory of Criminal Thinking has two validity scales. The Inwald Personality Inventory has one validity scale, the Guardedness Scale, measuring social desirability.
The usefulness of the currently-existing validity scales is sometimes questioned. One theory is that subjects in tests of validity scales are given instructions that virtually guarantee the detection of faking. The tests may not be designed to detect role faking.
