Malingering of disabling mental illness to obtain a temporary work disability benefit: detection and morphology
Background/Objective: In psychological assessments where the re-sults may lead to obtaining some benefit or gain, malingering should be suspected. This is the case for temporary work disability due to psycholog-ical causes, for which high prevalence of malingering have been estimated. Therefore, a s...
| Autores: | , , , |
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| Tipo de documento: | artigo |
| Data de publicação: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Universidad de Murcia |
| Repositório: | DIGITUM. Depósito Digital Institucional de la Universidad de Murcia |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:digitum.um.es:10201/158128 |
| Acesso em linha: | https://doi.org/10.6018/analesps.665671 http://hdl.handle.net/10201/158128 |
| Access Level: | Acceso aberto |
| Palavra-chave: | Temporary work disability Psychopathology Malingering SCL-90-R Indiscriminant symptom endorsement Symptom severity Incapacidad laboral temporal Psicopatología Simulación Agrupación indiscriminada de síntomas Severidad de síntomas CDU::1 - Filosofía y psicología::159.9 - Psicología |
| Resumo: | Background/Objective: In psychological assessments where the re-sults may lead to obtaining some benefit or gain, malingering should be suspected. This is the case for temporary work disability due to psycholog-ical causes, for which high prevalence of malingering have been estimated. Therefore, a study was designed to examine the utility of the SCL-90-R in detecting malingered psychopathology motivated by the external incentive of obtaining a temporary work disability. Method: A total of 182 partici-pants completed the SCL-90-R in a simulation design, under two condi-tions: responding under standard instructions and under instructions for malingering of psychological cause to obtain a temporary work disability. Results: The results revealed that the working population is almost entirely capable of malingering both clinical symptoms and mental disorders with sufficient severity to obtain a temporary work disability (secondary gain). They employed two strategies: indiscriminant symptom endorsement (ma-lingering impairment across all clinical dimensions, even greater than the psychiatric population) and symptom severity (malinger an extreme intensi-ty, even greater than the psychiatric population). Finally, it was found that the gender factor does not play a significant role in malingering. Conclusions: The implications of the results for forensic assessments are discussed. |
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