Collected data for 348 veterans who had been patients at a psychiatric hospital: MMPI results, number of days of hospitalization already past when the MMPI was taken, length of the entire hospitalization during which the MMPI was taken, age, amount of disability payment at the time of the MhIPI, and number of hospitalizations t.o date. The amount of disability payments was correlated significantly with the MMPI scales associated with psychosis. Veterans who were not receiving disability payments but who later obtained payments appeared more severely psychotic on the MlllPI than others without payments, but were less willing to report their strengths. Those who received only small payments failed to report improvement in the early part of hospitalization and weie hospitalized disproportionately t.o their symptoms, unlike those with maximum a mentv or reject,ed claims for payments. It is concluded that patients eligibL 6 r larger payments may alter their self repoi ts, but that disability payments nonetheless are awarded only in proportion to actual impairment.
The MMPI has been used to explore the kinds of problems that lead individuals to seek hospitalization (e.g., Welsh, 1952), and the kind of circumstances that lead individuals to distort, consciously or unconsciously, their self-descriptions (e.g., Kleinmuntz, 1967; Noll, 1951). Several kinds of situations have been found to ha've a systematic effect on MMPI profiles. A testee's status as an enlisted man may have an effect on his self-description on the M M P I ; so might a testee's status as an applicant for psychiatric treatment (Kleinmuntz, 1967). These test-taking attitudes are not necessary in1,entional distortions, but may be unconscious roleplaying. The present study investigated, by means of the MMPI, whether disability payments to the veterans have a systematic effect on their self-reports.
A psychiatric patient who is a veteran whose psychiatric illness began or was aggravated during active duty is eligible for service connected disability (SCD) compensation from the Veterans Administration (VA). Such a veteran receives a SCD rating, expressed as a percentage, based on the degree of disability. The dollar amounts that correspond to the ratings are shown on Table 1, which omits additional payments for dependents.
About every 3 years, VA examiners review the cases of most veterans who are receiving disability checks, and SCD ratings can change. They also can change through the "21-day rule," by which veterans whose SCDs fall between 0% and 90% for a psychiatric illness, and who are hospitalized over 21 days, automatically receive 100% SCD, retroactive to the first day of that hospitalization, ending the last day of that hospitalization or medically authorized convalescent period. If this SCD system has a systematic effect on MMPI profiles, the validity scales may be the scales most affected. These scales were devised to detect unconscious dissimulation (Meehl & Hathaway, 1946) as well as conscious distortion (Kleinmuntz, 1967). For example, low scores on the K scale and high scores on the F scale are associated with a tendency to admit to many symptoms, even those that apply minimally (Dahlstrom & Welsh, 1960). The psychotic patient, however, may have a high F score because of his sensitivity t o the bizarre content of many F scale items (Welsh, 1952). The 10 major clinical scales also may figure 'The author thanks Madeleine Cipriano, who helped with data collection, Peter Bernasco, who helped with computer programming, and Arthur J. Schreier, who commented upon an early manuscript. Address reprint requests to 8id J. Schneider, Psychology Service (116B), Veterans Administrat,