symptoms. In the next section, detection strategies
for feigned mental disorders and feigned cognitive
impairment will be addressed. The third domain,
feigned medical complaints, is beyond the scope of
this contribution.Detection Strategies
In the assessment of malingering, a crucial distinction
must be made between common and discriminating
characteristics. As part of the external motivation,
many malingerers are involved in forensic evalua-
tions. However, this is a common but not discriminat-
ing characteristic that is unhelpful in the evaluation of
potential malingering. Naive practitioners have mis-
takenly assumed that the obverse is true: “If the
majority of malingerers are involved in forensic refer-
rals, then the majority of forensic referrals are malin-
gerers.” This logic is fundamentally flawed and can
lead to tragic errors. To illustrate this logical fallacy,
consider the proposition “Most murderers are men;
therefore, most men are murderers.” However, its per-
sistence among naive practitioners may stem in part
from their fundamental misunderstanding of the
DSM-IVscreening indicators.
Discriminating characteristics of malingering
require that specific variables differentiate between
genuine and feigned protocols. For example, individ-
uals with genuine memory problems will conform
to certain learning principles (e.g., recognition is
easier than recall), whereas some malingerers will
fail equally on recognition and recall tasks. Therefore,
the violation of a learning principle is a discriminat-
ing characteristic and has the potential to be useful in
the evaluation of feigned cognitive impairment.
Discriminating characteristics form the bases for
detection strategies.
What is a detection strategy for malingering? Accord-
ing to Richard Rogers, detection strategies represent a
standardized method for differentiating between
malingered and genuine conditions. Detection strate-
gies must be conceptually based and empirically vali-
dated. For instance, the violation of a learning
principle has a sound conceptual basis. For empirical
validation, detection strategies should not only pro-
duce substantial effect sizes (i.e., large group differ-
ences) but also facilitate via utility estimates in the
individual classification of malingered versus gen-
uinely impaired cases.DDeetteeccttiioonn SSttrraatteeggiieess ffoorr
FFeeiiggnneedd MMeennttaall DDiissoorrddeerrss
Persons with malingering mental disorders are often
unaware of characteristic patterns commonly found
with bona fide patients. As a result, they often have
unlikely presentations,characterized by atypical symp-
toms and symptom patterns, not usually found in
genuine populations. In addition, malingerers often
miscalculate the typical intensity of common symp-
toms and associated features. Therefore, detection
strategies can also capitalize on amplified presenta-
tions,for which the symptoms may appear genuine, but
the reported frequency and intensity is highly uncharac-
teristic of genuine populations. Outlined below are
detection strategies based on unlikely and amplified
presentations.UUnnlliikkeellyy PPrreesseennttaattiioonnss
Rare Symptoms.Malingerers are unlikely to recognize
which symptoms occur very infrequently among gen-
uine patients. Reporting a large number of rare symp-
toms is strongly indicative of feigning.Symptom Combinations.Malingerers are likely to rec-
ognize common psychological symptoms that are expe-
rienced by genuine patients. They are unlikely, however,
to recognize that some psychological symptoms do not
typically occur together. Reporting a large number of
uncommon symptom combinations is indicative of
feigning.Improbable Symptoms. Improbable symptoms are
extreme and fantastic in quality. These symptoms can
be thought of as extreme variants of rare symptoms
due to their preposterous and seemingly ridiculous
content. Frequent report of improbable symptoms
indicates feigning.Unlikely Patterns of Psychopathology.This strategy
relies on the idea that there are general patterns of
psychopathology that are unlikely to be experienced
by psychiatric patients. As the symptom combination
strategy relies on unlikely patterns at a symptom level,
the unlikely patterns of psychopathology strategy
relies on more collective and complex patterns that
are improbable in genuine populations. Owing to the
complexity of this strategy, it has been primarily
employed on multiscale inventories.472 ———MalingeringM-Cutler (Encyc)-45463.qxd 11/18/2007 12:43 PM Page 472