Cultural differences in MMPI-2 scores between North Americans and Puerto Ricans

Resumen

The present paper is directed at presenting a series of studies that demonstrate that Puerto Ricans of diverse groups including clinical and normal samples scored different in some MMPI-2 scales of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory from their corresponding American counterparts. In one study the MMPI-2 was administered to a sample of 40 depressed inpatients (17 males and 23 females), 35 depressed outpatients (17 males and 23 females) and 35 depressed outpatients (13 males and 22 females) and 35 psychotic inpatients (12 males and 23 females) and 141 normals (85 males and 56 females). In another study, we report the finding of a comparison between Puerto Rican and American college students. It will be argued that Puerto Rican culture allows for a greater range of what could be considered deviant thinking in the United States.