The Harris-Lingoes subscales: fact or fiction?

The subjectivity of the Harris-Lingoes MMPI content subscales was examined by asking expert judges (N = 13) to group items from appropriate clinical scales that represented similar content, attitudes or traits. The mean subgroups were compared to the Harris-Lingoes subscales, and item groupings were consensually validated and replicated. Judges developed more content categories per scale than Harris and Lingoes, but showed relatively little agreement on item groupings. Nine consensually validated and replicated subscales were highly similar to nine Harris-Lingoes subscales, while nine other replicated subscales were moderately similar to seven Harris-Lingoes subscales. Twelve Harris-Lingoes subscales were unrelated to the replicated subscales.