Comparison of the Mexican and American norms of the MMPI-2

Abstract

This article presents the results of the norms for the Mexican general population in comparison with the North American normative population. This study addresses psychopathology from the point of view in which emic and etic traditions are combined. The Mexican sample includes 1744 adults from different regions of the country. Means and standard deviations were calculated and compared with the North-American normative sample. Cronbach α coefficients also were obtained. The greatest differences observed were in the scales L (lies) and 5 (masculinity-femininity), which indicates that the greater distinctions between both populations are with respect to test-taking attitude in taking the test, which may be due to cultural factors. In comparison to the American norms, the Mexican population does not show psychopathology on the MMPI-2 scales. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.