Author: McGuire B.E.¹

Source: Legal and Criminological Psychology, Volume 7, Number 2, September 2002 , pp. 165-171(7)

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• In this Subject: Law ,  Social & Public Welfare
• By this author: McGuire B.E.

Abstract:

Purpose. The Impact of Event Scale (IES) is widely used as a measure of emotional distress following a traumatic experience. This study aimed to assess the ability of trauma simulators to feign a trauma response on the IES.

Method. The IES was administered to 30 litigating trauma patients and to 20 students who were instructed to simulate trauma symptoms while attempting to avoid detection.

Results. The simulators scored more highly on the Intrusion scale but not on the Avoidance and Total scores. Using Receiver Operator Characteristic analysis to estimate the diagnostic efficiency of the scores, the simulators could not be reliably differentiated from trauma patients on the three scores. Correct classification of participants into their respective groups was only 60% on the most diagnostically efficient scale (Intrusion).

Conclusions. The IES appears to be vulnerable to symptom magnification and manipulation and caution is urged in using the scale in medicolegal or forensic assessments.

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: 1: Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Galway, Ireland

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