Cross-Cultural Validity in Malingering Assessment: The Dot Counting Test in a Rural Indian Sample

摘要

With the ever-increasing cultural diversity in the United States, the need for malingering assessment instruments that are valid in diverse cultures and languages has become increasingly apparent. Although language-based tests are obviously problematic when applied to non-English speaking individuals, even nonverbal tests may have subtle (or blatant) biases that render normative data from U.S. samples inaccurate. This study focused on the applicability of a nonverbal malingering test, the Dot Counting Test, in a non-Western population undergoing forensic evaluation for a civil lawsuit. The DCT was administered to 105 Punjabi Sikh litigants, and the distribution of scores and associations with clinical and demographic variables was analyzed. Results demonstrated that a large proportion of seemingly honest respondents (based on clinician ratings) were misclassified as likely malingering based on the DCT. The implications for malingering assessment are discussed.