Assessment of Factitious Psychological Presentations (FPP): an Overlooked Response Style in Forensic Practice

Forensic practitioners face continuing challenges in differentiating factitious presentations from malingering, which may be particularly salient in civil forensic cases. In striking contrast to malingering, very little research has studied factitious psychological presentations (FPPs). To address this virtual void, the Inventory of Self and Interpersonal Problems (I-SIP) was developed with two primary scales to address motivations: Factitious (FACT) and Antisocial Characteristics (ANT-C). The I-SIP was tested on 80 inpatients under both genuine and feigning (factitious or malingering) conditions. As predicted, factitious feigners evidenced a dramatic spike on the FACT scale that clearly differentiated it from the other conditions with 90% or higher accuracy. In addition, a ratio between the two primary scales improved the specificity between factitious and malingered presentations. Professional implications are discussed, including the use of the I-SIP as a preliminary alert for factitious presentations.