Things are More Than True or False

From a young age, I’m sure most of us can remember taking a test and answering: “true” or “false” to a question. This hasn’t changed. Many tests we take in university include the true/false dichotomy. Beyond that, many psychological tests also include this type of answering system.

I took the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory; which is a “true or false” based test that assesses the psychopathology of patient, specifically, for DSM related disorders. However, this is a daunting task, this inventory has 175 items that a person must answer. The items on the inventory include some that measure depression, suicide, even schizophrenia, with both normal and reverse scored question types.

When I first started answering the questions I hit roadblock. Only having two choices as possible answers made it kind of hard to answer the questions accurately. If, for some reason, “true” or “false” did not accurately describe my feelings towards one of the statements, I got a little bit sidetracked. The fact that the only options are “true” or “false” can make a person a little stressed as to choosing the best answer.

Of course I do not have detailed information on the specifics of the MCMI questionnaire, but it can be very hard to answer questions when you can only say that a statement is “true” or “false” in relation to oneself. What if something is true most days, or just true lately but generally it’s not? While the test gauges for specific psychological disorders, I feel like in this day and age, there are more tests that can better assess the needs of the patients.

There is so much more complexity in the world, that the breadth of this test may disengage or discourage some people in completing it — I knew by question 50 that I wanted to give up!

All of this is to say, more and more I find “true” or “false” questions to be to black and white. They don’t allow for the variability in the person’s answers. If there was just a little bit more openness to the test, I believe a person could better answer the questions. Maybe there will be a time where dichotic answers will be thing of the past.