Psychosomatic Medicine 24:203-209 (1962)
© 1962 American Psychosomatic Society

A Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Profile of Allergy

¹ Portland State College, Portland, Ore.

The hypotheses that certain personality traits are associated with allergic disorders, and that these traits resemble those discovered in investigations of specific allergic disorders, were tested and supported by comparing the performance of allergic and normal individuals on a standard personality inventory. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory was administered to 36 allergic and an equal number of nonallergic individuals. The two groups were equally divided as to sex, and each allergic subject was matched with a nonallergic control subject in regard to age, sex, educational level, socio-economic status, and marital status. Comparisons were made of the two groups as a whole, according to sex, and according to allergy types--single or multiple.

Statistical analysis of the results showed significant differences between allergies and nonallergics on 5 of the scales: F, Hs, Pt, Sc, and Ma. The D scale approached significance.

Comparison of female allergies with female nonallergics showed only the Ma scale significantly elevated. The Hs scale approached significance.

An analysis of the performance of allergic and nonallergic males showed four scales significantly elevated: F, Pt, Sc, and Ma. The Pd scale approached significance. A large portion of the differences shown between the total allergic and total control groups was due to weighting by the male allergic subjects.

Comparison of the single-type with the multiple-type allergies failed to show a significant difference on any of the scales. Trends toward higher scores for the multiple allergies occurred on the L, Pa, Hs, Hy, and K scales, and toward lower scores on the F, Pd, Pt, and Sc scales. Since the chances of a true difference are so small, little reliance can be placed on these tendencies.