Sensitivity of the Genuine Symptoms Scale of the Self-Report Symptom Inventory (SRSI) to Psychopathology: Enhancing the Informational Value of a Symptom Validity Test for Symptom Overreporting

The Self-Report Symptom Inventory (SRSI) is primarily utilized to identify symptom overreporting. To make this purpose less apparent, the SRSI includes a blend of 50 genuine symptoms and 50 unlikely symptoms (i.e., pseudosymptoms) presented in a mixed format. Studies have shown that the pseudosymptoms scale is effective in detecting symptom overreporting, but the genuine symptom items of the SRSI have typically been regarded as filler content. Our study aimed to determine whether these genuine symptom items could yield clinically meaningful information once overreporting, underreporting, and inattentive/random responding have been screened out, recognizing the limitations imposed by a restricted set of screening indices. We analyzed SRSI genuine symptoms scores in a screened sample of 100 psychotherapy patients and 81 job applicants. Psychotherapy patients endorsed significantly more genuine symptoms than job applicants, and a receiver operating characteristics analysis of the genuine symptoms main scale yielded an AUC of 0.94 (95% CI [.89, .97]), indicating strong discrimination. Subscale AUCs were generally below .90, suggesting that the SRSI genuine symptoms main scale, rather than its subscales, may serve as a useful tool for identifying cases that may require clinical attention. Additionally, we found a strong correlation (r = .78, p < .001) between the SRSI genuine symptoms main scale and the higher-order Emotional/Internalizing Dysfunction (EID) scale of the MMPI-2-RF, further highlighting the clinical value of the genuine symptoms main scale.