Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the specific patterns in which "malingering", which a serious social problem that often takes place in clinical setting, and to investigate which psychological tools may be effective in detecting mental disorders. "Malingering" refers to the behaviors of fabricating or exaggerating one's emotional or psychological problems for a variety of gains. Increased cases of feigning cognitive impairment and psychotic symptoms can put a society in great danger; therefore, cautious and precise evaluation of these cases is necessary. However, there has been limited systematic research regarding this issue in Korea. Evaluation methods of "malingering" include self-report assessment, neuro-psychological evaluation, tools developed solely detecting malingering and others. We confirmed various indices and considerations according to the tools. This study investigates the specific evaluation tools of "malingering" and how these methods are used in the actual clinical settings. However, according to this, and other various studies, it is more imperative to consider the clinical features and overall comprehensive material of assessment rather than focusing on the patterns of behavior displayed from conducting only one test by a single index score. The study also suggests that it is important to select a specific tool appropriate for each patient's clinical characteristics or situation to accurately diagnose "malingering". Lastly, this study emphasizes on the need to evaluate "malingering" with more careful, noting the coexistence of actual psychological, and physical problems.