Do Motivations for Malingering Matter? Symptoms of Malingered PTSD as a Function of Motivation and Trauma Type

Psychological disorders associated with traumatic events, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), may be prone to malingering
due to the subjective nature of trauma symptomology. In general, symptoms tend to be inflated when an external reward (i.e.,
compensation) is associated with the claim. The present study was designed to test whether malingered claims of PTSD symptoms
differed as a function of the type of trauma being malingered (accident, disaster, sexual assault) and the motivation for
malingering (compensation, attention, revenge, no motivation). Participants were randomly assigned into conditions, given
malingering instructions, and then asked to complete three measures of trauma symptoms (Impact of Event Scale—Revised; Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder Checklist; Trauma Symptom Inventory). Results indicated that participants in the sexual assault condition
produced higher symptom reports on nearly all scales. Revenge and compensation motivations yielded elevated symptom scores.
Further, individuals rated high in fantasy proneness and dissociation produced elevated scores on atypical responding and
most clinical scales. More research is needed to examine the extent to which different motivations and trauma types influence
symptom reporting.