Personality Assessment Inventory™ (PAI®)

Leslie C. Morey, PhD

Texas A&M University

PAI

• Self-administered, objective inventory of adult personality

• Provides information on critical clinical variables

PAI Scales

• 344 items

• Comprising 22 nonoverlapping full scales

• 4 Validity scales

• 11 Clinical scales

• 5 Treatment Consideration scales

• 2 Interpersonal scales

Applications of the PAI

• PAI developed and standardized on a sample of adults ages 18 years and older

• Written at a 4th grade reading level

• 344 items take approximately 50 minutes to complete

Overview of PAI Administration and

Scoring• PAI is easy to administer and score

• Can be administered by technicians who are trained in the administration of self-report tools

PAI Critical Items

• 27 Critical Items on the PAI

• Critical Items are identified as indicators of potential crisis situations and have very low endorsement in normal sample

• Critical Items facilitate follow-up questioning

General Interpretation • Interpretation should only be performed by

professionals trained in the interpretation of psychological tests

• Interpretive guidelines are provided in the Professional Manual

• Interpretive software is also availablethat provides a comprehensiveindividualized report

Test Materials for the PAI

• Item Booklet contains the test items

• Answer Sheets: Form HS (Hand-Scorable) and Form SS (Scannable)

• Profile Forms available for adults and for college students

Development of the PAI

• Based on a construct validation framework emphasizing rational as well as quantitative framework

• Strong emphasis on the development and selection of items

• Nonoverlapping nature of scales is critical

Development of the PAI (cont’d)

• Ten steps in the development of the PAI:

1) Test users surveyed, literature reviewed, and current diagnostic schemas used to develop item content

2) Scale content areas defined

3) Scale and subscales selected

Development of the PAI (cont’d)

4) Development of initial 2,200 items

5) Reduction of item pool to 1,086 items based on research team ratings

6) Review by external bias panel and expert judges reduced item pool to 776 items

7) Alpha version (776 items) analyzed

Development of the PAI (cont’d)

8) Item deletions and revisions to produce a 597-item beta version

9) Beta version tested and analyses conducted

10) Standardization version (344 items) produced following further reliability and validity analyses

Reliability

• Variety of internal consistency alphas across three samples (1,000 normative; 1,051 college student; 1,246 clinical)

• Median alphas for full scales are .81, .82, and .86 for the normative, college, and clinical samples, respectively

Reliability (cont’d)

• Median test-retest reliability across all three samples was .83

• Mean absolute T-score change tended to be 2 to 3 T-score points for most full scales

Validity

• Four Validity scales built into PAI

• Inconsistency and Infrequency assess deviation from conscientious responding

• Negative Impression and Positive Impression assess impression management

Validity (cont’d)

• 1,000 computer-generated random response protocols were compared against profiles from the three subsamples and there was marked separation

• Fake-good and fake-bad studies also conducted on a sample of 90 adults

Validity (cont’d)

• Comparison of fake-good and fake-bad profiles to those from the normal and clinical samples revealed clear separation

• Response set studies also conducted using 1,000 computer-generated profiles for each response set type

Validity (cont’d)

• These simulation studies suggest that the Validity scales would capture a large majority of invalid protocols

Validity Correlations for the PAI Validity Scales

Correlate ICN INF NIM PIM

MMPI:Scale La .03 .13 -.16 .41

MMPI:Scale Fa .09 .11 .54 -.37

MMPI: Scale Ka -.14 -.09 -.36 .47

Marlowe-Crowneb -.30

.08 -.26 .44

Marlowe-Crownec -.24 .02 -.23 .56

Note. ICN = Inconsistency scale; INF = Infrequency scale; NIM = Negative Impression scale; PIM = Positive Impression scale. a = Clinical sample, n = 91; b = Community sample, n = 95; c = College student sample, n = 83.

PAI-SP Clinical Reports

• PAI-SP software generates PAI Clinical Reports from on-screen PAI administration or hand-entry of item responses or raw scores from a PAI paper-and-pencil administration

• Clinical Report includes PAI full-scale and subscale profiles

PAI Clinical Report Full Scale Profile

• Includes all 22 nonoverlapping scales

• 4 Validity scales: ICN, INF, NIM, and PIM

• 11 Clinical scales: SOM, ANX, ARD,DEP, MAN, PAR, SCZ, BOR, ANT,ALC, and DRG

• 5 Treatment Consideration scales: AGG, SUI, STR, NON, and RXR

• 2 Interpersonal scales: DOM and WRM

PAI-SP Clinical Report Full Scale Profile - Antisocial Personality Disorder Example

PAI Clinical Report Subscale Profile

• Includes nine Clinical scales and one Treatment Consideration scale with their respective subscales

• Somatic Complaints: SOM-C, SOM-S,and SOM-H

• Anxiety: ANX-C, ANX-A, and ANX-P

• Anxiety-Related Disorders: ARD-O, ARD-P, and ARD-T

PAI Clinical Report Subscale Profile (cont’d)

• Depression: DEP-C, DEP-A, and DEP-P

• Mania: MAN-A, MAN-G, and MAN-I

• Paranoia: PAR-H, PAR-P, and PAR-R

• Schizophrenia: SCZ-P, SCZ-S, and SCZ-T

• Borderline Features: BOR-A, BOR-I, BOR-N, and BOR-S

PAI Clinical Report Subscale Profile (cont’d)

• Antisocial Features: ANT-A, ANT-E,and ANT-S

• Aggression: AGG-A, AGG-V, and AGG-P

PAI-SP Clinical Report Subscale Profile - Antisocial Personality Disorder Example

Selected PAI References• Morey, L. C. (1991). Personality Assessment Inventory

professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

• Morey, L. C. (1996). An interpretive guide to the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI). Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

• Morey, L. C. (2007). Personality Assessment Inventory professional manual (2nd ed.). Lutz, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.

• Morey, L. C., & Hopwood, C. J. (2007). Casebook for the Personality Assessment Inventory: A structural summary approach. Lutz, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources.