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 available
that provides a comprehensive
individualized 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.