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)
• 10 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.