1. Personality Assessment Inventory™ (PAI®)
Leslie C. Morey, PhD
Texas A&M University

2. PAI Self-administered, objective inventory of adult personality
Provides information on critical clinical variables

3. PAI Scales 344 items Comprising 22 nonoverlapping full scales
4 Validity scales
11 Clinical scales
5 Treatment Consideration scales
2 Interpersonal scales

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. Development of the PAI (cont’d)
Ten steps in the development of the PAI:
Test users surveyed, literature reviewed, and current diagnostic schemas used to develop item content
Scale content areas defined
Scale and subscales selected

11. Development of the PAI (cont’d)
Development of initial 2,200 items
Reduction of item pool to 1,086 items based on research team ratings
Review by external bias panel and expert judges reduced item pool to 776 items
Alpha version (776 items) analyzed

12. Development of the PAI (cont’d)
Item deletions and revisions to produce a 597-item beta version
Beta version tested and analyses conducted
Standardization version (344 items) produced following further reliability and validity analyses

13. 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

14. 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

15. Validity Four Validity scales built into PAI
Inconsistency and Infrequency assess deviation from conscientious responding
Negative Impression and Positive Impression assess impression management

16. 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

17. 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

18. Validity (cont’d)
These simulation studies suggest that the Validity scales would capture a large majority of invalid protocols

19. Validity Correlations for the PAI Validity Scales

20. 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

21. 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

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

23. 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

24. 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

25. PAI Clinical Report Subscale Profile (cont’d)
Antisocial Features: ANT-A, ANT-E, and ANT-S
Aggression: AGG-A, AGG-V, and AGG-P

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

27. 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.