Overview
The PAI provides an objective assessment of adult psychopathology.
Suitable for
18 to 89 years
Language Versions
English
Product Description
Since its introduction, the PAI has been heralded as one of the most important innovations in the field of clinical assessment. It can be used for clinical diagnosis, treatment planning and screening for psychopathology.
Scales and Sub-scales
The 344 PAI items constitute 22 non-overlapping scales covering the constructs most relevant to a broad-based assessment of mental disorders: 4 validity scales, 11 clinical scales, 5 treatment scales and 2 interpersonal scales. To facilitate interpretation and to cover the full range of complex clinical constructs, 10 scales contain conceptually derived sub-scales.
- The PAI Clinical scales were developed to provide information about critical diagnostic features of 11 important clinical constructs. These 11 scales may be divided into three broad classes of disorders: those within the neurotic spectrum, those within the psychotic spectrum and those associated with behaviour disorder or impulse control problems.
- The Treatment scales were developed to provide indicators of potential complications in treatment that would not necessarily be apparent from diagnostic information. These five scales include two indicators of potential for harm to self or others, two measures of the respondent's environmental circumstances, and one indicator of the respondent's motivation for treatment.
- The Interpersonal scales were developed to provide an assessment of the respondent's interpersonal style along two dimensions: a warmly affiliative versus a cold rejecting style, and a dominating/controlling versus a meekly submissive style. These axes provide a useful way of conceptualising many different mental disorders: persons at the extremes of these dimensions may present with a variety of disorders. A number of studies provide evidence that diagnostic groups differ on these dimensions.
- The PAI includes a Borderline Features scale and an Antisocial Features scale. Both of these scales specifically assess character pathology. The Borderline Features scale is the only PAI scale that has four sub-scales, reflecting the factorial complexity of the construct. The Antisocial Features scale includes a total of three facets: one assessing antisocial behaviours, and the other two assessing antisocial traits.
Clients with year 9 reading skills can usually complete the PAI in less than 1 hour, rating each of the 344 items on a 4-point scale ranging from False, Not at all true, to Very true. Responses are entered on a 2-part carbonless Answer Sheet. The bottom page of the Answer Sheet provides scores for all 344 items. Scales and sub-scales can be hand scored in only 15-20 minutes.
For situations where no desk or tabletop is available, the handy PAI Administration Folio holds both the Item Booklet and Answer Sheet and provides a hard surface so clients can easily complete the inventory.
Interpreting PAI Test Results
To provide interpretation relative to the standardisation sample of 1,000 community-dwelling adults, PAI scale and sub-scale raw scores are translated to T-scores. Transformed T-scores have a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10, so that T-score values greater than 50 are above the mean in comparison to scores of individuals in the standardisation sample. Therefore, T-scores greater than or equal to 70 (2 standard deviations above the mean) will quickly alertthe userto a pronounced deviation from typical responses of adults in the normative sample.
The Profile Form Adults-Revised allowsthe userto translate raw scores to T-scores rapidly and plot the pattern of test results. It also contains a blue clinical skyline demarcating the distribution of scores for a large sample of clinical cases. This feature facilitates comparison of an individual's scores with those in the clinical sample.
Critical Items
The Critical Items Form-Revised lists 27 items (distributed across nine content areas) that suggest behaviour or psychopathology that may demand immediate attention. They are identified as critical based on two criteria: indications of a potential crisis situation and a very low endorsement rate in normal individuals.
Features
- This edition of the Professional Manual addresses many areas of additional study and research, includes an expanded discussion of administration considerations and a variety of strategies for the interpretation of clinical data.
- The revised Professional Manual now includes both the original reliability and validation studies of the instrument and pertinent reliability/validity data from important subsequent research studies of the original PAI scales as well as the supplemental scales and indexes.
- The Profile Form Adults has been revised to provide a simpler and easier method of translating PAI raw scores to T-scores for all scales, sub-scales, supplemental scales and indexes, as well as for plotting the pattern of test results.
- The Critical Items Form-Revised has the potential to alert the clinician quickly to possible crisis situations that might require immediate attention. Consisting of 27 items, this revised form eliminates several overlapping items and includes six new items that are particularly valuable for assisting with PAI profile interpretation. The original Critical Item content areas have been retained, and two new content areas (Response Set and Idiosyncratic Context) have been added.
Interpretive Guide
In this work Dr. Morey has consolidated the results of clinical and empirical observations into a volume that describes the state of the art in PAI interpretation. It is recommended for all practitioners and researchers who wish to maximise their use of this important instrument.
The PAI Structural Summary Booklet organises information to aid interpretation (supplemental indexes, diagnostic consideration clusters, self/other issue clusters and differential treatment indicators).
Software Portfolio (SP) download available
The PAI-SP is a powerful diagnostic and interpretive system that offers a variety of modules to meet your specific assessment needs. The PAI-SP provides a common framework of basic functionality and features to all enabled PAI modules. This functionality includes navigation tools, file handling, report editing, and remote (telephone and Internet) updating for the on-screen administration counters.
Features and benefits:
- Provides useful diagnostic and interpretive information. Provides interpretation of the 22 nonoverlapping PAI scales.
- Generates reports for the full-length PAI and the screener. Scores PAI forms and generates comprehensive, useful, and accurate 10- to 15-page PAI Clinical Interpretive Reports or 2- to 4-page PAS Score Reports.
- Offers the PAI Plus Clinical Interpretive Report and the PAI Plus Score Report The PAI Plus reports give users users an updated way to interpret the data, including a DSM-5 update, optional Alternative Model for Personality Disorders Profile, 15 additional supplemental indices, and the ability to add context-specific normative profile overlays to your client profile. Further additions allow users to compare client scores to context-specific norm groups via z scores.
- Transitions between the PAS and PAI as needed. After you administer the PAS on-screen, the software automatically transitions to the full PAI if your client’s responses meet the cutoff threshold you have selected.
- Offers supplemental and descriptive data. The unique PAI Plus Interpretive Explorer (PAI-IE) enables you to click on the hyperlinks to access pertinent definitions, supplemental indexes, relevant interpretive information, and comparisons of client data with appropriate normative and clinical samples. The PAI Plus Interpretive Explorer is only available on the PAI-SP!
- Pay as you go for on-screen administrations. Generates unlimited PAI/PAI Plus Clinical Interpretive Reports, PAI/PAI Plus Score Reports, and PAS Score Reports. Counter Serial Numbers are used to activate on-screen administrations.
- Compare client profiles. Users may compare client scores to NIM/PIM predicted profiles via z scores.
- Simple printed components. The convenient Software Item/Response Booklet contains both the item booklet and the answer sheet, all in one.
Additional modules available:
- The PAI Law Enforcement, Corrections, and Public Safety Selection Report Module screens public safety job applicants.
- The PAI Interpretive Report for Correctional Settings (PAI-CS) Module assesses offender misconduct risk, psychological needs, and response to rehabilitation.
Qualification level required:
Level 2. Please see our Test User Qualifications page for guidance
Norms
USA normative sampled, normed on adults in clinical and community settings. Combined-gender normative data are provided.
Duration
50 to 60 minutes for administration; 15 to 20 minutes for scoring.
Release Note
1991
